Use case · Match → Unite
Find a university partner for your SBIR/STTR proposal
For startup founders and PIs at small companies who need a research-institution partner with the right record, and need one before the deadline.
Free plan · No credit card required
A Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) proposal needs a formal research institution partner, and a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal is usually stronger with one. The founder's network covers their own former lab and two people from a conference. The deadline is in seven weeks. Somewhere there is a group that has measured exactly what the specific aims propose to measure and has experience completing sub-award paperwork before, and the founder has no way to find them except asking around.
Our platform reads the specific aims and returns the researchers whose record fits, with their funding history in front of you.
How it works
A worked example. A three-person company developing a sulfide solid electrolyte for all-solid-state cells is writing a Phase I STTR and needs a university group with in-house impedance spectroscopy and a track record with federal awards.
Step 1: Paste the specific aims into Partner search
Open Discover → Partner search and paste the aims page. Results are ranked researchers with a match score and the reason (research, patents, or bio), and the shortlist is saved to your account. If the partner has to be at a US institution, or you'd rather it be across the street, switch to Discover → Researchers with the same query and set Country or Organization.
Aims that mention interfacial resistance and cycling at 60 °C will pull solid-electrolyte groups to the top. Set the Organization filter to the university across town to find a list of partners nearby.
Step 2: Read who's been funded before
Open a profile's Funding tab. It lists the awards the researcher has published on, with totals by currency. A prior federal award on a related topic tells you the group has run a funded project before. A prior award on a small-business program, where a paper acknowledged it, tells you they've been a research-institution partner before, which tells you more than any web search could.
Step 3: Write, then meet
Message from the profile. If the researcher hasn't signed up, the profile offers Invite to Helikon instead, and the platform emails the invitation (10 a month on Free, 50 on Pro). When they reply, propose a meeting and everyone gets a calendar invite.
Step 4: Set up the project and track the rest
Create a project with the SBIR/STTR agreement type, the timeline, and the budget range; it's live when saved. Add the contract requirements and its date on the project page once the sub-award is signed. On Pro, keep the other candidate partners in your Pipeline, each with a next action and a due date, in case the first conversation stalls. The Funding tab in Discover carries the SBIR and STTR solicitations Grants.gov lists.
A project created two weeks before the deadline with the university's PI as an editor becomes a shared record you can refer to.
What you’ll see
- 1. Award rows. Funder, program, and title as recorded on the award.
- 2. Totals by currency. Summed from the award records.
- 3. Linked works. How many of the researcher's papers acknowledged each award.
- 4. International funders. The tab isn't limited to US agencies.
What’s on Free, and what Pro adds
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Partner search and every Discover filter | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| New people messaged | 10 a month | 200 a month |
| Researcher invites | 10 a month | 50 a month |
| Meetings | 5 a month | 50 a month |
| Active projects | 2 | 10 |
| Pipeline | No | Yes |
Free covers finding a partner and setting up your project. Pro adds a pipeline for a company tracking several conversations at once.
Match → Unite
Finding the group is Match phase. The SBIR/STTR agreement type and the contract date are the first Unite decisions, made before the proposal is submitted rather than after it's funded. Read about the phase →
- Does the platform submit the proposal?
- No. Proposals go through the agency's own system. Our platform helps you find a partner, then track and manage the project execution.
- Can I filter for researchers who have had SBIR or STTR awards?
- Search by topic, then read the Funding tab on each profile, which lists awards the researcher has published on. So a prior small-business award appears there when a paper acknowledged it.
- Our company isn't in the corpus. Does that matter?
- Not for finding a partner. Our corpus holds the researchers and their record, your company appears as the assignee name on any granted patents it holds, and once you sign up and claim your organization, its page fills in.
Paste your research goals. Find who has the expertise.
Free plan · No credit card required