Every SBIR/STTR cycle, strong technology loses to average technology with a better proposal. After supporting submissions across Air Force, SOCOM, and dual-use topics, we’ve learned that the difference rarely comes down to innovation — it comes down to whether the proposal was built the way evaluators actually read.
So this checklist isn’t organized by template section. It’s organized by the four passes your proposal will survive — or won’t.
Pass 1 — Survive the compliance screen
Before anyone evaluates merit, someone checks boxes. Miss one and your months of work are returned unread.
- Registrations current and matching: SAM.gov (active, with UEI), DSIP account, and firm certificates. Start renewals 30+ days out — SAM delays are routine.
- Eligibility verified: small business size standard, ≥51% U.S. ownership, PI employment requirements (and for STTR, the research institution partnership and work-split percentages).
- Every required volume present — technical, cost, company commercialization report, and any topic-specific attachments — in the required format, under the page limit, in the required font size. Yes, they check.
- All topic Q&A reviewed before submission; answers issued late in the window often change requirements.
- Submitted at least 48 hours early. DSIP slows down near deadlines, and a portal timeout is not a valid excuse.
Pass 2 — Win the ten-minute skim
Evaluators are busy people reading stacks of proposals. The first pass is a skim of your abstract, your headings, your figures, and the opening sentence of each section. By the end of it, they’ve formed an impression the rest of the review tends to confirm.
- Abstract carries the whole argument: the problem in the customer’s words, your solution, why now, and where it transitions. If only the abstract were read, would you still score well?
- Headings tell the story by themselves. “Approach” says nothing; “A Flight-Line Demonstration in 9 Months” says everything.
- One strong figure per major claim — architecture, schedule, transition path. Skimmers read figures first.
- First sentences are conclusions, not wind-ups. State the point, then support it.
Pass 3 — Feed the scoring pass
Next, evaluators score you against the published criteria — typically technical merit, team, and commercialization/transition potential. They are hunting for evidence. Don’t make them hunt.
- Mirror the solicitation’s own language in your section structure so every criterion maps to an obvious place in your proposal.
- Replace adjectives with evidence: not “extensive experience,” but the named programs, datasets, TRL-relevant results, and prior performance that prove it.
- Address risk honestly. A credible risk register with mitigations outscores a proposal that pretends risk doesn’t exist — evaluators have seen too much to believe in effortless programs.
- For the team: tie each key person to a specific technical objective. Coverage matters more than résumés.
- Make the cost volume boring — in the best way. Rates that trace cleanly to tasks, no unexplained equipment, no math errors. Cost-volume sloppiness quietly undermines technical credibility.
Weave transition through every section — not just the commercialization volume. Name the end user, the program office, the budget line, and the contracting path you expect after Phase II. A letter of support from a real customer organization is worth more than ten pages of market analysis.
Pass 4 — Arm your advocate
At selection panels, somebody in the room either fights for your proposal or doesn’t. Give your champion ammunition: a one-sentence summary they can repeat from memory, a transition story with named stakeholders, and zero loose ends a skeptic can grab. Read your draft asking one question — could someone defend this to a hostile audience using only what’s on the page?
The two-week buffer rule
Finally, the meta-item that makes the rest possible: lock your technical content two weeks before the deadline and spend the final stretch on red-team review, compliance re-checks, and polish. Proposals finished at 2 a.m. on deadline day read like it.
If you’d like a second set of eyes on your next submission — or help building the transition story evaluators reward — that’s exactly the work we do every cycle. Reach out before the deadline crunch, and we’ll help you walk in ready.
