GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF SBIR PHASE II PROPOSALS
CONTENTS SECTION 1 ELIGIBILITY AND LIMITATIONS... 1 SECTION 2 PROPOSAL PREPARATION... 2 A. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS... 2 B. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL... 5 C. COST PROPOSAL... 8 D. COMPANY COMMERCIALIZATION REPORT... 11 SECTION 3 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION... 12 SECTION 4 METHOD OF SELECTION AND EVALUATION CRITERIA... 13 A. SELECTION PROCESS... 14 B. EVALUATION CRITERIA... 14 SECTION 5 CONTRACTUAL CONSIDERATIONS... 16 A. PHASE II BASIC AWARDS... 16 B. PHASE II OPTIONS... 16 C. PHASE II DELIVERABLES, STATUS AND FINAL REPORTS... 16 D. PHASE III AWARDS... 17
SECTION 1 ELIGIBILITY AND LIMITATIONS Only those Small Business Concerns (SBCs) that were awarded a Phase I contract and have been invited to submit a Phase II proposal by the SPAWAR SBIR Program Manager are eligible to submit a Phase II proposal. Phase II awards will be made to firms on the basis of the results of their Phase I effort and the scientific, technical, and commercial merit of the Phase II proposal. Navy Phase II awards are typically Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) type contracts. Award amounts and durations will be specified in the Request for Proposal (RFP) e-mail/notification provided by the SPAWAR SBIR Program Manager. The Navy reserves the right to make no award, one award, or more than one award on any topic. Each proposing firm must: 1) Be at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident aliens in, the United States, and are an independently owned and operated small business qualified for research or research and development purposes, as defined in Section 2 of the most recent DoD solicitation, and certify to this on the cover sheet of the proposal. 2) Perform a minimum of one-half of the research and development effort. In order to ensure that the SBC is performing at the minimum one-half rate, effort is calculated separately for the base effort and each option period as follows: the total amount of the prime SBC s direct and indirect labor costs, and the G&A and overhead associated specifically to that labor cost, and compare it to the same cost factors for all of the proposed subcontractor(s)/consultant(s). The result must identify the total of the prime SBC s effort to be at least 50 percent. The cost associated to materials, equipment, travel and fee is not part of this calculation, although the costs must be accounted for in the total cost proposed for the Phase II. 3) Be the primary employment of the Principal Investigator at the time of award and during the conduct of the proposed effort. Primary employment means that more than one-half of the Principal Investigator s time is spent employed as part of the proposing small business. This precludes the Principal Investigator from being a full-time employee of another organization. 4) Perform the research or research and development within the United States. United States means the 50 states, the Territories and possessions of the Federal Government, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, and the District of Columbia. Joint ventures and limited partnerships are permitted, provided that the entity created qualifies as a small business in accordance with the Small Business Act, 15 USC 638, and the definition in Section 2 of the most recent DoD Solicitation. Note: The Contracting Officer along with the SPAWAR SBIR Program Manager must explicitly approve any deviation from these requirements in writing prior to finalizing the proposal and associated cost, and before negotiations can commence. 1
SECTION 2 PROPOSAL PREPARATION A. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS Electronic submissions of SBIR Phase II proposals are required by the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office and must include a proposal cover sheet, technical proposal, Company Commercialization Report, and Commercialization Track Record Narrative. The cost proposal must be in the MS Excel format provided to your firm at the time the proposal was requested. No deviations from this format are permitted. Offerors should adhere to the following proposal preparation requirements: 1) The proposed effort must logically derive and conclude from the technological innovation developed in Phase I, should stay within the scope of the solicitation topic, and should have high potential to provide new commercial products, processes, or services with benefits to the government and the private sector. In assessing the DoD market, offerors are encouraged to use various resources, including the free technical information services available from the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and other information assistance organizations noted in Section 7 of the most recent DoD solicitation. First-time awardees should register as a Phase I contractor at DTIC to increase their access to DTIC s databases. The DTIC SBIR Services Internet link is http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/aboutus/dodprograms/sbir.html. 2) An SBIR proposal to SPAWAR must provide sufficient information to persuade evaluators that it is worthy of support under the evaluation criteria stated in Section 4 below. 3) Cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts are generally used for Phase II contracts. This means, that at the time of award, the contractor must have a job-order-based accounting system capable of accruing costs under a government CPFF contract. A list of Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) small business contacts is found at http://www.dcma.mil/dcmahq/dcmasb/contact.htm. 4) Please pay close attention to the following technical areas when developing your proposal: a. Government-Furnished Equipment (GFE)/ Government-Furnished Information (GFI) requested material: provide a detailed list and statement that the availability of this GFE/GFI has been coordinated with the respective Program Office. That same GFE/GFI requested material, if available from the government, will need to be specifically called out in the SBC's proposal as well. In the event that GFE/GFI cannot be provided when needed, the company must identify a commercially available substitute to the GFE/GFI within their proposal and that substitute must be identified and agreed upon by all parties, If no substitute can be identified, a statement to that effect must be included. b. Foreign Persons: If the topic is ITAR Restricted, foreign nationals are not allowed to take part in any portion of the work. If the topic is non-itar sensitive, foreign nationals may work on the effort, provided they disclose their country of origin, a copy of their VISA, and a list of tasks that they will be working on during the effort. c. DD 254: If access to classified information or unclassified Critical Program Information (CPI)/sensitive information and/or plans to safeguard this data, it will need to be specifically identified in the proposal. The proposal must identify what level of access will be needed and on what exact tasks the classified work will be 2
done. There are also specific required security statements that must be in the proposal if a DD 254 is required. The company should identify this need as soon as possible, so that the mandatory statements can be included in the proposal. d. Required Deliverables: You must include a deliverable table within the proposal. This table must include the task, the deliverables, their due dates, a paragraph reference within the body of the proposal that specifically identifies the deliverable, and the expected Data Item Identification (DID) number that this deliverable is associated with. A sample deliverable chart, a commonly used list of DID numbers/descriptions, and a website link to aid in your search for the associated supporting DID documents, is included in the RFP package received by your company. e. Sub-Contracting: Section 5109 of the 2012 SBIR Reauthorization Act now permits agencies to subcontract a portion of an SBIR funding agreement to a Federal laboratory. Although agencies may permit small businesses to subcontract a portion of the work to the Federal laboratory without requesting a waiver from SBA, the agency cannot require a small business to subcontract a portion of the award to the laboratory. f. Federal Laboratory: As defined in 15 U.S.C. 3703, means any laboratory, any federally funded research and development center, or any center established under 15 U.S.C. 3705 & 3707 that is owned, leased, or otherwise used by a Federal agency and funded by the Federal Government, whether operated by the Government or by a contractor. An agency may issue an SBIR funding agreement to a small business concern that intends to enter into an agreement with a Federal laboratory to perform portions of the award or has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (see 15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)) with a Federal laboratory, only if there is compliance with the following. i. The agency may not require the small business concern enter into an agreement with any Federal laboratory to perform any portion of an SBIR award, as a condition for an SBIR award. ii. The agency may not issue an SBIR award or approve an agreement between an SBIR awardee and a Federal laboratory if the small business concern will not meet the minimum performance of work requirements set forth in 6(a)(4) of the Policy Directive. iii. The agency may not issue an SBIR award or approve an agreement between an SBIR awardee and a Federal laboratory that violates any SBIR requirement set forth in statute or the Policy Directive, including any SBIR data rights protections. iv. The agency and Federal laboratory may not require any SBIR awardee that has an agreement with the Federal laboratory to perform portions of the activities under the SBIR award to provide advance payment to the Federal laboratory in an amount greater than the amount necessary to pay for 30 days of such activities. If the use of any other government facility/personnel not covered in the U.S.C. Code sections above is anticipated, an Small Business Administration (SBA) waiver will be required. The waiver can be pursued if all the following conditions can be justified, in writing, from the SBC and the SPAWAR SBIR Program Manager: that the use of a particular facility is essential to the conduct of the work; that such a facility does not exist in the private sector, requiring the use of a Government facility; why non-sbir 3
DoD funds are not being used for the Government's share of the work; and, the total contract amount of the effort, and how much of it is being proposed for use by the Government facility (or facilities). If this effort will need a waiver processed, it must be clearly identified in the proposal. Before an award can be made, a waiver from the SBA must be attained (30 45 day process which the TPOC will assist with). This must be justified as the one and only place that this type of work can be done. As a general rule, ten (10) percent of the total expected contract value would be considered acceptable. 5) When developing the cost proposal, SBCs should budget at least two trips in the base effort and one trip in each option to SPAWAR in San Diego to brief the TPOC, Technology Manager and PEO stakeholders. SBCs are required to brief the TPOC and PEO stakeholders prior to the release of any incremental funding, as well as, any Phase II option funds. During these briefing opportunities, a demonstration of the current state of the developing technology is expected. 6) All Phase II award winners must attend a one-day SBIR/STTR Transition Program (STP) kickoff meeting in the Washington D.C. area during the second year of the Phase II effort. If you receive a Phase II award, you will be contacted with more information regarding this program. Budget at least one trip to Washington, D.C. in your Phase II cost proposal. 7) Submissions to SPAWAR must comply with all relevant instructions contained in the DoD SBIR solicitation associated with the Phase I topic (including those in the Navy section, in particular); e.g., markings required for proprietary and classified information, on-line (electronic) submission, deliverable/payment schedules, copyrights, patents, technical data rights, cost sharing, joint ventures (or limited partnerships), and contractor commitments. Do not include proprietary information, classified information, or sensitive unclassified information in the cover sheet and project summary. 8) Use 1-inch margins and a type size no smaller than 12 pitch or 11 point. 9) Limit your proposal to 20 pages, including both options, but excluding the Company Commercialization Report and Commercialization Track Record Narrative. The MS Excel cost spreadsheet and all associated supporting documents (detailed/itemized bill of materials with all cost invoices/estimates, rental cost for equipment, etc.) must be forwarded directly to the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office at the same time the technical proposal is being submitted to the DoD Proposal Submission website. All pages from the first through the last must be consecutively numbered. 4
B. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL The technical proposal should consist of the following sections: 1) Completed Cover Sheet and Project Summary Form (pages 1 and 2). The on-line data entry forms are accessible from the DoD SBIR/STTR Small business Portal (https://sbir.defensebusiness.org). The abstract should include a brief description of the objectives and proposed approach. Anticipated benefits and commercial applications of the proposed effort should be summarized in the space provided. Data from cover sheets for proposals selected for award will be accessible to the public, therefore, cover sheets must not contain proprietary information, classified information, or sensitive unclassified information. 2) Identification of the Effort (Begin this text on page three of your proposal). Summarize the proposed effort and its anticipated results. 3) Phase II Technical Objectives. Enumerate the specific objectives of the Phase II work. Clearly distinguish between the objectives of the Phase II base and those of the Phase II option(s). 4) Phase II Work Plan. This section should be the major portion of the technical proposal and propose an advancement over the Phase I results appropriate for Phase II. This section must include a proposed statement of work to delineate clearly and unambiguously what the offeror proposes to do for the basic effort and for the option(s). The proposed statement of work should describe, in chronological order, each task to be performed. Each task description should include an explanation of the work to be performed; a full and easily understood description of the product resulting from the task (technical report, test plan, test report, software source code and supporting documentation, software design documents, interconnect drawings/diagrams, hardware, etc.); the roles (if any) of subcontractors and/or consultants; the use of materials, software, special equipment, special tooling, and the like in the performance of the task; the number of hours to be allocated to the task by the Principal Investigator and other principal personnel (by name); other personnel (by name and/or labor category); and subcontractors and/or consultants (by name). Please ensure that the periods of performance are clear and consistent throughout the proposal; mistakes can cause significant delays in the Government s review. Keep in mind that the technical point of contact will review this proposal and use it to generate the Contract Data Requirements (CDRLs). After each task in the proposal, you must include a table that lists the name/labor category of all personnel assigned to the particular task, the number of hours they will expend on this task and the month(s) after contract award in which this task will takes place. If materials are to be purchased on the effort, you must identify the amount and the month you intend to invoice for these items. A sample of this required task table is in RFP package received by your company. At the end of the Statement of Work (SOW) section of the proposal, you must include a deliverable table. This table must include the task number, the name of the deliverable(s), their due dates, a paragraph reference within the body of the proposal that specifically and clearly identifies the deliverable, and the expected Data item Identification (DID) number that this deliverable will fall under. Your Technical Point 5
of Contact (TPOC) can aid you in determining the correct DID number. A sample deliverable chart, a commonly used list of DID numbers/descriptions, and a website link to aid in your search for the associated supporting DID documents, is included in the RFP package received by your company. All submitted proposals to the DoD Proposal Submission website must be unclassified, and it must be determined at the earliest convenience during proposal development, if any of the work will require access to classified information/material. If so, there will be certain mandatory statements that must be included at the beginning of the SOW section of the proposal and a note next to each task that refers the evaluator back to the mandatory statements included at the beginning of the SOW section. Your TPOC will instruct you as the proper verbiage, if applicable. Any proposal requiring access to information above SECRET should have already been identified before the RFP was released. However, if this has just now become apparent, you must immediately identify this to the TPOC and the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office because the proposal process, for SECRET or above, is different. 5) Related Work. This section should demonstrate the offeror s awareness of the state-of-the-art and relevant concurrent efforts. Describe significant activities, including any conducted by the Principal Investigator, by the proposing firm, consultants, and others. Describe how these activities relate to the proposed effort and discuss any planned coordination with outside sources. 6) Relationship with Future Research or Research and Development. Describe the results and opportunities anticipated if the proposed approach is successful. Explain how the Phase II effort will provide a foundation for commercialization. 7) Commercialization Strategy. Describe in approximately two pages your SBC s strategy for commercializing this technology in DoD, other Federal Agencies, and/or private sector markets. Provide specific information on the market need the technology will address and the size of the market. Also, include a schedule showing the quantitative commercialization results from this SBIR project that your SBC expects to achieve and when (i.e., amount of additional investment, sales revenue, etc.). 8) Key Personnel. Identify key personnel who will be involved in the Phase II effort including information on directly related education and experience. A concise resume of the Principal Investigator, and all other key personnel, including a list of relevant publications (if any), must be included. Identify any foreign persons you expect to be involved on the project, their country of origin and clearly identify which of these personnel will perform on the basic effort, which will perform on the option(s), and the exact task they are expected to be involved with. If this topic is ITAR Restricted, the information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the Permanent Resident Card, or are designated as Protected Individuals as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected. 9) Facilities/Equipment. Describe availability of special instrumentation and physical facilities necessary to carry out the Phase II effort. Indicate clearly if this effort will require Government Furnished Property/Equipment/Information (GFP/GFE/GFI). If GFP/GFE/GFI will be required, please indicate exactly what these items are and that it 6
has been fully discussed with the TPOC and that the availability has been verified. You must include an alternate path/course of action to cover the possibility that this GFP/GFE/GFI will not be available at time of award, or in the future. Items of equipment to be leased or purchased as detailed and priced in the cost proposal for the base award and option(s) must be justified under this section. Also state whether or not the facilities where the proposed work will be performed meet federal, state (name), and local government environmental laws and regulations for, but not limited to, the following groupings: airborne emissions, waterborne effluents, external radiation levels, outdoor noise, solid and bulk waste disposal practices, and handling and storage of toxic and hazardous materials. 10) Consultants/Subcontractors. Involvement of a university, consultant, or other subcontractor(s) may be appropriate. Describe here any proposed use of consultants and/or subcontractors priced in the cost proposal. Clearly identify the nature of work and level(s) of effort to be performed by consultants and/or subcontractors for the base effort and the option(s). Describe their qualifications and provide resumes for key consultants and/or subcontractor personnel, as required. In an effort to expedite processing time, we request that any subcontractors or consultants participating in this effort send their technical and cost proposals directly to the SBIR Program Office via e- mail, W_SPSC_SSC_PAC_sbir_US@navy.mil. 11) Prior, Current, Essentially Equivalent Work, and/or Pending Support. Indicate on the cover sheet if your company has submitted a proposal for essentially equivalent work to other US government agencies or DoD components and/or if your company (either directly or as a subcontractor) is performing work for a US government agencies or DoD component activity outside of SBIR or STTR funded work. With this information, a determination will have to be made by the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office and the SPAWAR contracting officer before this effort can be formally evaluated and/or negotiated. If any of this applies, you need to provide the following information in this section of the proposal: a) Name and address of the federal agency(s) or DoD component to which the proposal was submitted, or will be submitted, or from which an award is expected or has been solicited. b) Date of award or date of proposal submission. c) Title of proposal. d) Name and title of Principal Investigator. e) Issuing agency, title, number and date of solicitation(s) under which the proposal was submitted. f) If an award was received, state the contract or grant number. g) Identify the topic number and title for each SBIR proposal submitted and award received. If there is no such effort, include the following statement in this section, No prior, current or pending support for proposed work. 7
C. COST PROPOSAL The SBC is required to complete and submit a cost proposal using the provided Cost Proposal Template (Microsoft Excel). This template contains important guidance. If you follow the guidance closely, the amount of time required for contract negotiation will be significantly reduced. Aside from the cost proposal itself, the cost section of the technical proposal provides an opportunity to include explanatory notes. In preparing your cost proposal, it is required that you breakout and identify cost elements separately for each task and each contract period, and on a cumulative basis for all contract periods. Sufficient information should be provided to allow SPAWAR to understand how the offeror plans to use the requested funds if the contract is awarded. IMPORTANT NOTE: As part of the Government s cost analysis, your proposed rates may be compared to: rates DCAA has on file, historical rates for your company, rates awarded to other companies for similar efforts, company payroll records, cost incurred data, on-line quotes, and other sources when necessary. The following paragraphs illustrate the level of cost detail that a Contracting Officer requires before beginning negotiations with an offeror. As discussed, additional guidance is contained within the Cost Proposal Template. 1) Direct Labor. Identify all of the various labor categories (providing individual names for key personnel) required to perform this contract including the number of labor hours, actual hourly labor rates, and total cost for each labor category proposed for each contract period. The labor specified under this category shall only be for the prime contractor's direct labor and shall not include any subcontracted labor. The straight time hourly rates shall use a forty-hour week for the conversion of salaried employees to the hourly basis and shall be exclusive of loading factors; i.e., vacation, sick leave, holidays, overhead, G&A, fee, etc. Explain the basis for the proposed hourly labor rates. A list and brief description of all labor categories within your company, not limited to the personnel being proposed on this specific effort, must be provided separately to the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office. 2) Fringe Benefits. If applicable and in accordance with your normal accounting procedures, identify the fringe benefit rate(s) and total fringe benefit cost being proposed and identify the cost elements for which the fringe benefit rate is being applied. Explain the basis for the proposed rate and application base. Include a copy of your Federal Government negotiated indirect bidding/billing agreement, if applicable. 3) Overhead. Identify the current and/or projected overhead rate(s) and total overhead cost being proposed under this solicitation and identify the various cost elements for which overhead is being applied. Explain the basis for the proposed rate and application base. Include a copy of your Federal Government negotiated indirect bidding/billing agreement, if applicable. 4) Travel. See Cost Proposal Template. SBCs should budget at least two trips in the base effort and one trip in each option to SPAWAR in San Diego to brief the TPOC, Technology Manager and PEO stakeholders. SBCs are required to brief the TPOC and 8
PEO stakeholders prior to the release of any Phase II option funds. During these briefing opportunities, a demonstration of the current state of the developing technology is fully expected. All Phase II award winners must attend a one-day SBIR/STTR Transition Program (STP) kickoff meeting in the Washington D.C. area during the second year of the Phase II effort. If you receive a Phase II award you will be contacted with more information regarding this program. 5) Direct Materials. Materials and supplies are considered to be consumables that will be used in direct support of this effort and this effort only, and will be considered acceptable as either parts and pieces of the end deliverable, or the end deliverable itself. These costs would be considered direct costs, and as such, would usually be chargeable to the particular effort. Identifying any and all materials, supplies up front is critical to the efficient evaluation of your proposed approach. All materials, supplies and equipment will be identified as either competitive or sole source on the cost breakdown. The technical evaluation that we perform prior to turning the package over to contracts is concerned with the correct type and quantity of these items. But, if you identify any item as competitive, you will be required to produce a minimum of three quotes for each item. If you identify it as sole source, you will need to be prepared to fully justify this in terms of special needs and cost, or it will be denied and you will then need to identify competitive pricing. 6) Equipment. The contractor is normally responsible for supplying all equipment necessary to perform the effort. Equipment is identified as items that can and will be available for use by your company on other concurrent or future contracts, such as test equipment, tools, test jigs, test cables, software purchases, computers, network servers, etc. These items should be considered as capital expenditures applicable to your day-to-day business activities, and as such, be absorbed as part of your indirect cost, not as direct cost to this particular contract. Exceptions to this rule are handled on a case-by-case basis. Short term renting versus buying items such as high dollar value test equipment that would be used on this effort and this effort only, should be considered as an alternative approach to purchasing outright. In an effort to reduce overall cost, the SBC must work closely with the TPOC during proposal development to make every attempt to identify and pre-arrange the availability of Government Furnished Equipment, if at all possible. Full justification of this avenue will then need to performed by the TPOC. 7) Subcontracts. If subcontractors are proposed, an SOW with a fully disclosed cost proposal, in the same MS Excel detailed format as the prime, including all support documentation must be submitted by all proposed subcontractors directly to the SBIR Program Office via e-mail at W_SPSC_SSC_PAC_sbir_US@navy.mil. If options are proposed, the option periods should be separately priced. The email should identify the prime Offeror, proposal title, and that the attached proposal is a subcontract. The subcontractor and interorganizational transfer proposals with supporting documentation must be received before the TPOC can complete the required technical evaluation and before the Government can complete its cost analysis of the proposal and enter negotiations. 8) Other Direct Costs. Identify and supply supporting documentation for any other direct cost elements being proposed which are not included above but are applicable to your cost proposal, e.g. rental fees, shipping costs, license fees. 9) General and Administrative Expense. Identify the G&A rate(s) and the total G&A 9
cost proposed and identify the various cost elements for which the G&A is being applied. Explain the basis for the proposed rate and application base. Include a copy of your Federal Government negotiated indirect bidding/billing agreement, if applicable. 10) Fee. Identify the fee rate and total amount proposed and identify the various cost elements for which the fee is being applied, if applicable. 11) Cost Proposal Evaluation Facilitation. To facilitate the Government s evaluation of your cost proposal, please provide the following information: a) If you have an approved accounting system and a Government auditor has reviewed your indirect costs, provide the name, address, and telephone number of that auditor. b) If your accounting system has not been approved by the Government auditor, please provide: i. Description of your accounting system ii. Method you used to compute your indirect costs. (Include the details of indirect cost pools and the base against which they are applied as summarized above.) c) If known, identify your cognizant Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) office and provide a point of contact name, address, e-mail, and telephone number. 10
D. COMPANY COMMERCIALIZATION REPORT All SBIR proposals must be accompanied by an on-line report that summarizes the value of all prior SBIR awards to the offeror. Provide the required data for each prior Phase II award; e.g., name of the awarding agency, solicitation topic number, and cumulative revenue (award amounts) for both follow-on R&D and sales of products and services to: 1) Department of Defense (directly under a contract and/or indirectly under a subcontract to a prime contractor) 2) Other government agencies, and/or 3) Private sector. A relevant success story (or multiple stories), which resulted directly from a Phase I award or non- SBIR/STTR award, may be summarized briefly and submitted as part of the Commercialization Track Record Narrative. 11
SECTION 3 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION The Phase II proposal must be submitted in its entirety to the DoD SBIR/STTR Small business Portal (https://sbir.defensebusiness.org). Technical proposals should be in a single file, including all graphics and attachments, should have the SBC name and proposal number (from the cover sheets) in the header, and should be in Portable Document Format (PDF). The file should be virus checked prior to submission to the website. Signatures are not required on the cover sheets, cost proposal and Company Commercialization Report at the time of submission for electronic submission. If the proposal is selected for award, the Government Contracting Officer will contact you for signatures. SBCs invited to submit a Phase II proposal will typically be given four weeks to prepare and submit their final proposal. Once a proposal is submitted and locked onto the DoD Electronic Submission Web Site, the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office will receive an automated notification. If for some reason, the proposal requires additional revisions, the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office will unlock the entry. Extensions to the submission due dates are granted on a case-by-case. As discussed in Section 2 (C), the SBC must also submit a fully-disclosed cost proposal in MS Excel format, which was an attachment to the Request for Phase II Proposal email. This cost proposal (MS Excel) should be sent via e-mail to the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office at W_SPSC_SSC_PAC_sbir_US@navy.mil. 12
SECTION 4 METHOD OF SELECTION AND EVALUATION CRITERIA Phase II proposals will be evaluated by knowledgeable government scientists or engineers (unless specified otherwise in the request for the proposal). Decisions will be made based on the scientific and technical evaluations and other factors, such as a commitment for Phase III follow-on funding, the possible duplication of effort with other research or research and development, program balance, budget limitations, and the potential of the Phase II effort leading to a product of continuing interest to DoD. Across DoD, the median time between receipt of the Phase II proposal and the award of a contract is 6 months. In most cases, the competition for a Phase II contract will have been completed through the Phase I performance period and the evaluation of Phase I final reports prior to extending an invitation to submit a Phase II proposal. Unless you have been informed by the SBIR Program Office that a competition still exists through the Phase II proposal evaluation process, yours will be the only Phase II proposal submitted for your topic and the primary purpose of the Phase II evaluation process will be to establish an acceptable proposal with a statement of work that will govern your SBC s Phase II efforts. Your TPOC will work closely with you to develop your entire Phase II proposal, including SOW, deliverables, schedule and cost. A Phase II award is not guaranteed until the contract is signed. If you were informed by the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office that proposals from multiple SBCs were requested, a competitive situation still exists, and one or more SBCs may not receive an award. In this case, rules and procedures governing source selection defined by the FAR and DFARS apply. Direct contact between the TPOC and SBCs is prohibited from the time of the Phase II proposal invitation until all of the proposal evaluations have been completed. All technical and non-technical questions and information exchanged during this period must go through the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office. Please direct all questions to: W_SPSC_SSC_PAC_sbir_US@navy.mil. 13
A. SELECTION PROCESS Every effort will be made to protect information designated as proprietary in the proposals. The Company Commercialization Report and Commercialization Track Record Narrative are not considered to be part of the technical proposal with respect to the 20-page limit, and they must be acceptable to the government if a contract is to be awarded. Commercialization strategies that provide evidence of a commitment for follow-on funding may receive extra consideration during the selection process. Such evidence should specify the amount of Phase II and/or III funds that will be made available to the small business and by whom. Phase II proposal evaluations may include on-site evaluations of the Phase I effort by government personnel. Any proposal not selected for support within 6 months of submission is considered to be rejected; however, you may be asked to resubmit your proposal at any time during the Phase I data rights period. In such cases, the proposal should be updated, as required. B. EVALUATION CRITERIA The base Phase II proposal will be reviewed for overall merit based on the criteria presented below in descending order of importance with technical merit being most important, followed by qualifications and commercialization potential of equal importance. 1) The soundness, technical merit, and innovation of the proposed approach and its incremental progress toward topic or subtopic solution. 2) The qualifications of the proposed principal/key investigators, supporting staff, and consultants. Qualifications include not only the ability to perform the research and development but also the ability to commercialize the results from this specific effort. 3) The potential for commercial (Government or private sector) application and the benefits expected to accrue from this commercialization. A proposal s commercial potential will be assessed based upon the following: a) The commercialization strategy and, as discussed in that strategy: i. any commitments of additional investment in the technology during Phase II from the private sector, DoD prime contractors, non-sbir DoD programs, or other sources, and ii. any Phase III follow-on funding commitments; and b) The record of commercializing its prior SBIR projects, as shown in its Company Commercialization Report (see Section 3.5d of the most recent DoD solicitation). If the Commercialization Achievement Index (CAI) shown on the first page of the report is at the 20th percentile or below, the proposer will receive no more than half of the evaluation points available under this evaluation criterion (potential for commercialization). Only firms with four or more Phase II projects that were awarded at least two years prior will receive a CAI score; otherwise the CAI is N/A. A Company Commercialization Report showing that the proposing firm has no prior Phase II awards will not affect the firm s ability to win an award. Such a firm s proposal will be evaluated for commercial potential based on its commercialization strategy in item B.3.a, above. 14
c) Evidence of a commitment for follow-on funding should specify the amount of Phase II and/or III funds that will be made available to the small business and by whom, as well as a deadline for achieving certain technical objectives, which, if achieved in Phase II, will precipitate such a transaction. Such terms cannot be contingent upon the issuance of a patent due to the time required for this process. 15
SECTION 5 CONTRACTUAL CONSIDERATIONS All clauses of the applicable DoD SBIR Program Solicitation also apply to the proposal (e.g., reports, copyrights, technical data rights, contractor commitments, etc.) A. PHASE II BASIC AWARDS A contract must be drawn up by a Government Contracting Officer and signed by both parties before any work is authorized and any work begins for proposals that have been selected for support. Any negotiations that may be necessary will be conducted between the offeror and the Government Contracting Officer. SPAWAR Phase II awards are typically CPFF, fully funded. Each Phase II proposal selected for an award may include a fee or profit unless cost-shared by the firm. No later than six weeks before the end of the base effort and first option, an outbrief/demonstration meeting, along with the reports and deliverables received to date, will be used as a decision point for each successive option award. You must work with your assigned TPOC to ensure this meeting is scheduled in a timely manner to allow sufficient time for the execution of the option paperwork, if selected to continue. Otherwise, an unscheduled delay will most likely be experienced. If the initiation of the option decision is not made by the TPOC and their respective POR within 30 days after the end of the base effort, contract closeout proceedings will commence. B. PHASE II OPTIONS Phase II Options (1 & 2) may be exercised, if justified, and pending the availability of funds may be awarded if the contractor has accomplished its Phase II base and/or subsequent option objectives, the firm followed its Phase II Commercialization Strategy, and/or a commitment of funds for commercialization of the technology has been received. The Government has no obligation to exercise negotiated Phase II Options. The statement of work for the option(s) may be revised only if the negotiated costs remain valid. C. PHASE II DELIVERABLES, STATUS AND FINAL REPORTS ALL deliverables (software, hardware, and reports) must be submitted at the time identified in the contract. The delivery destinations for all deliverables are on the specific contract data requirements lists (CDRLs) and other deliverables, such as hardware prototypes must be submitted as required by the contract. The only person authorized to approve a deviation from this required and awarded deliverable schedule is the responsible contracting officer. The TPOC, the supporting DoD program office, the SPAWAR SBIR Program Office, or anyone else within the government DOES NOT have the ability to authorize any deviations to this deliverable schedule. 16
D. PHASE III AWARDS Follow-on R&D (Phase III commercialization) is not and cannot be funded by the SBIR Program. The PEO SBIR Technology Manager, the SBIR/STTR Transition Program (STP), the TPOC and their supporting program of record, should be able to assist you in identifying non-sbir funds, if the interest is identified and the funds are available. Please notify all parties of any Phase III award(s) to date and/or potential Phase III award opportunities (i.e., the associated contract number and associated dollar amounts, points of contact, etc.). 17