Two organizations. One application. One score.
An STTR puts a company and a research institution on the same application, in front of the same panel. Everyone scores the company. Nobody scores the partnership. We score both, and the split between them.
An SBIR principal investigator must be primarily employed by the small business. An STTR principal investigator does not have to be.
The Contact PD/PI must have a formal appointment with, or commitment to, the small business — an official relationship that need not include a salary — and must be affiliated with the SBC in eRA Commons.
That single difference is why a tenured professor can lead an STTR and cannot lead an SBIR. It is also the most common reason a faculty-founded company picks the wrong mechanism and finds out too late.
- SBC ≥ 40% — the small business must perform at least 40% of the work.
- RI ≥ 30% — a single non-profit research institution must perform at least 30%.
- SUBAWARDS ≤ 60% — total.
- BASIS: TOTAL COST — direct and indirect, not direct alone.
These percentages are Congressionally mandated. Waivers are not permitted.
And an intellectual property agreement between the company and the institution, allocating IP rights and follow-on commercialization rights, is required.
If a partnership fails a statutory gate, we don't give it a score. We show you the gate. A partnership that can't legally exist doesn't need a number.
STTR requires a research institution. So your Team plan includes seats for them — the PI, the sponsored programs office, whoever needs to see the score.
They don't buy anything. They don't create an account with us separately. They work inside your application, because that's where an STTR lives.
Grant Review Pro is being piloted with incubator-affiliated companies; we disclose any relationship with an incubator or partner institution on the assessment itself.
So: we never charge a fee for introducing a company to a research institution, or the reverse. We charge for the score. Where a relationship exists with an incubator or partner institution, we disclose it on the assessment. Our matching criteria are published.
We don't take a percentage of your award, and we don't take a finder's fee for your partner. Both would give us an incentive to tell you yes.