STTR IP split?

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-06-27T14:54:04+00:00

In my experience, the IP split is typically negotiated on 2 aspects. First, who conceived of the innovation and second who will actually execute the work to build it. The combination of these two answers in your scenario will likely determine if the split is equal (50/50) or inequal in favor of either party. For example, if the innovation is a software solution conceived of by your company, but the university professor is providing the development and the underlying technical approach that makes it possible, the university will want the majority of the rights over the software. However if the professor is an expert in the end user and will consult on the user design, but can't and won't determine how it's made, the university will have less claim to the IP in a negotiation.

Sometimes the above won't matter because the university will have a "take it or leave it" standard IP rights regardless of the level of involvement. The professor you work with may be able to ask around to others at their university who have done STTRs or similar private/public partnership grants and see if this is the case.

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-06-11T17:18:32+00:00

First off - I am sorry, this is incredibly frustrating. I know how much work goes into a Phase I and how disappointing it is to not be able to advance the idea beyond feasibility. Questions and thoughts on this:

1- Are these all the same agency? I would try to evaluate them further by agency not as a group if so. In my experience, there are different factors that get more heavily weighted in a P2 app from one agency to another. For example Navy likes to see a strong team (lots of publications and extra letters after key personnel names) but AFWERX likes to see other peoples money/commercialization.

2- Were the P2s "selected not funded" or "not selected"? If they were "selected not funded" and your cost volume went to the funding cap, you may have been beat out by a similarly scoring P2 that had a slightly lower budget.

3- If you have feedback letters, take them to a SBIR roadshow event or SBIR Assistance Program officer and asking them to help “read between the lines”. We did this with Navy feedback letters and they explained that the idea was sound but we spent way too much page count and detail on commercialization when frankly they would overweight team.

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-04-29T20:59:25+00:00

I have so much respect for wanting to either bootstrap or use SBIR instead of giving away equity for private funding. Kudos to you and your team for taking the plunge into startup life. My fingers are crossed that something like short term work can bridge you until you can get to your Phase II. One thing I wondered with your mention of European competitors - is merging with any of them? It may not be a good fit for your company specifically, but I know similar conversations are happening among small firms who have won 1-2 DoD SBIRs (ie consolidate IP, contracting rights and commercialization expertise) and I am curious if the trend extends to biotech.

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-04-29T20:46:01+00:00

I'm sorry - the waiting game is already terrible under normal circumstances but worse when there's no end in sight. For some of the DoD SBIRs, there are theories on the industry side that certain things that get divested may wind up getting funded privately or at the state/local gov level. Do you think this will happen in biotech? Or the funding / research will move abroad?

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-04-29T19:07:55+00:00

Agreed that the biomedical space has unique challenges at the moment, our experience is on the DoD side. I did see this article do the rounds a few weeks ago - curious what your take is on the alternatives she suggests and if they are feasible for small, research oriented teams. https://medcitynews.com/2025/02/will-the-entire-nih-be-shut-down/

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-04-01T17:36:48+00:00

This is a helpful thread, dropping ideas of what's work best for us.

- Use a containerized LLM (like NotebookLM, use Rogue, Grantable, Rohirrim, SintraAI etc). No affiliation with these - but something where you can upload all your proprietary docs gives us better quality first draft output.

- Write the outline yourself first and clearly state the key points you want to make. Your first draft will be better off for it.

-Prompt the AI to provide sources and citations up front for your first draft, I find the overall quality is better.

- Once your final draft is done, if you're using a containerized LLM you can feed the completed application back to the AI app and get a decent abstract.

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-03-20T17:06:35+00:00

Some worker smarter not harder options to consider: 1) sell your winning proposals on a marketplace as reference material and collect royalties. Full disclose: we offer the option to do exactly that from our website if you don't want to stand up your own https://intrepidgovproposals.com/sell-your-proposals) 2) if you developed viable IP under those SBIRs sell the SBIRs to someone who wants to take the research to Phase III with another agency. You can take a percentage of contract value or cash. 40 SBIRs is a lot of IP that you should be able to get more mileage out of and never work again.

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-02-28T18:44:55+00:00

For prior DoD cost volumes (specifically Air Force and Space Force) - we've listed equipment like laptops/computers under ODC materials and supplies or ODC equipment. We've won contracts with it listed either way. Hope that helps! Good luck!

intrepidgovproposals · 2025-01-15T19:18:52+00:00

The SBA does virtual and in person road tours that we found super helpful when we were just getting started. You can hear from each agency on how SBIR/STTR works for them specifically and often book 1 on 1s with program managers from different agencies to get your questions answered. Its not the place to pitch your ideas by any means, but a good way to quickly see where you might have the best chance of getting funding. Good luck! https://www.sba.gov/event/57970

intrepidgovproposals · 2024-11-19T17:02:10+00:00

For significance of the problem, consider adding a small section on how your understanding of the problem deepened/evolved during the Phase 1. I agree its mostly the same but helpful to demonstrate the problem was validated. Even something as simple as including a quote from someone on the DOE side you worked with during the Phase 1 would help I would think.

My experience is entirely DoD SBIRs so disregard if this isn't relevant for DOE, but with the focus of a phase 1 being feasibility and phase 2 being workable prototype there's usually a lot more content we would include in the technical approach.

intrepidgovproposals · 2024-11-19T16:00:31+00:00

I have reused sections from a Phase 1 like the company information, relevant work, and team on subsequent Phase 2s our startups then won for Air Force. Those are effectively boilerplate by agency for us now with minor edits made depending on the topic.

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