Questions posed through SITIS are directed to the appropriate Topic Manager. Questions must deal with the technical aspects of topics; any other questions will not be accepted. Questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted for general viewing throughout the solicitation period. Do not use this system to ask general SBIR/STTR program questions. Call the DoD SBIR Help Desk at (866) 724-7457 (8 AM to 5 PM EST) or email SBIRHelp@brtrc.com if you have questions regarding proposal preparation, format, and submission. If you do not have the most recent DoD Program Solicitation, it is available on the Internet at http://www.dodsbir.net/solicitation.

During the DoD SBIR/STTR solicitation pre-release period, proposers may ask technical questions about a topic by contacting the topic manager listed in the solicitation directly or by submitting questions through SITIS. Once the solicitation opens to proposals, only written questions submitted through SITIS are allowed.

Our goal is to have answers available within seven working days of submission. SITIS will post questions that are pending replies and will follow-up with Topic Managers, if necessary. Questions posted may or may not receive individual responses, at the descretion of the responsible DoD Topic Manager. The success of the system is contingent on the willing participation of the Topic Managers. SITIS cannot guarantee that all questions will receive a reply.

SITIS will cease accepting questions two weeks prior to the solicitation close date in an effort to obtain all answers prior to solicitation closing. It is highly recommended that proposers send in queries no later than three weeks prior to solicitation closing date, and that proposers monitor the information in SITIS relative to the topic(s) to which they are submitting proposals. SITIS will maintain all topic data, including previously answered questions, throughout the solicitation period.

1. At the SITIS Quick Scan, all available topics are shown in topic number order. To narrow the list of topics, select the solicitation, program and/or agency you are interested in and click the "Select" button. Topics that have 'Q&A' listed in the first column have questions and answers posted.
   
   
2. To view a topic, click on the topic number, to bring up the SITIS Topic Details page which contains the topic description, references, additional information, corrections and questions/responses. If you have a question, please read this page carefully, since your question may already have been addressed. If it has not, then you may pose your own question by entering the question, your name, phone number and email address and clicking the "submit question" button.
   
   
3. After sending the question, an acknowledgement page will come up. Click on the "continue" button and you will be returned to the SITIS Topic Details page.
   
   
4. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic's requirements. Proposers may not ask questions for advice or guidance on solution approach, nor submit additional materials (such as marketing materials or product samples) to the Topic Manager. Questions that do not address technical aspects of a topic may be removed from the system.
   
   
5. When a response to your question is received from the Topic Manager, SITIS will email it directly to you and also post the response for general viewing.