The month of November is typically a very hectic time at Vida.  In addition to dealing with the holidays it’s also the run-up to the December 5th SBIR grant submission deadline. Grants have gradually become an important source of R&D capital for us and are fueling the development of our next generation information delivery systems, but it’s taken us years to reach this point. Our roots in SBIR reach all the way back to 1995 when we received our first grant to produce educational interventions around Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In 2002 we made a strategic commitment to make SBIR grants a key part of our business model. Our goal was to submit at least one new or revised grant application for each submission period.

For a business, SBIR grants present a lot of challenges. They require a significant commitment of company resources just to write the initial applications, there is tremendous uncertainty around funding, the review process takes months and afterwards applications often have to be revised and resubmitted. In a best case scenario funding can take 9-13 months from submission date and then there is the accompanying paperwork burden. And that’s just for Phase 1. We get to do it all over again for Phase II. From our experience, it’s at least a 3-year lead time from Phase 1 submission to Phase II final evaluation and product launch for a well-crafted successful grant. If revisions and resubmissions are required at both stages we’re looking at a 5-year lead time to get to an evaluated product.

These long lead times stand in stark contrast to pace of business these days.  A lot of change can occur in the marketplace in those three to five years.  That’s why it’s so important to keep the grant pipeline full of new ideas.