America’s Seed Fund – Effective Preparedness for SBIR and STTR Program Proposals

Host Institution: The University of Texas at Austin

Open To: Students, Faculty, Staff & Public

Jim Greenwood and his wife, Gail, have been involved in the SBIR program since its inception in 1983. The Greenwoods have taught SBIR/STTR workshops in 48 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., offering training through local and regional economic development groups, universities, Federal laboratories (including Livermore, Sandia, Los Alamos, Brookhaven, Pacific Northwest, Savannah River and Oak Ridge), SBDCs, PTACs and MEPs.   

The Greenwoods also have taught at many of the National SBIR Conferences over the past 18 years, including the most recent national conferences in Boston, Washington DC and Tampa. They also presented proposal preparation workshops at the 2016 National Institutes of Health (NIH) National SBIR Conference, and Dept. of Defense’s 2017 & 2018 Beyond Phase 2 Conferences. They are recipients of the coveted Tibbetts Award, based on their contributions to SBIR/STTR outreach and education efforts, and were recognized by the Small Business Technology Council as “Champions for Small Business” for their outreach efforts during the latest SBIR/STTR programs reauthorization effort. 

In addition to offering SBIR/STTR training, the Greenwoods provide applicants with critiques of draft proposals before they are finalized and submitted for funding. They have performed more than 1,100 such reviews over the past decade, and have always been able to offer suggestions that made the proposals stronger contenders for SBIR/STTR funding. 

Jim Greenwood has served as a commercialization reviewer for the SBIR and STTR programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF), reviewing both Phase 1 and 2 proposals, as well as proposals for NSF’s supplemental programs such as Phase 1b and Phase 2b. The Greenwoods also have served on the US Army’s review panel that makes Quality Awards for the Army SBIR/STTR projects with the greatest commercialization potential. 

The Greenwoods are under contract with the University of Texas System to assist UT-related teams, including graduates of the UT I-Corps program, in applying for SBIR/STTR funding. They have had statewide SBIR support contracts in Illinois, Tennessee and Alabama, among others. And as a subcontractor to Dawnbreaker, Inc., the Greenwoods have served as coaches for clients of the Phase 0 program of the US Department of Energy’s SBIR/STTR office, including women-owned businesses (WOBs) and minority-owned businesses (MOBs). Recently, GCGI was under contract with University of Central Florida to train and coach WOBs, MOBs and veteran owned businesses seeking to participate in SBIR/STTR. 

In addition to the Greenwoods’ expertise in SBIR/STTR, they are recognized experts in small business incubators, and have completed almost 100 incubator consulting projects throughout the US and Canada.