2023.ED.IES.SBIR.QuestionsResponses.91990023R0011_2.24.23.docx

Request for Proposal 91990023R0011 Small Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase IB Amendment 0001 Closing Date: March 13, 2023, 11 A.M. EST U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) responses to clarification questions submitted by February 13, 2023.

Warning! Offerors must note that there are email attachment size restrictions. The Department of Education cannot accept attachments larger than 25 MB. The government is not responsible for attachment size restrictions that may exist on the offerors’ email servers! Offerors are advised to check with their provider for information on email size restrictions and plan accordingly.

If offeror attempt to submit a proposal to Kristi.rhodes@ed.gov and receive an error message, they must contact Kristi Rhodes (or David.geary@ed.gov ) PRIOR TO THE CLOSING OF THE SOLICITATION during standard business hours (8:00 A.M. ET to 5:00 P.M. ET, Monday through Friday). The solicitation closes promptly at 11:00 A.M. ET, on March 13, 2023.

Late proposals will not be accepted.

1. For the budget part for the Phase I proposal, do we need to submit a spreadsheet that justifies the G&A and fringe rate based on the prior year’s financial performance? If so, can we use a template like the DOE one-pool or two-pool model?

Response: Detailed justifications are not required. The Phase I awards will be firm-fixed-price for $250,000. Indirect rates will not be negotiated as they will not alter the award amount.

2. Should we be preparing the G&A and Fringe rates based on the projections for 2023?

Response: See Question 1. It is up to the offeror to best judge the situation.

3. Do you have any guidelines for developing the fringe and G&A rates?

Response: No, the Department does not have any guidelines as every situation is different.

4. Can G&A be applied on top of TABA funding?

Response: No, G&A would not be applied to TABA funds.

5. If no private information is being collected on human subjects in the pilot study, is an IRB and associated costs still required?

Response: For projects where no children are included in research and no information on children is being collected at all, it is possible that an IRB review at the beginning of the project and associated costs would not be necessary.

6. The SBIR Awardee is a Covered Small Business Concern (a Small Business Concern that: (a) was not majority-owned by multiple venture capital operating companies (VCOCs), hedge funds, or private equity firms on the date on which it submitted an application in response to an SBIR solicitation; and (b) on the date of the SBIR award, which is made more than 9 months after the closing date of the solicitation, is majority-owned by multiple venture capital operating companies, hedge funds, or private equity firms). (Check one box). Does checking “yes” mean that we are not owned by a VCOC but we will be owned by a VCOC in nine months? Does checking “no” mean that we are owned by a VCOC but will not be owned by a VCOC in nine months? If we are not owned by a VCOC and don’t expect to be owned by a VCOC in nine months do we check both “yes” and “no”?

Response: If the vendor is currently or will become owned by VCOC in the future then the vendor should select yes. If the vendor is not/will not become owned by VCOC the vendor should select no.

7. Phase 1A, Phase 1B, and Direct to Phase II NCER opportunities, and I am trying to get the information out to our researchers and faculty. Is there a preproposal required for these, or is the March 13 date the only deadline?

Response: There is no pre-proposal (or letter of intent) under this solicitation. Offerors only are required to submit a proposal prior to the stated submission deadline on or before 11am EST March 13, 2023.

8. For “Phase 1B” submissions, should the video include only information about the current product, or should it also include a review of the new feature to be developed with Phase I and II funding?

Response: The purpose of the 3-minute video demonstration is to present the current version of the education technology prototype or product so that a reviewer can fully understand the context for the new component that is being proposed. Offerors may choose to present other information that is relevant to the proposal.

9. Can the small business continue with commercialization/sales of the existing education technology during the 8 months of the Phase 1B research period?

Response: Yes.

10. Can plans for sales/commercialization of the pilot program (prototype of new component) take place during the 8-month Phase 1B period? The RFP states that “Contracts may include a reasonable fee or profit on SBIR contracts, consistent with normal profit margins provided to profit-making firms for R/R&D work.”

Response: Yes, funding can be used for TABA to support commercialization during Phase I for up to $5000. An offeror can also include a reasonable fee for profit in the budget during Phase I.

11. Would university faculty who are researching the efficacy of the new component be budgeted into the award as consultants?

Response: The offeror can include individuals who are not employed by the small business as consultants.

12. May a small business submit identical or overlapping proposals to NSF SBIR/STTR and another federal agency?

Response: As is indicated in the solicitation, offerors are permitted to submit similar proposals to another federal agency. However, this information must be disclosed within a proposal to ED/IES SBIR in Section H. Further, small businesses are not permitted to accept funding from different agencies to conduct the same work should more than one award be offered.

13. Does a small business have to be invited to apply? Is there a step required prior to submitting a proposal?

Response: The ED/IES SBIR program does not provide invitations to offerors. There is no step prior to the submission of a proposal.

14. If we receive an NSF SBIR/STTR for the same product but with a different R & D goal, are we still able to apply?

Response: Without additional information, it is not possible to address this question. It is noted that offerors are permitted to submit proposals for similar projects to ED/IES SBIR and other agencies such as NSF SBIR/STTR. This information is required to be disclosed in Section H. Awards are not permitted to be made from multiple agencies for similar research and development in both projects.

15. Is a professor in the U.S. is eligible to hold the grant with a for-profit company as a collaborator?

Response: The awardee is required to be a for-profit small business. Therefore, a professor at a university cannot receive the award if the proposal is submitted by the university. A university professor in the U.S. is permitted to serve as a consultant to the company or an employee of the company if the professor is employed by the company.

16. Is a for-profit company from Canada eligible to apply in collaboration with a professor in the U.S.?

Response: Offerors to ED/IES SBIR are required to be a for-profit business less than 500 employee that is U.S. owned and operated. Therefore, a for-profit company from Canada would not be eligible to submit a proposal.

17. Are c3 non-profit organizations eligible to apply, assuming we meet all other criteria?

Response: Offerors are required to be for-profit small businesses. Please refer to the eligibility requirements for the SBIR program for additional information.

18. Can I apply for any grant or only for the Small Business Innovation Research grant?

Response: Offerors must refer to the solicitation for the specific requirements for submitting a proposal to the ED/IES SBIR program. Please note that similar proposals cannot be submitted to more than one of the 2023 ED/IES SBIR programs. While similar proposals may be submitted to other agencies, offerors must be disclosed this information in Section H.

19. Under the program umbrella: Small Business Innovation Research, what is considered a product?

Response: The product is the focus of the proposal and includes the education technology and its components and features that an offeror is proposing to develop and evaluate. Offerors can refer to the II. 2023 Priority Area for more information.

20. Does the Department have a list of researchers that do have high enough ratings that they could get on SBIR projects?

Response: There is no such list of researchers at ED.

21. In reference to existing educational tech product in the form section K referring to a website, if the company is already utilizing an employee in another country, could the company continue to use that employee? If yes, then what specific pars in Section K must this person signing order to meet the requirements of the proposal?

Response: Offerors are permitted to propose personnel that meet the requirements of the program, including that all work under an SBIR contract is conducted by individuals in the United States. Offerors are required to complete the forms in Section K with all requested information for personnel considered covered individuals. No further information can be provided at this time.

22. In order to complete all the sections of this RFP, does the offeror open the Word Document that is downloaded by cut and pasting or does the offeror insert text, links to videos, charts, etc. in the opened MS Word Document.?

Response: Provided that the requirements in the solicitation are met, an offeror can choose the method used to create and format a proposal.

23. Do we apply for 1A or 1B and then Phase 2 or do we apply for 1A and 1B and then phase 2.

Response: Offerors who are awarded a Phase IA or IB contract in 2023 will be eligible to apply for Phase II in 2024 (provided that the Phase I was successfully completed).

24. Can PI (Co-founder) be an independent contractor or do they have to be W-2 employee?

Response to part 1: The PI is required to be an employee of the small business and must work at least 51% of the time for that company during the lifecycle of an SBIR project.

25. What is the reimbursement rate for indirect costs and can that be negotiated as part of the agreement?

Response: The Phase I awards will be firm-fixed-price for $250,000. Indirect rates will not be negotiated as they will not alter the award amount.

26. If a co-founder will be doing the majority of the work via his consulting firm, can he be paid as a sub-contractor?

Response: Small businesses are permitted to subcontract up to a maximum of 1/3 of the total contract price in Phase I.

27. Is it permissible to put the estimated time and rate of the consulting firm or do we have to break it down further by hours/role/compensation?

Response: Subcontracting cost information is included in the budget and offerors can provide information on costs for roles by adding additional lines.

28. How are the disbursements paid out?

Response: As is detailed in the solicitation, three payments will be made during Phase I, each for one-third of the total contract price of $250,000.

29. How I can get more information about the solicitation and proposal guidelines.

Response: All information is presented in the solicitation. No further response can be provided in response to this question.

30. Under section E, stating where offerors should provide an agreement from a representative of an education setting that will participate in the Phase I pilot research: is an educational institution sufficient to meet this requirement? If not, can a university sufficient to meet this requirement?

Response: The agreement must come from the education setting where the research will take place.

31. Under Section F, stating where offerors provide letters of support for potential pathways to commercialize: can these potential letters be from an affiliated branch of federal government such as a congress women/ man, senator, USAID, Commercial Service Member, member of the regional growth partnership, or other? Can the potential letters be from an international or foreign non-profit or for profit? If so, can a professor with both a background in education, and commercialization within his current non-profit be sufficient for a letter? Do letters submitted need to be of U.S. based citizenship or can they be foreign based citizenship?

Response: The solicitation provides information on the purpose of the letters that can be included in Section F of a proposal. Letters can be included to demonstrate support for potential pathways for the eventual commercial dissemination and sustainability of the proposed product to benefit learners, educators, or administrators in the United States. Beyond what is presented in section F of the solicitation, no additional guidance can be provided on the specific nature of the letters to be included in a proposal.

32. Under Innovations, Inventions, and patents, do we need to submit a patent or are trade secrets okay?

Response: The Department would need more information to help guide this response; however, no patents are required to be submitted. All SBIR proposals are considered trade secrets and are protected from release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

33. How is disruptiveness of educational technology measured? Can disruptiveness include the wide range of K-12 and adult learners in developing countries?

Response: Offerors to the ED/IES SBIR program should refer to the II. 2023 Priority Area and to the solicitation for information about the focus of a proposal and the goal of the program to support the development of new products to address pressing needs in education.

34. Our device works by using our partner’s content. If selected, would the department of education pertaining to research prefer to select the content partner we use or are we okay to use are current educational partners?

Response: No response can be provided in response to this question. The offeror must determine how to determine a partnership within the proposal.

35. Can pilot research discussed in phase 1 IB be accepted in both domestic and international settings?

Response: All work must be conducted in the United States.

36. For Section A (cover pages), the instructions in the document often mingle and intermix with the content that must be completed. It can be difficult to tell whether to include certain pieces or not. Should we just copy the entirety of pages 9 - 14 (including the instructions) and insert them directly into the proposal?

Response: The offeror must determine how to format the proposal. It would be acceptable to copy the table in Section A and to insert it into a proposal.

37. Throughout the proposal, should we use the same headings and sub-headings that are found in the instructions? For example, Section B is titled “Proposal Narrative”, and has sub-headings “Significance”, and then sub-sub-headings of “Problem Statement” and “New Product to be Developed if Phase I and Phase II Funds Were Provided”. Should we use those exact headings and sub-headings?

Response: Yes, a proposal should use the same headings and sub-headings that are found in the instructions.

38. Are there guidelines for how resumes should be included in the proposal (Section C, part ii)? Should they follow the same formatting guidelines as the rest of the proposal? Should the section be titled “Resumes and Resume Certifications”? Or should each resume simply be inserted as a page following Section C part i (Project Team and Company)?

Response: Offerors must determine how to format resumes that are included in a proposal. The resumes must be included in Section C of the proposal. The Company description should also be included in Section C at the top of the section of where an offeror chooses to include this information.

39. I plan to hire a software engineer to help with the effort in the Phase I, but I don’t know the name of the software engineer that I will hire yet. How should I reference this person in the budget narrative?

Response: While there is no requirement to provide the name of an individual and provide qualifications, offerors are encouraged to provide this information so that the reviewers can make a determination if project goals can be achieved. In cases where an individual is not named, the proposal can indicate To Be Determined.

40. Is there a deadline to submit my phase 1 proposal, or am I able to submit it within the year or invitation?

Response: The submission deadline is March 13, 2023, at 11AM Eastern Standard Time no exceptions will be made to accept proposals after this date for the FY23 SBIR Phase I cycle. The SBIR programs are offered annually so there will be an opportunity for vendors to apply to the FY24 solicitation once it opens.

41. Where can I read successful SBIR grant applications?

Response: Proposals from past ED/IES SBIR awardees contain proprietary information and are not made available to the public. Potential offerors to the ED/IES SBIR program can review abstracts from all past awards on the ED/IES SBIR website https://ies.ed.gov/sbir/awards.asp

42. May a Phase 1b prototype be created for graduate students studying for administrative licensure (these are teachers studying to be principals)? " Response: Products focusing on training and support for pre-service or in-service educators are permitted.

43. SBIR cover page that there is a column for "L" that has nothing listed and the word "Schneider". Was there some piece of information meant to go in box L, or can that be ignored?

Response: Please disregard this typo.

44. How critical is the requirement that PIs have education research for the development and evaluation of education technology including research experience in school settings?

Response: Reviewers will make the determination on the qualifications of the Principal Investigator for managing the project and for the whole of the team to conduct the work that is proposed.

45. Can you further define the education setting use requirement? Could an additional component enhance a current platform that is not necessarily visible to the users?

Response: As detailed in II. 2023 Priority Area, proposals through this solicitation focus on the development of a new component to be added to an existing education technology product or prototype and may focus on learning, educators or administrator for use in schools or remote settings. A letter of agreement from a representative of an education setting that will participate in the Phase I pilot research is required in Section E. Without additional information it is not possible to determine if a project to add a component to a current platform that is not necessarily visible to users would fit within the requirements.

46. Is there a max of funds that can be awarded to subcontractors, partnering schools, etc. in Phase I?

Response: The small business that wins the award is required to spend a minimum of 2/3 of the funds in Phase I and can allot a maximum of 1/3 to subcontractors.

47. Who do we need to include on the team for the proposal? Would it just be the Principal Investigator, Data Security Liaison, and other key roles, or would it be every employee who would be expected to work on the product as described in the proposal?

Response: At a minimum, projects are required to list a Principal Investigator and a Data Security Liaison in the table listed on page 11 of the solicitation. Each offeror will determine the other key personnel and roles that need to be filled to successfully complete a proposed project.

48. Can we submit the proposal in any case by March even if we have collected or not the letters?

Response: All proposals that are submitted before the stated deadline will be reviewed. No further information can be provided in response to this question.

49. Detail prior research, and research and development, conducted by the project team and how this previous R/R&D guides a foundation for the proposed effort. Does that refer to only the prototype of a new component or to the existing educational technology product?

Response: the solicitation requires the presentation of research findings on the existing education technology prototype or product and research plans on the new component to be developed in Phase I.

50. “Provide results from concept testing –, where users provide feedback following a presentation of the plans or mock-ups for the new version of the education technology product that would be developed by the end of Phase II. “ – Since we do not have results from concept testing until the end of Phase I, what results are you referring to in this section about Phase II? We are contemplating a larger, more diverse, hands-on testing with our prototype in Phase II. Is that what you are referring to?

Response: The solicitation requires that in the Phase I proposal offerors provide results from concept testing of the proposed new component that will be added to an existing prototype or product. In this research users provide feedback after viewing mock-ups detailing the new proposed education technology product (with the new proposed component) and its intended implementation.

51. What certifications are necessary, if any, to assume the role of Data Security Liaison?

Response: No certifications are necessary for an individual to be the Data Security Liaison. The Data Security Liaison role requires strong administrative and organizational skills and time to conduct the necessary work.

52. Technical and Assistance Business Plan, can you define what these funds can be used for? What is the significance of this extra money beyond the money requested in the core Business Plan?

Response: As is detailed in Section I, Phase I awardees can utilize up to $5000 for technical assistance for specialized strategic business training. Please refer to Section I of the solicitation for specific examples for how funds can be used.

53. If we do not have an internal IRB is there a recommended process to finding one? Can you share the average cost associated with an IRB?

Response: ED does not have a recommended IRB or information in cost.

54. Is it possible to reapply for SBIR 1 with the same project if this year’s application is not accepted?

Response: Offerors can submit a proposal to ED/IES SBIR each year. Please note – the submission of a similar or improve proposal the following year is not considered a resubmission. Rather it is always a new proposal.

55. Are there guidelines about what % of PI’s salary that can be covered by the grant?

Response: there are no guidelines on the percentage of the PI salary covered by an award.

56. Is it acceptable to include 'person = TBD' on line items of the budget proposal?

Response: While there is no requirement to provide the name of an individual and provide qualifications, offerors are encouraged to provide this information so that the reviewers can make a determination if project goals can be achieved. In cases where an individual is not named, the proposal can indicate TBD or To Be Determined.

57. Is there any flexibility on the 33% of funding to be outsourced?

Response: No, the small business is required to spend at least 2/3 of the funding in Phase I.

58. Is it possible to outsource work to companies/have paid employees who are based outside of the US?

Response: All work must be conducted in the United States.

59. If a team member (consultant, partner, or advisor) also plays a role in our plan for eventual commercialization, are they allowed to write a letter speaking to its potential for commercialization?

Response: Offerors are permitted to include letters from any individual or organization to demonstrate potential pathways to dissemination and sustainability. Additional information about letters is presented in Appendix H.

60. Can you clarify the delineation between a “functioning prototype” and a “product that is fully developed”? We are still developing our product, but also have paying users. Can we still be considered a “prototype”?

Response: It is possible that a technology that is in the prototype stage (not fully developed) can be already commercially available and in use.

61. We have commissioned an initial research report about our product in development, but it isn’t in a peer-reviewed journal. Are we still eligible to apply?

Response: there is no requirement for research on existing prototypes or products to be published in peer-reviewed journals.

62. Should non-salaried owners be included as employees on our SBC registration? And if so, does a resume need to be included for them if they won’t be contributing specifically to the project?

Response: Offerors do not need to include any non-salaried owners to be included as employees in the SBC registration. Resumes are not needed for any individual who is not contributing to the project.

63. Is this the proper SBC registration to be included? The SBC registration form does not need to be included.