Primary Research Group Inc, has published the Survey of Best Practices in Pursuit of NIH SBIR & STTR Grants. The study presents data from 7 research universities and 4 doctoral level institutions about their policies in pursuing NIH SBIR and STTR Grants. The study presents detailed information on the number of grants applied for, the success rate, the percentage of phase 1 grants that move to phase 2 and the percentage of phase 2 grants that move to stage three. The report also looks at how the universities sampled make their efforts? What conferences do they go to? How able are they in using grant discovery software and databases? Do they use consultants? Which organizations and resources have been helpful in their efforts? What has been the mean level of funding? The range? What percentage of their contracts come from collaboration with alumni-controlled or headed companies? What percentage come from companies actually spun off by the university?
Just a few of the many findings of this 90+page report are that:
The mean number of STTR grants won over the past three years by the universities sampled was 4.4 with a median of 1.5 in a range of 0 to 20. For the research universities in the sample, the mean was 7.33 with a median of 6 in a range of 1 to 20.
Overall, 18.18% have used a consultant who reads and critiques such proposals for a fee
A mean of 45.45% of those sampled had entered into SBIR or STTR partnerships with small businesses owned or headed by alumni.