Methodology · Overview
Application Strategy Methodology
Reviewed by Byron Malone · Last reviewed .
Primary sources
Agency-specific scoring criteria are published in each SBIR solicitation. NIH uses peer review with scored and unscored criteria; NSF uses Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts; DOD agencies publish merit review criteria in their solicitations. We model composite scoring using publicly disclosed criterion weights.
Award statistics are sourced from SBIR.gov (the official government SBIR/STTR database), which publishes Phase I and Phase II award counts, agency distributions, and topic areas. We use these to compute acceptance rate benchmarks.
Competitiveness scoring model
Our competitiveness score is a composite index using: (1) innovation score (novelty of approach, beyond state-of-the-art — self-assessed by applicant); (2) team score (PI track record, key personnel credentials); (3) commercialization score (market evidence, customer LOIs, revenue projections); (4) technical feasibility (preliminary data strength, milestone clarity).
These dimensions map to the criterion weights published by NIH, NSF, and DoD in their peer review documentation. The composite is not a peer review prediction — it is a gap-finding tool to identify where applications are weak.
Budget justification ratios
Common SBIR budget red flags per agency program officer guidance: labor >50% to sub without justification, indirect rate >3x peer group average, equipment exceeding phase award norms, travel without technical justification. We compute these ratios and flag departures from norms visible in public award databases.
Limitations
No calculator can predict peer review outcomes. Reviewer assignment, topic-area priorities, and agency political factors are not modeled. This tool is a self-assessment framework, not a guarantee of award. Agency-specific nuances require reading each solicitation in full.
Update protocol
This category is reviewed quarterly. Immediate updates are triggered by changes to the primary source documents listed in the citations above — rate table revisions, new agency guidance, or regulatory amendments.
Error reports go to info@bedrockatools.com. Corrections are published on our corrections page.