Federal Funding Opportunities: Do I really have to read this whole thing?
Though they go by many names and vary by agency, most solicitations follow the same general format and are fairly simple to review once you know the ropes.
Once you find a funding opportunity that may be a fit for your envisioned project, the solicitation itself can be a barrier to apply. These documents are often dozens if not over a hundred pages long and full of program specific terminology. Often, the solicitation refers to other documents which provide contradictory guidance. In this article, we break down the essentials of how to analyze a funding opportunity.
This is a huge document; where do I start?
Whenever we open a new funding opportunity, we immediately check:
Topics
Are you a fit for the program’s priorities?
Eligibility
Are you an eligible entity? If not, do you have a partner who is? (usually there is an eligibility information section)
Funding guidance
Total funding pool, anticipated number of awards, individual award minimum and maximum (as well as duration). This can help you judge how competitive the process will be and also give you an idea of award size. For example, if the agency provides an award range of $200k to $1M but they only have a pool of $5M and anticipate making 20 awards, you can infer that they will prefer projects with smaller budgets.
Cost share requirements - this can often be a non-starter for a startup if it is over 20%.
Other costs - Do they allow indirect rates? Will they negotiate these with you if you don’t have them? Do they allow a 7% fee?
Deadline
Is there a concept paper stage? If there is, is it mandatory or optional?
Due dates - What time is it due and in what time zone? (often solicitations have a key dates table)
System registration(s)
Pretty much every federal funding opportunity will require you to have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) at the time of submission; you can register your company at SAM.gov to get this number. If you Ctl + F “sam.gov” in a solicitation, it will help you find the section where you can see what other system registrations the agency requires for submission. For example, some agencies have their own submission system.
Okay, I screened the above information; I am eligible and want to apply. How do I read the rest of this?
Start at the Table of Contents to get a feeling for how the agency has structured the solicitation. Generally, they are split up into five to ten major sections that consist of some combination of the following:
Introduction and Basic Information
Eligibility
Program Description
Application Content and Submission Guidance
Review Criteria and Process
Award Information and Post-Award Guidelines
Other Information
When we really dig into a solicitation, we often start with #4 above so that we can estimate the level of effort the proposal preparation will take. It also helps us identify any wildcards we weren’t expecting to need to prepare. For example, you might learn that every budget item needs to tie to a task number and that all needs to be summarized in a Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO). Or the awarding agency may require that you have several letters of support from potential customers in a specific format. It’s important to be aware of these intricacies early in the process.
It’s also a good idea to read #1 and #3 so that you familiarize yourself with and even adopt the agency’s priorities and specific phrasing. For example, if a solicitation uses the term “clean energy” but you decide to say “green fuel” throughout your proposal, you aren’t as aligned with the solicitation as you could be.
I feel more comfortable with the solicitation. How do I start preparing a proposal?
Most applications for federal funding require the following components:
Technical narrative / project plan
Budget (the numbers) and budget justification (the narrative around what you’re spending)
Senior personnel biographical documents
Various administrative forms and questionnaires
Additionally, some common other components include:
Letters of support or commitment
Data management plan
Description of facilities
Various conflicts of interest forms (including disclosing lobbying activities or foreign connections)
Statement of project objectives
Commercialization plan
We start with a checklist of these items with any specific page number, templates, and formatting guidance as we review section #3. Then we create a narrative outline, which is the foundation of your proposal. When creating a narrative outline, make section headers and the initial set of bullets using the application contents guidance (#3). Then incorporate the review criteria (#5) into the bullets to make sure you address everything a reviewer will be looking for. This is an important step since these two sections are rarely perfectly aligned and it’s easy to miss something a reviewer will be looking for. Finally, review the program priorities and funding opportunity description sections (#1 and #3) for key words and phrases and make sure you integrate those into your narrative.
What else do I need to know?
The solicitation will likely refer to other guidance that you may have to look at. For example, the National Science Foundation uses something called the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) to provide centralized guidance for all of their proposals. You may need to seek out these guides to ensure you are following formatting guidelines or to find templates.
Additionally, some solicitations have a “parent” solicitation that you may need to look at. For example, when the Department of Defense releases SBIR topics, they often have an agency level guidance document and then each department has their own separate guidance. Another example is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s ROSES solicitation.
When a solicitation provides guidance that is in direct conflict with another higher-level guidance document, you almost always follow the solicitation’s guidance.
I don’t have time to dig into funding opportunities; can someone just do this for me?
Absolutely! At Ibex Consulting, we are experts at acquiring and managing federal funding. We provide services to support all aspects of government awards, from opportunity discovery to proposal development to award negotiations to project execution. We also provide accounting and strategic finance services to small businesses.
If you’d like us to help you navigate indirect rates or are interested in any of our other services, book a call on our website or shoot us an email at info@ibexconsulting.io and we will set up a time to discuss further!
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Brilliant stack!