On March 5, 2019, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a new set of Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Tech Transfer (STTR) I topics. Effective with Program Solicitations SBIR 19-554 and STTR 19-555, Phase I proposers may not submit a full proposal unless they are invited to do so after submitting a three-page "Project Pitch" that outlines the project objectives, technical innovation and associated technical risks. NSF states that it is implementing the new pitch process to provide proposers with rapid feedback before they draft a full proposal. This “fail-fast” process will enable the NSF to quickly weed out proposed projects that are not aligned with NSF goals. In the end, the reduced effort required to develop an abbreviated pitch may encourage more proposers to submit projects - potentially increasing the number of potential projects submitted to NSF, while simultaneously saving proposers and NSF review panels the time they would otherwise have spent preparing/reviewing/debating/debriefing full proposals that were doomed from the start.

As a part of the Project Pitch pilot process, the NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I program is ditching specific submission and review deadlines in favor of full proposal submission windows. Proposers may submit Project Pitches at any time via an online form. NSF will then invite proposers to submit full proposals within the windows defined in the Solictations.

Check out the topics and programs details in Program Solicitations SBIR 19-554 and STTR 19-555. Both solicitations provide for submission windows of March 04, 2019 - June 13, 2019 and June 14, 2019 - December 31, 2019.