Congratulations on your decision to apply for a Department of Energy SBIR or STTR award!  This guide will walk applicants through a Department of Energy SBIR/STTR application, but it is a good idea to become familiar with the required registrations and some of the application basics before beginning that process.  Being as familiar with the process as possible will ensure that you have the maximum amount of time to focus on building your project team and developing a compliant Project Narrative. 

There are several systems for which you will have to register to complete the application process and it is highly recommended that you start these registrations sooner rather than later.  Completing the System for Award Management (SAM) registration for instance can take up to six weeks.  Applicants will need to register with DOE's Portfolio Award Management System (PAMS), the SBA Company Registry at SBIR.gov, and later Grants.gov.  Applicants will need to begin the SAM registration as soon as possible to secure the UEI, which is assigned at the initial stages of the SAM registration process and is needed for SBA Company Registration.  Therefore, it is best to begin this part of the process before you are entrenched in the details of your project.  Click here for links to the essential registrations, suggested completion order, instructions, and helpful tutorials.     

In addition to the numerous registrations, the application process involves multiple steps, which we address in great detail throughout the guide.  A simplified list of steps with links to the corresponding sections of the guide is included below.  Please be advised that the list below is simplified for brevity and that the guide contains further detailed instructions for completing each step, including instructions for completing any associated forms.  To complete an SBIR/STTR grant application, applicants must:

  1. Determine the appropriate topic/subtopic pair and the corresponding funding opportunity announcement
  2. Draft and submit a Letter of Intent in PAMS
  3. Build a project team, including a Principal Investigator and any senior or key persons
  4. Draft and submit a Project Narrative, Project Budget, and other required application elements
  5. Secure required documentation from collaborating subcontractors or Research Institutions as applicable
  6. Create a Grants.gov application workspace and complete and submit all required grants.gov forms/webforms

It is critical that you give yourself sufficient time to register on SAM.gov and become familiar with Grants.gov, so that you do not encounter any last-minute issues that could delay your submission.  As with all grant submission processes, applicants should also keep in mind the various system software requirements and specified document upload formats.  Being aware of these requirements and formats prior to the submission will ensure that applicants are able to download and upload their required documents without issue.  Below we have included guidance on software requirements and document upload formats.  

Software Requirements for Grants.gov 

In order to access, complete, submit applications, and download any forms from Grants.gov, applicants need to have Adobe Reader Version 10 for Windows or Mac OS or greater installed on their computer.  Adobe Reader Version 9 x is no longer compatible.  The Mac OS pdf reader Preview is not supported.  For more on this topic and trouble shooting, visit the Grants.gov Adobe Software Compatibility page.  Please note that if applicants download blank Grants.gov forms from this guide, those downloads are also subject to the same Adobe software requirements.    

Unless otherwise specified, DOE prefers that all text attachments be submitted as pdf files.   

Grants.gov includes significant help resources, both in text form and video tutorials.  In addition to providing help navigating the workspace, Grants.gov also includes tutorials on writing grants, finding the right opportunity, and how to determine your eligibility for federal grants, among many other topics.  See the Grants.gov “Community Blog” for easy access to a wide variety of tutorials and assistance:  https://grantsgovprod.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/how-to-get-help-when-using-the-grants-gov-system/. 

Creating PDFs for Text Attachments

Designed to maximize system-conducted validations, multiple separate attachments are required for a complete application. When the application is received by the agency, all submitted forms and all separate attachments are combined into a single document and used by agency staff and peer reviewers. Applicants should prepare text attachments using any word processing program and then convert those files to PDF before attaching the files to the appropriate component in the application package. (The PDF format is used to preserve document formatting.) However, before attaching your PDF file to a Grants.gov form field, please review it to ensure that it was correctly converted. Save all files with descriptive file names of 50 characters or less and be sure to only use standard characters in file names: A through Z, a through z, 0 through 9, and underscore (_). Do not use any special characters (example: “&”, “-“, “*”, “%”, “/”, and “#”) or spacing in the file name, and for word separation use underscore (example: “My_Attached_File.pdf”) in naming the attachments.

Depending upon the version of Adobe Acrobat (and possibly other tools), the signature may need to be “off” when you create the originals. If this is the case for the version you are using, please go to the security options menu selection in Adobe to ensure the signature option is “off.” If you do not have the originals, copy the content of the signed documents and create a new document. Save this document without signing it.

Applicants should not submit protected PDF documents. Protected documents prevent DOE from opening and processing the document. Security settings vary by PDF tool, but please ensure security settings are not marked. The applicant needs to look at the Document Security tab under Document Properties (directly from the tab) and set the security parameters to ensure open access so DOE can process the content. For instance, do not password protect the document and do not mark Content Extraction or Copying, Document Assembly, etc. as “Not Allowed.”  If you are having trouble fixing the PDF settings, simply cut and paste from the PDF document into a Microsoft Word document and then reconvert (in some cases it may be better to use another PDF converter).  It is recommended that, as much as possible, applicants avoid scanning text documents to produce the required PDFs. Instead, DOE recommends producing the documents electronically using text or word-processing software and then converting documents to PDF. Scanning paper documents, without the proper Optical Character 

Helpful Tip:

  • A key word search is available on the upper right hand side of the screen.  A key word search will display all of the pages on which the word appears and provide snippets of the page so that applicants may easily locate the exact information that they are seeking.
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