Grant and incubator kit — co-applying with a partner lab

Stage: 4 → 5 for labs whose budget owner says "we'd need a grant for this". Buyer pages: design partnership · validation docket · procurement.

When a qualified lab has no current budget, a grant or incubator application can fund the pilot. The kit lives in the repository at marketing/grants/ (internal, not served):

Kit file	Use
`technical-summary.md`	the service in one page, brackets for the partner's workflow
`validation-limits.md`	what is measured and what is not — copy verbatim
`milestone-budget-template.csv`	milestones M0–M5 with deliverable, evidence artifact, cost columns; every amount an `[ASSUMPTION]` until the operator approves it
`fit-statements.md`	research-infrastructure, translational and incubator paragraphs; program names + URLs checked 2026-10-12

When to use it

Only with a lab at stage 3 (frames run, reference measurement identified) whose budget owner (page 31) has said current funds cannot cover the pilot. Never as an opening offer; never to a lab we have not qualified.

How to co-apply

Who leads. In most programs the partner lab (or its institution) leads and the company is a subcontractor or named service; STTR-style programs require both. Ask the partner's sponsored-programs office which shape their institution uses. The operator decides the company's role.
Pick the program from fit-statements.md, then read the current solicitation on the program's own site. The kit deliberately contains no deadlines; write the deadline into the log only from the official page, with the date you read it.
Draft together. The partner writes the science; we supply the technical summary, the validation limits (verbatim) and the milestone budget.
Budget. Fill milestone-budget-template.csv. The only non-assumption figures are the two design-partnership list prices (page 22: Software $10,000, Hardware $25,000). Every other number is labelled [ASSUMPTION] until the operator approves it in writing.
Claims check. Before the partner submits, run the draft past the operator against marketing/sales/claims-boundary.md; no accuracy, agreement, error-detection or speed figures; biomedical work framed as research tooling, never diagnosis.
Letters. A letter of collaboration or support from the company is signed by the operator only.

Programs in the kit (names and URLs verified 2026-10-12)

NSF SBIR/STTR ("America's Seed Fund") — https://seedfund.nsf.gov/
NIH SBIR/STTR — https://seed.nih.gov/
All agencies' SBIR/STTR — https://www.sbir.gov/
NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI; institution-led; a hosted service is not an obvious MRI item — ask the partner's research office) — https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/mri-major-research-instrumentation-program

Program status (e.g. the 2025–26 SBIR/STTR lapse and reauthorization) is recorded in fit-statements.md as [REPORTED] from third-party sources; confirm on the official page before relying on it. Non-US partners: use their national funders (UKRI, DFG, SNSF, EU programmes — see page 31's sources).

Artifact: a log row grant: <program> with the solicitation URL and the date read, the partner's lead contact, and the operator's written go on the company's role and budget.