The purpose of this section is to inform the applicant on what to include in the proposal and to set forth limits on what may be included. It should also provide guidance to assist applicants, particularly to firms that may not have previous Government experience, in improving the quality and acceptance of proposals.

(a) Limitations on Length of Proposal. Include at least the following information:

(1) STTR Phase I proposals must not exceed a total of 25 pages, including cover page, budget, and all enclosures or attachments, unless stated otherwise in the agency solicitation. Pages should be of standard size (8\1/2\'' x 11''; 21.6 cm x 27.9 cm) and should conform to the standard formatting instructions. Margins should be 2.5 cm and the type at least 10 point font.

An SBC, before receiving an STTR award, must negotiate a written agreement between the SBC and the single, partnering research institution, as discussed in section 8(c) of this Policy Directive. While an agency may require this agreement to be submitted at the time of the proposal (or at a later date), it is not considered to be part of the proposal and is not subject to the page limitation.

(2) A notice that no additional attachments, appendices, or references beyond the 25-page limitation shall be considered in proposal evaluation (unless specifically solicited by an agency) and that proposals in excess of the page limitation shall not be considered for review or award.

(b) Proposal Cover Sheet. Every applicant is required to include at least the following information on the first page of proposals. Items 8 and 9 are for statistical purposes only.

(1) Agency and Solicitation Number or Year.
(2) Topic Number or Letter.
(3) Subtopic Number or Letter.
(4) Topic Area.
(5) Project Title.
(6) Name and Complete Address of Firm.
(7) Small Business Certifications (by statement or checkbox) as follows:

(a)	``The above concern certifies that it is an SBC and meets the definition as stated in this solicitation or that it will meet that definition at time of award.''
(b)	``The above concern certifies that at least 40 percent of the work under this project will be performed by the SBC and at least 30 percent of the work under this project will be performed by the research institution.''

(8) Socially and Economically Disadvantaged SBC Certification (by statement or checkbox) as follows:

``The above concern certifies that it ----does---- does not qualify as a socially and economically disadvantaged SBC as defined in this solicitation.''

(9) Women-owned SBC Certification (by statement or checkbox) as follows:

``The above concern certifies that it---- does----does not qualify as a women-owned SBC as defined in this solicitation.''

(10) An information statement regarding duplicate research as follows:

``The applicant and/or Principal Investigator ----has---- has not submitted proposals for essentially equivalent work under other Federal program solicitations or ----has---- has not received other Federal awards for essentially equivalent work.'' (Identify proposals/awards in Section 3(e)10, ``Similar Proposals and Awards.'')

(11) Disclosure permission (by statement or checkbox), such as follows, may be included at the discretion of the funding

``Will you permit the Government to disclose the title and technical abstract page of your proposed project, plus the name, address, and telephone number of the corporate official of your concern, if your proposal does not result in an award, to concerns that may be interested in contacting you for further information? Yes---- No----''

(12) Signature of a company official of the proposing SBC and that individual's typed name, title, address, telephone number, and date of signature.
(13) Signature of Principal Investigator or Project Manager and that individual's typed name, title, address, telephone number, and date of signature.
(14) Legend for proprietary information as described in the ``Considerations'' section of this program solicitation if appropriate. May also be noted by asterisks in the margins on proposal pages.

(c) Data Collection Requirement.

(1) Each Phase II applicant is required to provide information for the Tech-Net Database System (http://technet.sba.gov). The following are examples of the data to be entered by applicants into Tech-Net:

(i)	Any business concern or subsidiary established for the commercial application of a product or service for which an STTR award is made.
(ii)	Revenue from the sale of new products or services resulting from the research conducted under each Phase II award;
(iii)	Additional investment from any source, other than Phase I or Phase II awards, to further the research and development conducted under each Phase II award.
(iv)	Update the information in the Tech-Net database for any prior Phase II award received by the SBC. The SBC may apportion sales or additional investment information relating to more than one Phase II award among those awards, if it notes the apportionment for each award.

(2) Each Phase II awardee is required to update the appropriate information on the award in the Tech-Net database upon completion of the last deliverable under the funding agreement and is requested to voluntarily update the information in the Tech-Net database annually thereafter for a minimum period of 5 years.

(d) Abstract or Summary. Applicants will be required to include a one-page project summary of the proposed R/R&D including at least the following:

(1) Name and address of SBC.
(2) Name and title of principal investigator or project manager.
(3) Agency name, solicitation number, solicitation topic, and subtopic.
(4) Title of project.
(5) Technical abstract limited to two hundred words.
(6) Summary of the anticipated results and implications of the approach (both Phases I and II) and the potential commercial applications of the research.

(e) Technical Content. STTR Program solicitations must require as a minimum the following to be included in proposals submitted thereunder:

(1) Identification and Significance of the Problem or Opportunity. A clear statement of the specific technical problem or opportunity addressed.
(2) Phase I Technical Objectives. State the specific objectives of the Phase I research and development effort, including the technical questions it will try to answer to determine the feasibility of the proposed approach.
(3) Phase I Work Plan. Include a detailed description of the Phase I R/R&D plan. The plan should indicate what will be done, where it will be done, and how the R/R&D will be carried out. Phase I R/R&D should address the objectives and the questions cited in (e)(2) immediately above. The methods planned to achieve each objective or task should be discussed in detail.
(4) Related R/R&D. Describe significant R/R&D that is directly related to the proposal including any conducted by the project manager/principal investigator or by the proposing SBC. Describe how it relates to the proposed effort, and any planned coordination with outside sources. The applicant must persuade reviewers of his or her awareness of key, recent R/R&D conducted by others in the specific topic area.
(5) Key Personnel and Bibliography of Directly Related Work. Identify key personnel involved in Phase I including their directly related education, experience, and bibliographic information. Where vitae are extensive, summaries that focus on the most relevant experience or publications are desired and may be necessary to meet proposal size limitation.
(6) Relationship with Future R/R&D.

(i)	State the anticipated results of the proposed approach if the project is successful (Phase I and II).
(ii)	Discuss the significance of the Phase I effort in providing a foundation for the Phase II R/R&D effort.

(7) Facilities. A detailed description, availability and location of instrumentation and physical facilities proposed for Phase I should be provided.
(8) Consultants. Involvement of consultants in the planning and research stages of the project is permitted. If such involvement is intended, it should be described in detail.
(9) Potential Post Applications. Briefly describe:

(i)	Whether and by what means the proposed project appears to have potential commercial application.
(ii)	Whether and by what means the proposed project appears to have potential use by the Federal government.

(10) Similar Proposals or Awards. Warning--While it is permissible with proposal notification to submit identical proposals or proposals containing a significant amount of essentially equivalent work for consideration under numerous Federal program solicitations, it is unlawful to enter into funding agreements requiring essentially equivalent work. If there is any question concerning this, it must be disclosed to the soliciting agency or agencies before award. If an applicant elects to submit identical proposals or proposals containing a significant amount of essentially equivalent work under other Federal program solicitations, a statement must be included in each such proposal indicating:

(i)	The name and address of the agencies to which proposals were submitted or from which awards were received.
(ii)	Date of proposal submission or date of award.
(iii)	Title, number, and date of solicitations under which proposals were submitted or awards received.
(iv)	The specific applicable research topics for each proposal submitted or award received.
(v)	Titles of research projects.
(vi)	Name and title of principal investigator or project manager for each proposal submitted or award received.

(f) Cost Breakdown/Proposed Budget. The solicitation will require the submission of simplified cost or budget data.