Phase Shift II

Program Description:

The DOE, Office of Science, Office of SBIR/STTR Programs is proud to announce the piloting of the Phase Shift II program to continue our support of your commercialization efforts. Our team has developed a new operations-focused offering: Phase Shift II, aimed specifically at DOE SBIR/STTR Phase II awardees. Applications are closed for the pilot.

All current Phase II awardees who have completed Energy I-Corps for SBIR/STTR are highly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to refine and strengthen your operational plans in preparation to execute on your commercialization opportunities. The Phase Shift II program deliberately builds on the body of evidence from the Phase I program to fully develop and validate your company’s business model.

• Generate revenue
• Scale manufacturing
• Hire and Partner effectively
• Raise funding, as needed

This program is 100% optional and 100% funded by DOE, with no direct cost to participant companies. Travel for in-person sessions will be reimbursed. However, this program will have limited capacity, so we recommend interested awardees apply early!

Program Commitment:

Selected applicants will participate in lower-intensity / longer-duration 5-month program, including in-person workshops facilitated by world-class coaches, industry panels, and opportunities to engage 1:1 with industry advisors on a regular basis. 

The Phase Shift II program includes a series of interactive in-person workshops and webinars focusing on learning and applying the process of hypothesis-driven discovery to inform decisions central to managing the company’s cash flow. During the program, participants will be asked to conduct 80 discovery interviews and will interact with other program teams and assigned advisory board members to share lessons learned. The program will conclude with in-person presentations to an audience of a program-supplied Board of Directors, instructors and DOE program managers.

Full engagement from the participating companies includes:

• In-person Opening & Closing Workshops
• 8 virtual workshops
• Planning and conducting > 80 discovery interviews (~5/week)

Program Schedule:

The program schedule kicks off in June and runs through November:

How to Apply:

The application form requires each application to include the following information:

• DOE award number
• DOE program office funding the award (e.g., ASCR, BES, BER, NP, etc.)
• Personnel that will be participating. Please include the role (e.g., PI, business development manager, . . ) as well as the name of personnel. Travel will only be reimbursed for two participants per team. Personnel must come from the small business awardee or a sub-awardee.
• Discovery Summary. Briefly summarize your Phase I customer segmentation and value propositions, along with the evidence you established that you felt best supported your commercialization plan.
• Commitment statement.  In your commitment statement, please state that participants agree to attend all of the scheduled workshops (in-person and virtual) and final presentations (in-person), commit to complete the scheduled assignments, and state why the Phase Shift II program will improve your business scaling efforts. The statement should be 500 words or fewer.

Selection Criteria

This cohort will have limited capacity. Participants will be selected based on their commitment statement. In addition, selection officials will aim at obtaining a fair distribution of participants across the funding DOE program offices.

Because sessions are costly and highly sought, we urge awardees to apply only if they can commit the necessary time and effort. Dropping off after the beginning of the program leaves resources unused and prevents others from taking advantage of this opportunity.

Expense Reimbursement:

Please note that time spent by the participants for Phase Shift II cannot be directly billed to an SBIR/STTR award because these are not research and development expenses. Travel related to In Person Workshops 1 & 2 and 11 & 12 and discovery travel will be reimbursed.

Informational Webinars:

Be on the lookout for communications regarding our upcoming informational webinars with Q&A. We’ll have both SBIR Program Directors and program facilitators available to answer any questions you and your team may have.