SBIR, STTR and RFID

My last post, was about SBIR funding. Today, I will write about funding opportunities available in the area of RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), but first let me mention few resources available for SBIR. One of the most comprehensive resource is SBIRWorld. It is a warehouse of SBIR/STTR related conferences, open and past solicitations and federal agencies. Search feature helps in searching open and past solicitations for projects of special interests. For example, I searched for "RFID" and found 14 past solicitations in near past.
Second resource is a regular E-mail alert received roughly every three weeks with open solicitations and due dates for the solicitations. Send an email to lyris-at-lyris-dot-pnl-dot-gov (replace -at- with @ and -dot- with .) with words "Subscribe sbir-alert" in Subject of E-mail.

Federal agencies like National Science Foundation, Department of Defence - Army and Department of Defence - Navy are major funding agencies for RFID related grants and solicitations. Sometimes RFID related solicitations can come from unexpected sources like Department of Agriculture-for tagging the poultry and other farm animals, especially in the wake of mad cow disease.

National Science Foundation (NSF) has one of the most open ended grants, where you can provide a proposal about your unique idea based on the general guidelines provided and get funded. Ofcourse your idea should be practical and feasible. However, as more and more people become aware of SBIR grants and solicitations, competition increases and it gets relatively hard to get funding. One key thing to remember, SBIR funds may or may not be enough to completely finance your business operations, so it is prudent to have other financing resources available for your business.

In my next post, I will provide some tips on writing a proposal for the grant or solicitation.

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