Six reasons strong SBIR applications lose that have nothing to do with the data, plus this year's NIH changes and a Jan 5 timeline.

Three common SBIR and STTR misconceptions that can lead to structural mismatches, partnership problems, and avoidable grant delays.

Choosing between SBIR and STTR? Use these six questions to determine which funding mechanism fits your research, technology, and university partnership.

But don’t worry, your academic training still comes in handy. Academic grant writing is a real skill. If you've done it, you know how to build a literature review, construct a hypothesis, justify your aims, and write to a study section. That experience is not worthless in the biotech world. But if you walk into an SBIR application expecting it to feel like an R01, you are going to be confused, then frustrated, then possibly staring at a competitive score wondering what happen

The criteria didn't change. What reviewers expect from your answers did. If you've spent any time in academic research, you already know how to write a grant. You know how to build a hypothesis, justify your aims, write to a skeptical reviewer, and structure a complex document under deadline pressure. That experience is real and it absolutely transfers. But if you've recently spun out a startup, or you're staring at your first SBIR score wondering what went wrong, there's som

At first glance, there was no obvious reason for the score. A researcher came to me after getting her first SBIR score back. She had a strong scientific background, a solid publication record, and years of NIH funding experience. The application was well written. The science was defensible. The score was not fundable. When we went through the summary statement together, the pattern was familiar. The significance section read like the introduction to a journal article. Beautif

The transition from academic to biotech grant writing surfaces the same misconceptions reliably enough that they're worth addressing directly. Here are the four I see most often. Myth 1: Strong science is enough to get funded. Strong science is necessary. It is not sufficient. SBIR and STTR exist to move research toward commercialization, and reviewers are evaluating your application through that lens whether you've written to it or not. A technically excellent application th

The same grant instincts that help you win SBIRs can quietly hurt you in academic funding. Here's why. Most of the conversation about academic versus biotech grants runs in one direction: researchers moving into the startup world and learning that the rules changed. But there's another version of this transition that doesn't get talked about as much, and it's worth a moment. What happens when a biotech founder, someone who learned grants in the startup world, needs to navigat

The biggest mistake isn't asking for help. It's asking the wrong person. At some point in the grants process, most founders and research teams hit a wall and reach the same conclusion: we need help. The problem is that "grant help" is a category, not a service, and walking into that search without knowing what you're looking for is a reliable way to end up with the wrong kind of support at the wrong stage of the process. There are five distinct roles in the grant support land

When just Googling it brings more questions than answers. At some point in your grants journey, you're going to realize that you need help. Maybe it's the first time you've stared down a 25-page FOA with a six-week deadline. Maybe you got a fundable score and now you have no idea how to manage the award. Maybe your science is solid but every draft you write comes back from your PI looking like a crime scene. Whatever the moment is, the realization is the same: I cannot do thi

Whether you're a startup biotech, a growing nonprofit, or a research team with an idea, fiscal sponsorships can help you acquire funding faster while expanding your impact. You Might Be Missing Out on the Keys to the Castle So, you’ve got a high-impact project that could change lives…maybe a public health tool, a new screening pilot, or a community-driven research idea. You’ve found potential funders whose mission aligns with yours. But there’s a problem: You’re not a nonprof