NIH announces the availability of a Niche Assessment Program for its SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees funded in fiscal years (FY) 2013 and 2014. All active NIH SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees (by grant or contract) as well as those small businesses selected to receive a Phase I award in the first three months of the upcoming fiscal year will be eligible to participate. This program can help “jump-start” a company’s commercialization efforts by providing the market insight and data that can be used to strategically position its technology in the marketplace, by assisting companies with their development of commercialization plans for Phase II applications, and by introducing small businesses to potential partners.
A third party, unbiased assessment of appropriate market niches for products/services that are being developed by NIH’s SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees will be performed by Foresight Science & Technology. Using its Technology Niche Analysis® (TNA®), Foresight will perform the due diligence on markets appropriate for each SBIR technology and develop an in-depth report for each SBIR/STTR awardee that addresses:
- needs and concerns of end-users
- competing technologies and competing products
- competitive advantage of the SBIR/STTR-developed technology
- market size and potential market share (may include national and/or global markets)
- barriers to market entry (may include, but is not limited to pricing, competition, government
- regulations, manufacturing challenges, capital requirements, etc.)
- market drivers
- status of market and industry trends
- potential customers, licensees, investors, or other commercialization partners
- price customers are likely to pay