Events

This workshop is intended for companies developing climate tech, but bio startups are welcome too.

In these challenging times for fundraising, federal SBIR (or STTR) grants are an attractive, nondilutive alternative to pitching investors. But applying for these grants is a complex, time-consuming process that presents its own opportunity cost.

For NSF applications, there is the initial requirement of Project Pitch. Only if the reviewers like your Project Pitch will NSF invite you to submit a full proposal.

Why not make sure you take your best shot? Join this interactive, one-time, in-person workshop led by veteran energy scientist and grantwriter Michel Foure. Michel will cover grant writing best practices, tips, and do’s and dont’s that apply to all the proposals he has ever encountered, SBIR and other types, from many different federal agencies. You’ll get feedback on your own approach and hands-on writing experience with the Project Pitch*.

*If you are planning to submit to DOE instead of NSF, the overall workshop and the writing exercise will still be relevant and worthwhile.

Apply to join the workshop

Deadline to apply is Friday, November 8. For UC students/staff/faculty, no charge. All others $50.

Agenda

Before the workshop, participants will write a draft of their NSF Project Pitch. (1-2 pages with subsections on technology innovation, technical objectives & challenges, market opportunity, company & team.) They should bring a printed copy with them to the event.

QB3 will introduce the workshop leader, Michel Foure.

Participants will share their pitch drafts with partners for feedback.

Michel will give a presentation on strategy, architecture, and best practices for grant applications in general.

Class participants will edit their pitch drafts and share the edited versions with partners for new feedback.

Personnel

The workshop is led by Michel Foure, PhD.

Logistics are handled by Kaspar Mossman, PhD, Managing Director, QB3.

Workshop Fee

UC students/staff/faculty: no charge

All others: $50

About the Instructor

Michel Fouré is the founder of Berkeley Grant Writing LLC , a firm devoted to help companies and research organizations to write extremely effective research proposals. In this capacity, he offers a lifetime experience of both writing very successful grant proposals during his industry career as well as reviewing hundred of proposals during his tenure at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Prior to founding Berkeley Grant Writing LLC, Michel was Program Manager for the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Funded by the Department of Energy (Office of Vehicle Technologies), the BATT Program — now renamed Advanced Battery Materials Research Program — is the premier fundamental research program in the U.S. for developing high-performance, rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) (see http://batt.lbl.gov/ for details). Michel also served as the Research Operations Deputy for the Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division. In this capacity, Michel assisted the Division’s Head with tasks related to Department Strategy, Human Resources, Financial Management, Space and Facilities, Operations Safety, and Communications. He retired from LBNL in January 2016. During his tenure at Berkeley Lab, Michel reviewed well over 600 proposals (Department of Energy BATT, SBIR, ARPA-E, Sunshot, Small Business Vouchers, Lab-Corps as well as Cyclotron Road). He also served as a reviewer for the French ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and the DOE BES as well as for the Quadriennal Technology Review.

Prior to joining LBNL, Michel was Director of R&D for Arkema, Inc. (Arkema is a $10 billion chemical company spun off from oil and gas major Total in 2004). Over the years, his areas of responsibility involved Fuel Cells, Corporate Research, Hydrogen Peroxide & Hydrazine, Fluorochemicals, Fluoropolymers, Functional Polymers as well as Polymer Additives. He was the architect of three major proposals in the area of Fuel Cells that were subsequently funded by the DOE raising nearly $15M for Arkema and its partners. He was also the initiator of several projects related to batteries notably polyvinylidenefluoride binders for Lithium-ion batteries, fluoropolymers for Lithium-ion Polymer batteries as well as lithium hexafluorophosphate electrolyte salt process R&D. Prior to these assignments, between 1989 and 1993, he was President and Managing Director of Metablen Company B.V. (a then newly formed joint-venture between Arkema’s predecessor company and Mitsubishi Rayon). Based in Paris, France, the company grew from nearly zero to $20 million in sales (corresponding to 95% of the plant capacity) under his leadership. Since 2019, Michel has re-joined Arkema as a Sr. Technical Adviser.

Apply to the NSF or DOE SBIR Elevator Pitch Workshop with Michel Foure