Technical and Business Assistance
The Department of Energy (DOE) is dedicated to the successful commercialization of SBIR/STTR-funded technologies.In pursuit of this goal, the DOE SBIR/STTR Office provides commercialization services to its awardees. The DOE funds discretionary Technical and Business Assistance Services (TABA) to all DOE SBIR and STTR Phase I and Phase II awardees. Please review the following information for recently implemented differences between TABA for Phase I and Phase II.
Phase I
Award recipients have two options for receiving TABA: (1) identify their own TABA provider, or (2) use services provided by the DOE-provided TABA Vendor.
If an applicant/awardee wishes to use its own TABA provider once awarded a grant, the applicant/awardee is required to include TABA services as a subcontractor or consultant in the grant application budget and to provide a detailed budget justification. An applicant/awardee may include up to $6,500 for assistance in Phase I. Please note that TABA does not count toward the maximum award size. For example, a Phase I applicant seeking TABA from an external provider could result in an increase of $6,500 over the maximum award limit. That is, for a topic with a maximum award limit of $200,000, the actual award would increase to $206,500. Reimbursement is limited to services received that comply with 15 U.S.C. § 638(q).
If an applicant/awardee elects to receive TABA services from the DOE-provided vendor, the applicant/awardee does not need to include this in the application budget. If awarded a Phase I grant, the awardee will receive notification from DOE and follow-up contact from the DOE TABA Vendor on what services are available and how to obtain these services at no cost to your small business. Larta Inc. is the current DOE TABA Vendor and all the awardees who have elected to utilize the DOE TABA Vendor for services will be contacted by Larta in a timely manner to begin the implementation of services. Information about the services Larta provides through the DOE TABA Program can be found on their website: https://larta.org/programs/doe-taba-phase-i.
Please see the Funding Opportunity Announcement for more information.
Phase II
Phase II awardees now have a single option for receiving TABA services, which is to identify their own TABA provider(s).
To use their own TABA providers, awardees are required to include this as one or more subcontracts or consultants in your budget and to provide a detailed budget justification. Applicants/awardees may include up to $50,000 in the Phase II budget for TABA services. Please note that TABA funds do not count toward the maximum award size. For example, a Phase II applicant seeking TABA funds from an appropriate third-party provider could result in an increase of $50,000 over the maximum award limit. That is, for a topic with a maximum award limit of $1,100,000, the actual award would increase to $1,150,000. Reimbursement is limited to services received that comply with 15 U.S.C. § 638(q).
Please see the Funding Opportunity Announcement for more information.
