Funding-USDA Phase I Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP); July 15, 2010

The USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has released the USDA SBIR Phase I Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP) solicitation.  This Phase I CAP grant will provide support to a successful applicant to provide commercialization assistance to USDA SBIR Phase I winners from FYs 2010 and 2011. The goals of the commercialization training program are: (1) Enhance the commercialization skills of SBIR Phase I grant recipients through introductory commercialization training that can be obtained by the grant recipients at a time and place that is convenient to them; (2) Help enhance the ability of SBIR Phase I grant recipients to write competitive commercialization plans in preparation for Phase II proposal submission; and (3) Monitor the impacts of commercialization training on Phase I grant recipients.

Submission

USDA SBIR is requiring all FY2010 applications to be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Information about the forms and submission requirements for Grants.gov can be found in Phase I CAP Request for Application (RFA).  Applications must be submitted via Grants.gov by 5:00 pm Eastern Time on July 15, 2010.  Note: when accessing Grants.gov, please ensure that you have clicked on the “Full Announcement” link and downloaded the USDA SBIR Phase I CAP RFA document.  The RFA will provide the specific instructions for this submission.

Application package

To download the application package itself, visit www.grants.gov and click on the link on the left hand side titled “Apply for Grants”.  Click on Step 1: “Download a Grant Application Package” and then search on the CFDA Number “10.212” or on the Opportunity Number “USDA-NIFA-SBIR-003220”.  Next click the “Download” link.  On this page, both the application instructions titled, “A Guide for Preparation and Submission of NIFA Applications via Grants.gov” also known as the “NIFA Application Guide,” and the application package are available for download. The package contains all of the required Adobe forms. The NIFA Application Guide contains information concerning electronic submission of applications to NIFA.  Although this document contains useful information, it was developed by our policy office to cover all NIFA sponsored programs.  Of greater importance is the Phase I CAP RFA document which can be downloaded from Grants.gov under the “Full Announcement Link”.  Within the Phase I CAP RFA document, specific instructions are provided and applicants should use this as the main guide for completing the application package. Moreover, if there is any conflict between the general NIFA Application Guide and the Phase I CAP RFA document, the RFA is overriding.

If you have specific problems with downloading the package or its installation on your computer, you need to contact Grants.gov customer support directly at either support@grants.gov or 1-800-518-4726.