Finding University research projects as subcontractor
July 4, 2017 6:37 AM Subscribe
I have a high tech software company, and am looking to partner with research institutions. I am familiar with grants.gov for SBIR/STTR, but I am looking to find projects that Universities themselves can subcontract parts of to companies.
Not sure where they would advertise such contracts or if they are even allowed to do this outside of the Federal umbrella.
Any pointers welcome!
University employee here. Where I work, the purchasing department issues an RFP to solicit vendors to be a part of a consultant pool. If approached, they supply interested research units with a list of those names who are qualified and have been vetted.
As songs_about_rainbows mentioned, PIs would prefer to call somebody they know and developing those relationships is key. And I would agree - money is always tight, and researchers are being forced to do more with less. Where I live, there is a misconception about the coffers being deep and the money flowing freely, but that is absolutely not the case.
Might there be an opportunity for you to extend an invitation for paid internships to computer science and engineering students to begin building those bridges?
posted by Juniper Toast at 8:23 AM on July 4, 2017
As songs_about_rainbows mentioned, PIs would prefer to call somebody they know and developing those relationships is key. And I would agree - money is always tight, and researchers are being forced to do more with less. Where I live, there is a misconception about the coffers being deep and the money flowing freely, but that is absolutely not the case.
Might there be an opportunity for you to extend an invitation for paid internships to computer science and engineering students to begin building those bridges?
posted by Juniper Toast at 8:23 AM on July 4, 2017
To build on what's said above: the federal grants that I've been involved with at my university have required subcontractors to be listed on the application and they generally are involved to some degree with writing the application. If we need someone, we use word-of-mouth recommendations, which gives us a little more faith in the subcontractor's abilities. (If we need a significant amount of work in an area we have no connections with, we won't go for the grant because it's too much hassle.)
You could try to set up informational meetings with the heads of research groups to let them know you exist. You might even develop your own ideas based on the RFPs posted on grants.gov and then approach researchers who might want to partner with you, based on their published work. This would mean taking on more of the application writing.
posted by metasarah at 9:14 AM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
You could try to set up informational meetings with the heads of research groups to let them know you exist. You might even develop your own ideas based on the RFPs posted on grants.gov and then approach researchers who might want to partner with you, based on their published work. This would mean taking on more of the application writing.
posted by metasarah at 9:14 AM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
It probably depends critically on the subfield, but at least among the (experimental physical science) university groups I've worked in, nobody with a million-dollar-scale grant funded project would publicly advertise a subcontractor opportunity outside of very specific quote requests to known vendors. (We wouldn't have gotten the grants in the first place if we didn't already have quotes in-hand for anything we couldn't do ourselves.) Once you get into the mid-level project or >$30M private foundation initiative with real boards of directors, things become very different and much more formal; but there are only a few hundreds of those operating in the US at any one time and you probably already know of the ones that overlap with your expertise.
Also, a word of caution: most of us have been burned often enough by pushy and incompetent contractors that a cold call is likely to result only in rude comments. This may be subfield specific, but every time a local sales rep asks to stop by and take me to lunch, I turn them down and add their company to the list of sketchy sales-driven firms worth avoiding. This may be unfair in specific instances, but as a heuristic it has worked pretty well. (To be clear, there are fantastic small companies out there that engage with the research community to do innovative things; you may well be one of them. But, a PI with neither enough time nor money isn't going to gamble on a stranger, much less one who smells like a salesman.)
That said, there is a significant push among big research universities and national labs (in particular the DOE) to engage with companies on joint commercial projects. Contacting whatever the "innovation office" happens to be called at nearby research schools (or calling the office of sponsored research and asking them who you should talk to, or if they don't have anything useful to say, whoever answers the phone at the relevant dean's office) might be worth a try. Trying to make connections with your most obvious collaborators at national labs may be even more productive. The labs may also have formal programs for small companies to enroll in, or local users workshops which you could get yourself invited to. That's especially true if you're willing to do real work on not-yet-funded proposals in the very specific areas in which you have a real advantage; but, note that the effort to money ratio can be quite high.
Another, perhaps obvious, option is vendor booths at conferences. I'm not sure how well that works if you're not in a hardware-intensive field, but we've certainly bought rather large things from vendors we met cold at conference booths. Having a representative there who talks like an academic and actually knows their product in detail goes a long way toward keeping your business cards out of the trash.
Best of luck!
posted by eotvos at 2:37 PM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also, a word of caution: most of us have been burned often enough by pushy and incompetent contractors that a cold call is likely to result only in rude comments. This may be subfield specific, but every time a local sales rep asks to stop by and take me to lunch, I turn them down and add their company to the list of sketchy sales-driven firms worth avoiding. This may be unfair in specific instances, but as a heuristic it has worked pretty well. (To be clear, there are fantastic small companies out there that engage with the research community to do innovative things; you may well be one of them. But, a PI with neither enough time nor money isn't going to gamble on a stranger, much less one who smells like a salesman.)
That said, there is a significant push among big research universities and national labs (in particular the DOE) to engage with companies on joint commercial projects. Contacting whatever the "innovation office" happens to be called at nearby research schools (or calling the office of sponsored research and asking them who you should talk to, or if they don't have anything useful to say, whoever answers the phone at the relevant dean's office) might be worth a try. Trying to make connections with your most obvious collaborators at national labs may be even more productive. The labs may also have formal programs for small companies to enroll in, or local users workshops which you could get yourself invited to. That's especially true if you're willing to do real work on not-yet-funded proposals in the very specific areas in which you have a real advantage; but, note that the effort to money ratio can be quite high.
Another, perhaps obvious, option is vendor booths at conferences. I'm not sure how well that works if you're not in a hardware-intensive field, but we've certainly bought rather large things from vendors we met cold at conference booths. Having a representative there who talks like an academic and actually knows their product in detail goes a long way toward keeping your business cards out of the trash.
Best of luck!
posted by eotvos at 2:37 PM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Agreeing with the above posters that this is a long term project, not a short term one. You need to build relationships before you have a shot at this kind of collaboration.
One path I've seen that hasn't already been mentioned is to identify a likely collaborator or three and invite them to be part of your company, likely as a consultant or member of your advisory board. This of course relies on them having expertise you want, and you being able to offer them something of interest to them - payment, an interesting problem to solve, equity. If that relationship goes well for a while, getting into an SBIR/STTR arrangement may be a natural next step. Big caveat here, though: not all universities would allow this arrangement for conflict of interest reasons, so you should express early on that this is a long term goal, and explore whether it's even going to be a possibility.
Sponsoring research in their lab can be another way to kickstart a relationship.
Basically you are going to need to invest a lot of something - time or money or both - to position yourself for this kind of relationship.
posted by Stacey at 5:54 PM on July 4, 2017
One path I've seen that hasn't already been mentioned is to identify a likely collaborator or three and invite them to be part of your company, likely as a consultant or member of your advisory board. This of course relies on them having expertise you want, and you being able to offer them something of interest to them - payment, an interesting problem to solve, equity. If that relationship goes well for a while, getting into an SBIR/STTR arrangement may be a natural next step. Big caveat here, though: not all universities would allow this arrangement for conflict of interest reasons, so you should express early on that this is a long term goal, and explore whether it's even going to be a possibility.
Sponsoring research in their lab can be another way to kickstart a relationship.
Basically you are going to need to invest a lot of something - time or money or both - to position yourself for this kind of relationship.
posted by Stacey at 5:54 PM on July 4, 2017
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A warning: you will likely be asked to do a lot of work up front for a LOT of failed grants before your investigators win one. Money is always super tight. I would think carefully about your business model and how grant-funded research fits into a whole.
To build relationships, start asking folks at university related centers out to lunch. Find out about their work. Focus on their research first when discussing what you do.
posted by songs_about_rainbows at 7:23 AM on July 4, 2017 [5 favorites]