I just finished listening to the NIH’s webinar on “Human Subjects Research: What SBIR & STTR Applicants Need to Know”. I was making sure that I was up to date on the current requirements, and Ok, let me stipulate that I am probably not the target audience for the webinar, but, seriously, this was basically a recital of the the existing rules, with very little explanation of the “edge” cases or specific questions that could not be answered by reading the SBIR help manuals/documents.
I wish the NIH would adopt a “flipped classroom” approach to their webinars, where they send out the existing voluminous citations to everyone about the rules, and then utilize the 60 minutes of their expert time to respond to questions about said rules/regulations. The SBIR program is one of the best sources of funds, and it is difficult to navigate the “governmentese”—but if you have a PhD and you pay attention, you can get the information from the various help documents. These webinars would be better utilized to do an “open mic” Q&A than to regurgitate the rules.