Ask about our Summer 2024 NSF Project Pitch special!!

Your one-stop shopping for all your SBIR/STTR grant consultation needs

AwardIT’s consultants have assisted clients in winning over $40M in non-dilutive funding. We look forward to learning how we can help you craft a winning SBIR/STTR strategy for your company.

Services Designed To Suit Your Company’s Needs

Full Service Consultation

Everything you need to plan, prepare, and write your SBIR/STTR proposal. Service includes ensuring your company is properly registered for Federal grant applications, crafting your grant strategy to maximize impact of your application, assistance with preparation of all grant documents, and finally help with the application process itself. 

Recommended for companies new to the world of SBIR grants, or those looking to fully outsource the grant preparation while they focus on other activities.

Edit/Review

For companies that are already familiar with the grant process, we offer a second level of engagement.  You create the grant content, our experts will shape it to make it the best it can be and ensure it conforms to agency specific guidelines.  A final walkthrough of all documents provides the finishing touches.

 

We have decades of experience writing SBIR grants and can show you how it’s done.

The AwardIT "Review Preview"

Sophisticated grant writers know that even the best grants benefit from a thorough and objective 3rd party review.  The “Review Preview” provides a fast turnaround, agency simulated review of your grant that can be used to avoid red flags and course correct your documents prior to application.

 

Just need some quick feedback on your grant?  See below for how to get started!

AwardIT: Crafting Solutions, One Grant at a Time

Who We Are: 
Like you, we are entrepreneurs and scientists. We have a proven track record of success with the SBIR/STTR process, both in our own ventures and for our clients. We look forward to sharing the benefit of our hard-won experience with you to help your idea on its journey from lightbulb to product.

Our Mission:
You already know that SBIR/STTR grants are an excellent source of non-dilutive seed funding for small businesses with big ideas. But knowing how to gain access to those funds can be bewildering.  You are the expert in your tech, we are experts in crafting winning grant proposals.  The AwardIT mission is to help you shape your concept into a grant proposal that will maximize your chances for a successful award.

Our Clients:
Our clients are small businesses and academic spin-outs trying to commercialize new ideas in medical imaging/devices, organ/tissue engineering, drug development, artificial intelligence, control of infectious diseases/allergies, robotics, and many other fields. It’s a world of smart ideas – we look forward to learning more about yours!

Meet (Some of) The Team...

Dr. Neal Kalechofsky

AwardIT Founder, neal@awardit.net

Neal received his Ph.D. in Physics from Umass Amherst in 1995.  Since that time, he has participated in/directed numerous projects ranging in size from small academic research programs up through larger corporate product development efforts.  He was a co-founder of a start up in the MR imaging space Millikelvin Technologies (MKT).  As CTO of MKT he wrote and received numerous SBIR grants/patents as well as participated in raising money from private equity sources.  As a consultant, he has helped clients win over $15M in SBIR/STTR funding.

Patty Pederson

AwardIT C-Founder

Patty graduated from Boston College with a BA in Economics. She is AwardIT co-Founder/CFO, a successful small business owner and investor. In addition to AwardIT, she currently is serving as Board President of the Marblehead Museum.

Dr. Gregory Martin

Gregory is an executive, entrepreneur, engineer, and scientist with over 25 years of experience taking medical technologies from concept to bedside to commercialization in academic, start-up, and corporate environments. He received his BS, MS, and PhD all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering where he also did post-doctoral research and was a Staff Scientist in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He has worked with numerous startup companies including being the co-founder of Hemedex, the founding VP of R&D at Opsonix, and working as a consultant to many early-stage medical device companies.

Dr. Friedel Von Goeler

Friedel is an expert in system development, system modeling, analysis, and testing, to help clients achieve their product development goals. He has over 20 years of systems development experience with The Raytheon Company advancing new technologies and executing programs from proposal through deployment in roles of increasing responsibility including as Senior Principal Engineer, Team Lead, and Product Owner. Friedel is an expert in signal processing, target detection, tracking and classification, and system and environmental modeling. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

 

Dr. Xavier Scott

Xavier received his BS in Microbiology and Immunology and Psychology, his MS in Public Health, and his PhD in Cellular Physiology and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Miami. He attended Baylor College of Medicine as a Post doctoral trainee prior to opening his company, PulseLink Communications and Analytics, a freelance medical writing company. Xavier has certifications in medical writing, medical editing, and regulatory writing from the American Medical Writing Association and the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society and is a board member for the Texas chapter for both organizations. Xavier has expertise in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular stroke, and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Michael Harman

Michael received his BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering from UCONN and a PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona. His postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University provided exceptional technical value to the clinicians in the Department of Surgery at Rhode Island Hospital where he helped decipher the mechanical regulatory cues involved with immune dysregulation in diseases like Sepsis. Michael is actively connected with a broad network of global medical and life sciences professionals. He specializes in the front-end innovation aspects of product development, such as Technology Scouting, Requirements Development, and Concept Generation, demonstrating significant successes specifically within the diagnostics and life sciences sector.

Dr. Pamela Barraza-Flores

Pamela received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of New Mexico and a PhD in Cellular Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology from the University of Nevada Reno, School of Medicine. Her doctoral dissertation focused on therapeutic avenues for multiple muscular dystrophies. She provided evidence that treatment with the biological laminin-111 increases muscle regeneration in several animal models of disease. She is now a postdoc at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School where she is developing assays for the discovery of treatments for other muscle diseases. She is also working on describing mechanisms of disease using molecular biology and bioinformatics.

Professor Ken Vickers

Ken combines his 20 years of experience in high volume technology manufacturing with 16 years of experience in graduate education academic environments when creating innovative organizational structures.  After completion of his BS and MS Physics at the University of Arkansas he worked in process and equipment engineering in Texas Instruments’ wafer fabs, with his last eight years as senior member technical staff and engineering manager of one fab while leading company wide teams addressing high priority issues common to all fabs.  He was then recruited by the U of A to found an interdisciplinary science/engineering MS/PhD program in micro to nanoscale materials, processing, and devices.  As Program Director Ken was very active in writing proposals to the NSF in both educational methodology and research commercialization, and was PI or co-PI of over $7.9M in grants.

Let’s Get to Work

Contact Us

It’s a world of smart ideas…we look forward to learning more about yours! Fill out the form below to start the conversation.

Where Ideas Soar and Innovations Thrive

AwardIT ‘Review Preview’

Studies show that a thorough and objective review significantly improves the likelihood of a successful application. For those clients who do not need full consultancy services, we offer the AwardIT “Review Preview”—a simulated agency review that can be used to fine-tune your documents before application. Learn more by filling out the form below.

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See what our customers have been saying

Testimonials

“I worked with Neal to submit an SBIR Phase I that was successful on the first try! Enthusiastically, I engaged Neal again when applying for a follow-on Phase II award. I recommend Neal any chance I get, especially when I am asked about writing grants or finding non-dilutive funding. He has a unique set of experiences with his grant writing, scientific training, and entrepreneurial background that make him an essential member of our effort to secure SBIR funding. Neal is a master at crafting your vision into a winning proposal.”

Conor R. Cullinane, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Pirouette Medical Inc.

“We worked with Neal on our NSF SBIR Phase I application and it was a great experience through and through”

Michael Tworek, PhD
CEO/Co-Founder
Polis

AwardIT was instrumental in helping us with both our Phase I and Phase II applications.  Whether you are new to the process or an old hand at grants, I would recommend them to anyone seeking non-dilutive funding through the SBIR/STTR mechanism.

 

Dr. Mirko Hrovat

President, Mirtech

GrowthCraft

AwardIT is proud to be part of the GrowthCraft network, that connects technology entrepreneurs and startup-focused service providers to create a community filled with support and guidance. From IP strategy to sales/marketing to accounting, get knowledgeable feedback from people with a wide range of skills who have been on journeys just like yours.  Start the conversation by clicking below.