Federal grant advisory
Most strong proposals fail on fit, not science. The work is identifying the right programme, understanding what that programme is actually trying to buy, and positioning the application before the solicitation is published.
Federal research funding is not one market. NIH, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense each fund different things, on different cycles, through different mechanisms, and reward very different framing of the same underlying science. An application that would score well at one agency can be non-responsive at another without a word of the research changing. Our work starts before anything is written: which programme, which mechanism, which cycle, and what that programme's officers are trying to accomplish with the money.
What this involves
Programme selection before proposal writing
The highest-leverage decision is which solicitation to answer. It is also the one most organisations make last, after the science is already framed.
Agency engagement
Programme officers will discuss fit before a deadline. Those conversations shape applications, and most applicants never have them.
Positioning ahead of the cycle
Priorities shift through appropriations and agency guidance long before a solicitation appears. Watching that is how you are ready rather than reactive.
Realistic assessment
Some projects are not fundable federally, or not yet. Being told that early is worth more than a polished application to the wrong programme.
Where applications actually fail
Reviewers rarely reject strong science because it is weak. They reject it because it does not answer the question the solicitation asked, because the budget does not match the scope, because the team lacks a named capability the programme requires, or because it belongs in a different mechanism entirely.
Each of those is a positioning problem, and each is fixable — but only before submission. After a decision, the useful work is understanding the summary statement well enough to know whether resubmission is worth it, and what would have to change.
SBIR, STTR and the small business programmes
For companies rather than institutions, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programmes are usually the entry point — non-dilutive funding that does not cost equity, across eleven participating agencies with their own priorities and timetables.
The phased structure rewards planning across the whole arc rather than treating Phase I in isolation. What a Phase I is designed to demonstrate determines whether Phase II is a natural continuation or a fresh argument, and commercialisation planning is scored, not decoration.
How engagements are structured
Fee-based, agreed in advance and in writing, scoped to the work rather than to any outcome. We do not take a percentage of an award.
That is a deliberate position as well as a compliance one. Contingency arrangements tied to federal awards sit badly with the cost principles governing those awards — contingency payments, costs of influencing the award, and pre-award proposal costs are each treated as unallowable in the ordinary case. Sophisticated grantees know this, and an arrangement that creates a problem in their next audit is not a service.
Common questions
Do you write the proposal?
We work on strategy, positioning, agency engagement and review. Where drafting support is part of an engagement it is scoped and priced explicitly. The science has to come from the people doing it — a consultant who writes your specific aims is a warning sign, not a service.
Do you work on contingency, or take a percentage of the award?
No. Engagements are fee-based and agreed in advance. Contingency arrangements tied to federal awards conflict with the cost principles that govern those awards, and would create an allowability problem for the grantee.
Which agencies do you work across?
Principally NIH, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and the SBIR/STTR programmes across participating agencies. Which is right depends on the work, not on preference.
How early should we come to you?
Before the solicitation you are targeting is published, if possible. Once a notice is out, the decisions that most affect the outcome — programme, mechanism, framing, team composition — are largely fixed.
Can you guarantee an award?
No, and nobody honestly can. Federal competitions are peer-reviewed and heavily oversubscribed. What is controllable is whether the application is in the right place, answers the right question and is credible on delivery.