FAQs
SLAC may enter into contractual arrangements such as SPP and CRADA and provide in-kind contributions only. SLAC may provide funds to your company through a procurement of goods and services. For more information, please visit the procurement site.
SAM is a government-wide acquisition and award support system. All entitites are required to have an active registration in SAM in order to do business with the U.S. Government. DOE uses SAM to: verify the sponsor's DUNS number; identify the sponsor's Cage Code for the purposes of reporting; and to certify the type of business and the Reps & Certs are up-to-date. To obtain a registration in SAM, visit the following link:
A DUNS number is a unique non-indicative nine-digit identifier issued and maintained by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) which is provided free and is required to register with the U.S. Federal Government for contracts or grants. Visit the following link to request a DUNS number:
Federal agencies, such as the DOE, designate topics and solicit proposals from small businesses for SBIRs and STTRs. If funded, the SBIR project can be done in phases: a Phase I feasability project can range in funding depending on the topic area, but is typically up to $150,000 for 6 months; Phase II is a continuation of Phase I based on results achieved in Phase I. Phase II awards do not usually exceed $1M for a period of two years. There are criteria for small businesses to be eligible to receive an SBIR and they are allowed to collaborate with Federally Funded Research and Development Centers such as SLAC. The Principal Investigator for an SBIR must be employed by the small business and a minimum of 2/3 of R&D must be conducted by the small business in Phase I and a minimum of 1/2 in Phase II.
An STTR requires collaboration with a research institution such as a university, FFRDC, or non-profit research organization. The Principal Investigator may be employed by the small business or the research institution. A minimum of 40% of Research and Development must be conducted by the small business, and a minimum of 30% must be conducted by the research institution.
For more information, please visit the DOE's Office of Science SBIR/STTR website.
The determination between an SPP or a CRADA is primarily based on the resulting intellectual property. SPPs are a fee for service which enables you to retain right of first refusal, to patent resulting R&D and to retain intellectual property generated from the project. The government retains rights to the intellectual property for government use only. A CRADA allows you to retain your own intellectual property and to access or license intellectual property generated in the collaboration.
SLAC has patents and copyrights in a number of technology areas, such as accelerators, detectors, sensors, x-ray light sources, lasers, and computation. For more information, please refer to the License Technology section under How To.
As a Department of Energy (DOE) Lab, SLAC is governed by DOE Order 522.1 to obtain full cost recovery for all SPP projects. As part of this directive, the sponsor must provide sufficient funds in advance to reimburse SLAC for costs to be incurred in performance of the work agreed upon for, at a minimum, 60 days. As part of full cost recovery, DOE applies a 3% Federal Administrative Charge (FAC) to defray costs of the federal workforce that oversees SPPs. FAC waivers are provided to some federal agencies as well as to domestic small businesses, domestic institutions of higher education, and domestic non-profit entities.
As a Department of Energy (DOE) lab, SLAC is required to follow DOE policies on indirect cost allocations. All expenditures through SLAC are incurred under the cost principles governing SLAC. The DOE SLAC Site Office has oversight over the establishing of this rate structure annually. DOE periodically conducts reviews of SLAC’s indirect cost structure and allocation methodology. SLAC indirect costs are allocated monthly based on pre-established applied rates to costs incurred. The rate applied for each indirect cost pool is based on the forecasted costs in both the pool and the allocation base in a fiscal year. The pre-established applied rates are monitored throughout the fiscal year and adjusted as needed. SLAC applies rates to non-DOE projects to recover overhead for lab operations. In addition, SLAC applies a Lab Directed Research and Development rate on total cost.
