e-team

Stage 2 E-Team Program Guidelines

Introduction | Selection criteria | Stage 2 funding | VentureLab 2 workshop | Coaching | How to apply | The Stage 2 proposal | Stage 2 review and notification process | If your proposal is approved

NOTE: Only teams already accepted into Stage 1 of the E-Team Program are eligible to apply for Stage 2. Please refer to the E-Team Program guidelines for more information on initial application to the program. Stage 2 applications must be submitted to NCIIA via email. Specific instructions will be shared with Stage 1 teams at the VentureLab 1 workshop.

Introduction
Stage 2: up to $20,000 + VentureLab 2 workshop + tactical coaching + network

Stage 2 of the E-Team Program is typically 18 months and is intended to support teams in further developing their technology invention/innovation and plan for commercialization. Accepted Stage 1 E-Teams may apply for Stage 2 of the program after attending the required VentureLab 1 workshop. Please refer to the event schedule section of the E-Team Program guidelines for the 2012/2013 schedule of events and deadlines.

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Selection Criteria
Stage 2 applications will be evaluated against the same 4 elements used for the evaluation of Stage 1 program applications:

1. Technology innovation and feasibility
2. Business model and commercial potential
3. Positive social and/or environmental impact
4. Team composition, commitment, and expertise (including any advisors and/or mentors).

Greater emphasis will be placed on the business model and commercial potential when assessing Stage 2 applications.

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Stage 2: Up to $20,000
A portion of the Stage 2 grant funds must be used to cover team costs associated with attending the required VentureLab 2 workshop. Funds may also be requested for supplies, equipment, and/or expenses related to project development and advancement, including preliminary legal fees and student stipends. E-Team Program grant funds cannot be used to cover institutional overhead.

More information about eligible and ineligible expenses can be found in the “how to apply” section of these guidelines.

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Stage 2: Required VentureLab 2 workshop
VentureLab 2 will helps teams further refine their business strategy and focuses specifically on operationalizing each aspect of their plan.

Full participation in VentureLab 2 is required in order to receive Stage 2 grant funds. A minimum of 2 team members must attend the entire workshop; teams may not attend a partial workshop. See the event schedule section of E-Team Program guidelines for 2012/2013 schedule of workshop dates and deadlines.

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Stage 2: Coaching
Stage 2 teams participate in six 2-hour group coaching sessions which will begin after attending the VentureLab 2 workshop. Coaching sessions will begin approximately 1 month after the VentureLab 2 workshop and will take be held via teleconference. Teams will be grouped according to stage and sector at the discretion of NCIIA.

As with the VentureLab workshops, participation in these coaching sessions is a required component of the E-Team Program. Participants will present on their progress based on the milestone planning started in VentureLab 1 and completed in VentureLab 2.

Preliminary Stage 2 coaching schedule (specific session times are TBD and will accomoate participants in all time zones):

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How to Apply

Stage 2 applications must be submitted to NCIIA via email. Specific instructions will be shared with Stage 1 teams at the VentureLab 1 workshop.

*NOTE* If your Principal Investigator and/or Administrative Contact has changed since your Stage 1 approval, please contact us.

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Proposal Components

The Stage 2 application consists of the following:

• Required proposal components combined together in a single PDF (includes the revised Stage 1 proposal narrative, proposed budget, completed milestones chart, letter(s) of support, and key team member resumes)
• Additional (optional) appendices combined together into a single PDF (up to 5 total - can be the same appendices submitted with the Stage 1 application, or can be modified)
• Weblinks and/or videos (optional) up to 4 links can be included (websites, video links, articles, etc.)

Details on each component are provided below in these guidelines.

Required proposal components
The following documents are required as part of the Stage 2 proposal and must be included in the following order, combined together into a single PDF.

1. Revised narrative (no more than 5 pages)
2. Proposed budget (details below, use the Stage 2 budget template)
3. Milestones chart (provided to Stage 1 teams at VentureLab 1)
4. Letters of support (a minimum of 1 is required, a maximum of 3 may be included)
5. Team member resumes (up to 4 resumes, 3-page limit per resume)

1. Revised narrative

Stage 1 teams will receive a summary of reviewer feedback on their Stage 1 application.  Using this feedback and the milestones and learning outcomes from the VentureLab 1 workshop, teams will revise their previously submitted 5-page narrative using the same basic structure and parameters.

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2. Proposed Budget
Your proposed budget is a key element of your Stage 2 application. Up to $20,000 may be requested and should support the team’s successful completion of the milestones laid out in your Stage 2 proposal. The grantee institution owns any equipment purchased with an E-Team grant funds. Please note that NCIIA will typically not fund the purchase of equipment that is considered part of a college or university infrastructure. Proposed funds for equipment should be less than 1/3 the total proposed budget.

The proposed budget should be completed using NCIIA’s Stage 2 E-Team budget template.  Be sure to explain your proposed expenses in the “justifications” section in the budget template or in a separate sheet.

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3. Milestones chart
Complete and submit the milestone chart that was presented during the VentureLab 1 workshop. As discussed in VentureLab 1, this milestone chart is an important part of your Stage 2 proposal. Accepted Stage 2 teams  will use the chart during the VentureLab 2 workshop and the 6 monthly coaching sessions.

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4. Letter(s) of support
Letters of support demonstrate to reviewers that there is institutional support for your project and/or verify partnerships discussed in your narrative. At least 1 letter is required as part of your proposal.  You may include up to 3 total. More weight will be given to letters of support from potential customers, partners industry experts, and mentors that verify the key elements of your proposal over general letters of support from friends, family, or supportive faculty (although these may also be appropriate and of value).

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5. Resumes for key team members 
Resumes should be no more than 3 pages each and are only required for key team members, with a maximum of 4 resumes included. We do not need resumes for the Administrative Contact or other non-key team members/collaborators. The same resumes used in your Stage 1 proposal may be used for the Stage 2 proposal.

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Additional (optional) Appendices
Up to 5 additional appendices may be included in your proposal and must be combined into 1 PDF. These may be the same documents included in the Stage 1 proposal, or they may be different. Appendices may include but are not limited to:

1. Images demonstrating design and/or technical feasibility (drawings, photographs, etc.)
2. A summary of prior art
3. Literature review summary
4. Any data collected as part of testing your technology
5. Any other relevant supporting materials

Note: Sheer volume of material is not an asset. Reviewers are directed to use supporting materials only to supplement the 5-page narrative. Therefore, key information should be included in the narrative.
 

Weblinks and/or videos (optional)
In addition to the appendices combined as 1 PDF mentioned above, teams may upload up to 4 weblinks, such as links to online articles, videos and/or other relevant online data.

You may submit a 1-2 minute video pitch to describe your technology to reviewers. If included, the video should state the problem and describe your innovation and the impact of the team's solution. Clear, non-technical language is acceptable and may be preferable. To view some samples, watch the top videos submitted by participants in NCIIA's annual Open Minds event. If you choose to include a video as part of your proposal, a link to the video should be uploaded as an appendix item and referenced in the narrative.

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The Stage 2 Review and Notification Process

• Stage 2 proposals will be reviewed by an external panel of reviewers made up of individuals from academia, industry, nonprofits and/or venture capital with experience in the technology areas and in the commercialization of early stage innovations.
• Stage 2 proposals will likely be evaluated by different people than those who evaluated your Stage 1 proposal.
• NCIIA will notify applicants of the status of their proposals via email within 60 days of the submission deadline.
• We anticipate that about 50% of the submitted Stage 2 proposals will be approved. Stage 2 grant funding will not be disbursed to teams until they commit to participate in the required VentureLab 2 workshop as specified in the event schedule section of E-Team Program guidelines.
• Occasionally, reviewers invite a team to resubmit its proposal in a future cycle for re-consideration, after certain concerns or questions are addressed. Applicants invited by reviewers to resubmit should contact NCIIA to discuss the reviewer feedback in detail and make sure they understand the questions and concerns raised. Resubmitted proposals must specify how previous concerns have been addressed.

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If your proposal is approved
Principal Investigators for NCIIA grants are responsible for reporting on Stage 2 team activities and will be prompted via email at the end of the 18 month period to complete a final report online. If you are accepted into Stage 2, reporting deadlines will be detailed in your award letter which is sent to the Administrative Contact, with a copy to the Principal Investigator.

• NCIIA will send the Principal Investigator a formal notification letter and approved budget.
• Grant funds will be awarded to the team’s college or university for the use of the team.
• Stage 2 E-Teams will need to commit to sending at least 2 key team members to a VentureLab 2 workshop (team expenses should be included in the Stage 2 proposed budget). Stage 2 E-Teams accepted from the February 2013 pool of applications should be prepared to attend the workshop on May 3-5, 2013 in Massachusetts. See the event schedule in the E-Team Program guidelines for additional details.
• NCIIA will send a contract for signature to the Administrative Contact identified by the team. Once this award letter is signed and returned to NCIIA, funds can be disbursed.

Please note: NCIIA does not allow overhead to be taken out of E-Team Program grant awards.


Congratulations, you read the Stage 2 E-Team Program guidelines! 
If you have questions that are not answered in the above, please contact us:  grants@nciia.org or call (413) 587-2172 and press 1 for the grants team.

Columbia University, 2011 - $18,500

Infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) suffer from a variety of heart and respiratory conditions that can be fatal if not properly diagnosed and treated. One of the most important components of this care is vital signs monitoring, but, due to a severe lack of staff (two nurses for fifty infants is not uncommon), funding, and equipment in the developing world, as well as a high number of infants, current vital signs monitors are too expensive for widespread use.

The Uzima team is designing an inexpensive, non-invasive vital signs monitor to continuously measure neonatal heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature in low-resource NICUs. The monitor will measure heart rate and respiratory rate using piezoelectric transducers, temperature using surface thermistors, and present the stats on a LCD display in the control unit. The various sensors will be incorporated in a self-contained, soft mat encased in waterproof Gore-Tex for easy sterilization and reuse, and placed underneath the child’s clothing. The device will emit auditory and visual alarms when a problem occurs, and include rechargeable batteries to handle frequent power outages. A second alarm would indicate low batteries.

Arizona State University, 2011 - $20,000

This team is developing the BioHydrogenator (BHR), a device that could reduce wastewater treatment costs for food and beverage makers and produce hydrogen gas in the process. Currently, food and beverage makers in the US use a conventional aerobic (oxygen-rich) process that is effective at eliminating pollutants from wastewater but is extremely energy-intensive and costly.

The BHR uses a fundamentally different type of bacterial ecology and reactor design that offers the ability to treat wastewater without aeration. The main idea is to use the energy released through the breakdown of organic pollutants in the wastewater by microorganisms to create hydrogen gas as a useful byproduct. This transfer of protons and electrons is facilitated by electrodes (an anode and cathode) suspended in a reaction chamber.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 - $20,000

According to the EPA, as many as 5-17 million people in the US may currently be exposed to dangerously high levels of a toxic rocket fuel component, perchlorate, through public drinking water supplies. Perchlorate disturbs proper function of the thyroid and has an adverse affect on prenatal and neonatal development. On account of the risk posed to the public, in February 2011 the EPA issued a decision to regulate perchlorate in drinking water; a regulation will be in place within approximately 36 months.

Currently, however, there are no economical or efficient options for removing perchlorate from water in point-of-use (POU) treatment units such as pitcher or faucet filters. To fill the need, the Serionix team has developed a low-cost filtration medium capable of rapid and efficient POU removal of perchlorate from water. While other perchlorate-removing technologies exist, the team believes its ultra-fast uptake of the chemical will separate it from the competition.