Advantages of SBIR for government agencies
Not every societal challenge has a ready-made solution. By inviting tenders for an SBIR competition, you as a government agency challenge economic operators to develop innovations to address your issue or problem. What you are doing, in effect, is buying research and development.
You are not obliged to purchase the innovations developed, but buying them should be your intention.
How does SBIR benefit your organisation?
There are several advantages to procuring research and development via an SBIR competition. For instance, you will be offered various solutions to your challenge or problem, have prototypes that have been tested and you will work with innovative economic operators (including start-ups and scale-ups). Other advantages include:
- Involving entrepreneurs pays off because entrepreneurs are creative, fast, flexible and very adept at turning knowledge into a specific product or service.
- It is in the entrepreneurs’ interest to ensure that what they develop leads to a commercial product that they can market.
- Government authorities can use SBIR to respond to social issues, transitions and technological developments.
- SBIR gives government agencies the opportunity to come across innovative solutions from the market to address their own government challenges, with the aim of carrying out government tasks sustainably, more efficiently and more effectively.
- SBIR fosters a mindset that promotes professionalisation and the deployment of innovation-oriented purchasing and procurement policies, which in turn creates more room for experimentation.
- SBIR offers opportunities to companies, including new companies, who have innovative ideas.
What is expected of your organisation?
The costs for setting up and running a project for an SBIR competition are for your own account. In addition to financial investment, the SBIR also requires man hours, mental capacity and commitment throughout the project (for at least 18 months, and 2,5 years at most).
Which steps do you have to take to enter an SBIR competition?
The SBIR programme consists of the following steps:
- Formulating the challenge
- Setting up the invitation to tender
- Announcing the invitation to tender
- Holding information meetings for interested economic operators
- Registering the proposals received
- The impartial committee’s assessment of the proposals
- Awarding of the contract to entrepreneurs with the best tenders
- Start of phase 1: The feasibility study
- Start of phase 2: Developing the prototype
- Final phase: Focusing on marketing of the innovations developed
You yourself determine the next stage after an SBIR. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency can support you in this.
Help with advice and organisation
Contact the Netherlands Enterprise Agency’s SBIR Implementation and Expertise Desk at sbir@rvo.nl to discuss whether an SBIR competition could help address your policy challenge. We give advice about SBIR and can organise the entire SBIR process for you. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency has years of experience in handling SBIR and has the right knowledge and networks for a successful SBIR competition submission. Our experience with SBIR ensures that we carry out all legal and organisational aspects for you in a cost-effective way.
If you would like to know whether SBIR suits your organisation, then complete the Quickscan (in Dutch) right now.
Guidelines and ‘SBIR for government agencies’ starter form
The above information is taken from the SBIR Guidelines for Government Agencies. The full version of the guidelines (in Dutch) is available at the bottom of this page.
The Netherlands Enterprise Agency has designed a starter form for SBIR for government agencies. You can complete the starter form online (in Dutch). We will contact you as soon as possible
- Ministry of Economic Affairs
