Biotechnology and Chemical Technologies
Proposal Due Date: December 3, 2009

Please direct inquiries to:

Greg Baxter (gbaxter@nsf.gov)

Ruth Shuman (rshuman@nsf.gov)

Josephine Yuen (jyuen@nsf.gov)

Administrative Information

The required 400-word project summary should discuss the intellectual merit and broader impact in two separate ~200 word paragraphs that specifically answer the following questions: Paragraph 1) Intellectual merit: What is the problem to be solved? How will the problem be solved? What is the innovation in the proposed approach? Paragraph 2) Broader Impacts: Why is your solution better than competitive technologies? Who is going to buy your solution? Who are the other key players? If these answers are not addressed, the proposal may be returned without review.

Proposals must address the potential for commercialization of the innovation and how it would lead ultimately to revenue generation. It is important that the proposed technology increase the competitive capability of industry, be responsive to societal needs, and is sensitive to solving "real" problems driven by critical market requirements. There is considerable overlap between the subtopics and proposers should pay attention to the areas indicated under each subtopic to assist the program in placing these proposals on review panels.

Letters of Support for the Technology

Inclusion of letters of support for the technology within the proposal is strongly encouraged for proposals being submitted to this solicitation. Letters of support act as an indication of market validation for the proposed innovation and add significant credibility to the proposed effort. Letters of support should demonstrate that the company has initiated dialog with relevant stakeholders (potential customers, strategic partners, or investors) for the proposed innovation and that a real business opportunity may exist should the technology prove feasible. The letter(s) must contain affiliation and contact information for the signatory stakeholder.

Importance of Communication with Program Officer

A company considering a proposal submission is encouraged to communicate (via email) with the cognizant program officer to help gauge the responsiveness to the solicitation (see below for contact information). When contacting the cognizant program officer, please provide a brief 2-3 page executive summary with background on the: 1) company/team including experience with previous SBIR awards, 2) market opportunity, 3) technology/innovation and 4) competition. You may contact the program officer via email at any time before the submission deadline. Note, however, that communication with the program officer will become increasingly difficult as the deadline nears.

Biotechnology and Chemical Technologies

Proposals should address one of the subtopics that are outlined below. When submitting a proposal to the BC Topic, code the proposal to the corresponding subtopic under which you are submitting the proposal, e.g., BT.3, for proposals in the area of "Environmental Biotechnology". In addition, use the code as the first item in the key words/phrases portion of the Project Summary of your proposal.

BIOTECHNOLOGY (BT)

BT.1 Agricultural and Forest Biotechnology: Such applications include but are not limited to pathogen and toxin diagnostics, genetic engineering, methods to reduce the use of fertilizer and/or increase efficiency of plant nutrient assimilation.

BT.2 Food Biotechnology: Such applications include but are not limited to real-time methods for detection of pathogens and toxins in the food, novel tracking methods, improved sterilization methods, novel packaging technologies.

BT.3 Environmental Biotechnology: Such applications include but are not limited to methods to reduce human ecological and environmental impacts, microbial contamination sensing and control, removal of toxic compounds for human and animal safety, novel bioremediation technologies, point of use water treatment, midstream wastewater treatment technologies, treatment of runoff, environmental compatibility and sustainability, pathogen and toxin diagnostics, control of exotic diseases, control of introduction of exotic species, nanobiotechnology solutions, water treatment, improvement of the environment, monitoring of pollutants, and generally decreasing the environmental impact of humans on the planet.

BT.4 Marine and Aquatic Biotechnology: Such applications include but are not limited to improved or novel marine species hatchery technologies, improved or novel aquaculture technologies, replacement of marine sourced materials in feeds, disease control, diagnostics, vaccines, alternative technologies, marine-sourced extremophilic enzymes.

BT.5 Biosensors: Such applications include but are not limited to real-time sensors, microbial component-based sensors, sensors for monitoring fluxes of metabolite, nanobiotechnology-based sensors, real-time and/or in vivo real-time tracking of microbial contamination in wastewater treatment, biomedical sensors, micro- or nanofluidic-based sensors, and disease and toxin monitoring.

BT.6 Bioenergy: Such applications include but are not limited to biomass conversion biorefinery innovation and integration, novel methods such as novel marine, plant, algal and microbial bioenergy sources, hydrogen production and methods for distributed bioenergy production. Metabolic engineering and/or breeding for production of co-products into biomass crops of interests, characterization processing of biofuels waste streams, alternative energy efficient separation techniques including membranes, adsorption, and alternatives to distillation. Non-biological approaches should have bio-sourced feedstocks such as conversion of biodiesel products into useful products, biodiesel improvements, chemical or genetic modifications. Catalytic methods for biofuel production are also within the scope of this topic. Burning and pyrolysis are not included.

BT.7 Biomaterials, Bioinspired Materials and Bio-based Materials: Such applications include but are not limited to biomimetic materials, improved implants, and biodevice coatings. Bio-based materials are those that are obtained from a biological source and are renewable in character. Such applications include but are not limited to chemicals and polymers from a bio-based feedstock, bio-based polymers and monomers, bioengineered plastics, biocomposites, bio-based building materials, renewable carbon feedstock base, bio-polyethylene, and the next generation of biochemicals from a renewable carbon feedstock.

BT.8 Diagnostic Assays and Platforms: Such applications include but are not limited to non- or minimally-invasive disease diagnosis, detection and monitoring, biomarker development, disease specific assays, and point-of-care genetic testing for diseases.

BT.9 Drug Delivery and Drug Discovery: Such applications include but are not limited to improved drug delivery formulations and devices, biological delivery through implanted tissues, novel drug discovery assays and platforms, high-throughput screening assays and platforms.

BT.10 Tissue Engineering and Repair: Using innovative and novel biotechnological approaches to meet research challenges and market opportunities in tissue engineering and repair. Such applications include but are not limited to artificial tissues, artificial blood vessels and small caliber grafts for small vessel replacement, and disease specific tissue engineering, stem cell based therapies.

BT.11 Biomedical Devices: Such applications include but are not limited to anti-thrombotic devices, self-charging or non-invasively charged implantable devices, increased biocompatibility and artificial sensory receptors.

BT.12 Omics, Systems Biology, and Bioinformatics: Such applications include but are not limited to innovative tools and applications of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, kinomics, glycomics, and bioinformatics. Note that innovations in bioinformatics that are primarily novel software should consider whether IC might be a better topic.

BT.13 Bioinstrumentation and Imaging Technologies: Such applications include but are not limited to improved or novel instrumentation for biological analysis, imaging techniques for localization and diagnosis of infectious events, imaging technologies for the detection and localization of cancer, detection and/or imaging agents, novel imaging instrumentation.

CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY (CT)

Note: This topic specifically excludes solar and wind energy proposals, which are covered under the IC topic and bioenergy proposals should be submitted in the Biotechnology BT.6 subtopic above.

CT.1 Energy Supply and Use: Such applications include but are not limited to direct conversion and utilization of thermal energy, electrochemical conversion, reduction of engine emissions, reduction of greenhouse gasses, vehicle weight reduction and improved efficiency.

CT.2 Energy Delivery and Storage: Such applications include but are not limited to fuel storage technologies, hydrogen storage, novel battery technology, fuel cells, and insulating materials.

CT.3 Energy Transportation and Fuels: Such applications include but are not limited to energy transportation technologies, fuel processing technologies, alternative fuel option,s and SOx and NOx reduction.

CT.4 Technologies for Sustainability: These are novel materials that are meant to replace materials currently produced in a non-sustainable manner. Such applications include but are not limited to biodegradable materials, improved ability to recycle a material, novel materials from recycled materials, and green building technologies.

CT.5 Separation Technologies: Such applications include but are not limited to environmentally benign liquid and gas separations, fuel separations, critical and strategic metals, and fuel cell membranes.

CT.6 Novel Catalytic Systems: Such applications include but are not limited to consumer products, chemical production, fuel cell catalysts, novel catalyst structures, formulations, supports, and processing, processes utilizing catalysts.

CT.7 Reactor Engineering Applications: Such applications include but are not limited to membrane reactor systems, supercritical fluid applications, reactor design, and process design.

CT.8 Chemical Design and Synthesis: Such applications include but are not limited to molecular level design, synthesis of novel molecules, and characterization techniques for chemical systems, surfaces or interfaces.