Find out more about technical and business assistance, or TABA, as well as indirect costs.
Technical and Business Assistance
- What services are offered with TABA?
- What can be included in TABA?
- Does everyone who gets a Phase I award get TABA assistance through Larta unless they opt to work with a provider of their own choosing?
- If I want to receive TABA assistance through Larta, it looks like I just leave this off my budget. Is that correct?
Indirect Costs
- We have a negotiated rate with another federal agency. Will this rate be acknowledged by USDA SBIR/STTR?
- What are "fringe benefits"?
- If I don’t have a negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA), can I still charge indirect cost (IDC)?
Technical and Business Assistance
What services are offered with TABA?
You can learn more about TABA at NIFA’s TABA webpage. For Phase I, if you do not include an external TABA vendor in your application, you will have access to the USDA TABA provider, Larta. For Phase II, applicants must request TABA in their application to receive TABA funds. TABA is an expense USDA pays for awardees. TABA helps with a wide variety of commercialization services from intellectual property and marketing to financial planning.
What can be included in TABA?
You can learn more about TABA on NIFA’s TABA webpage. Intellectual property (IP) legal costs, marketing, market research, financial review, consultations on funding strategy, and activities related to manufacturing are a few examples of TABA activities. The purpose of TABA is to assist SBIR/STTR awardees in making better technical decisions on SBIR/STTR projects, solving technical problems that arise during their SBIR/STTR project, minimizing technical risks associated with SBIR/STTR projects, and commercializing the SBIR/STTR product or process, including IP protections.
Does everyone who gets a Phase I award get TABA assistance through Larta unless they opt to work with a provider of their own choosing?
For Phase I, everyone who wants TABA assistance through Larta can get it. Some awardees choose not to participate. For Phase I, if you do not want to use Larta, and you want TABA services from a different vendor, you should indicate your vendor of choice as “Other Direct Costs” in your budget, provide a detailed budget justification and a signed letter of commitment from the provider.
If I want to receive TABA assistance through Larta, it looks like I just leave this off my budget. Is that correct?
Yes. For Phase I, if you choose to use Larta, you do not include TABA in your budget; USDA will pay Larta for your TABA service. Therefore, your budget should not exceed $125,000 for topic areas 8.6 and 8.12 or $175,000 for all other topic areas.
For Phase I, if you do not want to use Larta and you want TABA service from a different vendor, you should indicate your vendor of choice as “Other Direct Costs” in your budget, provide a detailed budget justification and a signed letter of commitment from the provider. You may include up to $6,500 for assistance. With your own TABA vendor, your budget should not exceed $131,500 for topic areas 8.6 and 8.12 or $181,500 for all other topic areas.
For Phase II, applicants may request up to $50,000 for TABA, and this must be included in your budget, regardless of vendor. The applicant is required to submit a TABA plan in addition to qualification statements from the selected TABA vendor(s). Phase II budgets with TABA should not exceed $650,000 for all topic areas. If you are not choosing TABA for Phase II, your budget should not exceed $600,000.
Indirect Costs
We have a negotiated rate with another federal agency. Will this rate be acknowledged by USDA SBIR/STTR?
Yes, and the applicant will be required to produce a current (non-expired) negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA) at the time of award to recover the costs. Provisional billing rates will not be accepted. For specific indirect cost questions, please reach out to RecipientsICPs@usda.gov for more specific guidance.
What are "fringe benefits"?
For the purpose of grants, fringe benefits would be “indirect costs” such as health insurance for employees. Indirect costs can be thought of as overhead, or costs of doing business that can be charged to multiple grants. You can learn more about IDCs at our IDC webpage or reach out to RecipientsICPs@usda.gov.
If I don’t have a negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA), can I still charge indirect cost (IDC)?
Even without a NICRA or negotiated indirect cost rate, you can still claim the 10% de minimus rate. See our IDC webpage for more information.
