Federal Agencies

We help federal agencies facilitate the proposal evaluation process.

There are hundreds of federal granting programs that provide billions of dollars in grants yearly. Just one of these programs is a Small Business Administration program called Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) that bestows its funding in two separate phases. In FY 2001, the program produced 3,136 Phase I awards and 1,479 Phase II awards for approximately $1.5 billion dollars.

To faithfully execute a grant program of this size, each of the ten participating federal agencies must screen the influx of proposals they receive--a daunting task, when one considers that, in total, the participating agencies received 24,000 proposals in 2002 from hopeful applicants. However, this screening effort can be streamlined with the Lytmos Process through our Investment Program Administration (IPA) service.

By using the IPA to screen incoming proposals, federal agencies can dramatically reduce their reviewing workload, allowing their staff to concentrate their efforts on the most meritorious proposals. The IPA offers federal agencies several other benefits:

• An accelerated review process (reviewer feedback is obtained in a matter of days, not weeks)
• Access to a highly qualified and diverse network of independent reviewers
• Customizable evaluation criteria, based on the specific federal granting program
• An objective rating system that renders fair judgments
• Reports outlining reviewer consensus and comments on proposal strengths and weaknesses
• Real-time process tracking system, with exportable program data
• Solid record keeping with a database that maintains records and facilitates reporting
• Minimum training and administrative support required
• No up-front costs

Our IPA service also includes a branding feature within the software, which is particularly useful if you would like Lytmos to debrief applicants of your funding decision, an administrative task we can complete on your behalf.

In short, the IPA enables federal agencies to screen a high volume of proposals efficiently without incurring the development and full operating costs for such a feature-rich evaluation tool--and all through our user-friendly and secure Lytmos Process.