Commercial Review Panel
Information
and Instructions
SBIR/STTR
Program Overview
The NSF
Conflict-of-Interests and Confidentiality Statement for NSF Panelists, must
be read and signed.
Please
Print
and sign the COI
Form
and bring to panel with you.
The
SBIR/STTR program invites the submission of research proposals under the following
four technological areas:
1)
Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
AM
2)
Biotechnology BT
3)
Electronics EL
4)
Information-based Technology
IT
The program
uses six review criteria for commercial potential:
Suggestions
for Writing Reviews
1.
Overall Rating
Please give
an overall rating to the proposal:
Excellent:
Outstanding proposal in all respects; deserves highest priority for support.
Very Good:
High quality proposal in nearly all respects; should be supported if at all
possible.
Good:
A quality proposal worthy of support.
Fair:
Proposal lacking in one or more critical aspects; key issues need to be addressed.
Poor:
Proposal has serious deficiencies.
2.
What's in a good review?
Overall
Length: May vary considerably; should add up to not less than about ˝ -
1 page. If you feel expansive or are using a large font, writing more
is welcome. If the review is terse, it will not provide the fruitful constructive
criticism and/or information that the NSF seeks as a guide in its decision-making.
For example, each of the six criterion should be addressed in a separate paragraph.
(N.B., SBIR/STTR INTERPRETS THE NSF CRITERIA SLIGHTLY
DIFFERENTLY THAN THE REST OF THE FOUNDATION BECAUSE WE ARE LOOKING AT RESEARCH
THAT IS CLOSE TO PRODUCING A MARKETABLE PRODUCT (i.e., "Advanced Applied Research,")
NOT BASIC RESEARCH. The science/engineering entailed in the project may
be well understood; the novelty may lie in the application.)
3.
Things to remember
- Your review
will go to the PI. Avoid being overly harsh, even if the proposal is
weak, and the message that you want to send is—"Don't ever darken our door
again." PIs who get vituperative reviews sometimes come back to haunt
your friendly and overworked program officer. In short, it is important
to give honest feedback, but please sandpaper your edges.
- Intermediate
gray evaluations (vs. hyperbole on either the positive or the negative end
of the spectrum) may very helpful to the program officer in making decisions
at the margin.
- Try not
to under-evaluate the proposals in the areas you know best. There
is a tendency for reviewers to fall prey to two biases, of which this is one.
The temptation is great to really nail the shortcomings of proposals you know
the most about. Their shortcomings are, after all, easiest to see.
By contrast, those proposals in other fields can look very appealing on the
surface – intriguing, nice puzzles, cute ideas, with shortcomings that are
less apparent.
- In proposals
that are not your exact area of expertise, you should look for those components
that are most familiar to you. Explain that those are the ones you are
commenting upon. Please, do not state that you are not an expert
in the area. Instead, you might say that in your review, you are
particularly focusing on X and Y aspects.
Above all,
remember that you may not share, copy, quote, or otherwise use or disclose material
from this proposal. Destroy it (or leave it at NSF), after your part of
the review process is complete.
Panel
Review Package (packages
will be mailed to you)
Is your
package complete? As a panelist/reviewer you should have the following
documents for your information/review. If any of these documents are missing,
please contact Program Support at the telephone number listed on your email
notification.
¨Confirmation
of Receipt
¨Welcome
Letter (with
your personal codes in upper right-hand corner)
¨Proposal
Assignment Matrix
¨List
of Panel Members
¨Area
Map & Selected Hotel Listings
¨Proposals
Submission
of Commercial Reviews via FastLane can now be accommodated!
The
Commercial
Review
form,
can be web accessed and completed. This form is a Word document, when
the document is opened it can be typed in. Please enter your review information
and when finished you can simply cut and paste the entire document into FastLane.
The instructions for entering the commercial review into FastLane is as follows:
1.
Go to the NSF Home Page (www.nsf.gov)
and select "FastLane" (this can be found on the left-hand side of the
screen), or access FastLane directly (www.fastlane.nsf.gov).
FastLane works best if you use either Netscape Navigator/Communicator
or Microsoft Internet Explorer, versions 4.01 or higher.
2.
Select "Panelist
Functions"
from the FastLane home page.
3.
Enter the panel ID number (can be up to 10-digits), Last Name, and the Password
(found on your letter or at the top of the email message sent to you).
Click "Login".
4.
The "Panelist
System Selection" screen
will appear. It will contain your Reviewer Information and Panel Information.
(you may "edit" and or "add/update" your reviewer information by selecting the
appropriate buttons.)
A.
`Panel Travel System´ link contains travel information. You will need
to enter data in all fields. Once you have entered all data click
"submit" you will then see a confirmation screen. Once you have
reviewed the information click the "Return to Panelist System Selection"
button.
B.
`Panel Banking System´ link is where you will need to enter your financial
information. You must enter your social security number to access
this link. (you will be asked to enter your SSN twice) click "continue".
The `Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Information´ screen will appear.
Please enter your personal data and then click the "submit" button.
A confirmation screen will appear, when you are finished reviewing the information
click the ´Return to Panelist System Selection´ button.
C.
`Panel Review System´ is where you can access the various proposals assigned
to you for review.
*There are two tabs, **"Prepare
Reviews" and "View/Download Proposals".
* To
view proposals: click the "View/Download Proposals" tab. Highlight
the proposal you want to view or the proposals you want ot download.
Click the appropriate action button. (View Proposal or Download/Save Proposal)
* To
submit reviews: click the **"Prepare
Reviews" tab. Highlight the proposal you want to prepare a review
for and then click the appropriate action button. (Prepare Review or Resubmit)
**
1. Prepare
Commercial Review
*
This option allows you to insert your review information into FastLane.
(The Proposal Evaluation Criteria listed on this FastLane website is not specific
to SBIR/STTR, so we have provided you with our specific criteria state above.)
* Please scroll down the page and click the "Continue"
button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the `Proposal
Review´ screen. You will see specific information pertaining to the proposal
number you have entered.
* Scroll past the proposal information and proceed with the review
process.
Rating Section - make a selection
Overall Rating - You must make a
selection. This can be done after you have entered your review information.
* Important
Notice!....All three boxes must have information in them for the Commercial
Review purpose.
In
the first box, entitled " What is the intellecutual merit of the proposed
activity?" please type"N/A".
In the second
box, entitled "What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?"
please cut and paste the entire Commercial Review Form into the second box.
In the third
box, entitled "Summary Statement" please write a brief summary
of the proposal.
Please ignore
the box entitled "Other Suggested Reviewer
2.
View
Proposal
*
You can look at specific parts of the proposal or the entire proposal, as
well as, print specific parts or the entire proposal.
3.
Download/Save
Proposal
*
You may instruct the system to download/save a copy of the proposal to your
computer.
If
You Encounter Technical Problems Accessing FastLane:
Please send an e-mail to fastlane@nsf.gov
or
call the FastLane Help Desk at (800) 673-6188. The developers of
FastLane provide technical support and advice for any problems you may
encounter.If you have addition questions regarding panel participation, please
contact the relevant program officer for assistance.
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