Great. Thank you Danny!

quick disclaimer up front: I have read, written and responded to RFPs and there is something about this one that seems to me just a littler oddly amateurish or even scammy, because of the assumptions it makes and the language which is kind of cliche in terms of buzzwords and overreach. I don’t mean to sound overly critical but all too often government programs giving away lots of money with RFPs that sound unrealistic end up being a corrupt technique for giving that money to your well connected friends, along with a kickback to you, Seen it happen in Miami repeatedly.

Example of being unrealistic:  

They expect to find an existing  organizations that > already has the ability to expand and enhance biotechnology commercial infrastructure, or which is actually developing therapeutic products like drugs,  which would imply they have already been funded to some degree, > but didn’t get funded by private investors (which would make it for-profit) and is looking for money, > and is a nonprofit whose mission is to support the success of for-profit, investor-funded biotech companies.

Isn’t that a bit like saying you are a non-profit that was started to provide free-housekeeping services for wall street banks? If you look closely at existing “biotech nonprofits” you see that they tend to be set up by for-profit companies or industry groups as a way to collectively invest in resources they all need, attract and coordinate additional money, and also to avoid taxes on that invested money.

-----------------------

Responding to the RFP:

OK, so now that I got that off my chest, YES I would still go ahead and apply for this prudently and practically. This means:

1.       Ask specific detailed questions on 6/30 at info session about what is and is not required, giving examples of the level of “aspirational vs currently demonstrable” capabilities, etc.

2.      Provide what they ask for and nothing more.

3.      Apply with a mission statement that is realistic, utilitarian, contributes to their goals in a direct real way.

4.      Ask for the money you truly need with a financial statement that is accurate and complete.

Seems to me pretty straight forward to position BWoB this way:

a.      Currently almost every major city has multiple community biospace facilities with  safety level 1 or  level 2  capabilities. There’s a reason for this. It promotes and support biotech in those cities in by…..

b.      NYC DOES NOT have one. The biospaces people like to mention like genspace and others don’t actually provide a true facility like the labs in other cities and thus they are not able to promote and support biotech as described in NYC. So NYC lacks this important resource. NYC should have multiple such biospaces

c.      We can create a fully functional biospace that meets the criteria for level 2 safety and that would additionally have other key ingredients to support it’s mission of augment ting the biotech infrastructure in NYC: these include: expert staff to provide guidance, supervision, and support; training; ….

d.      The proposed biospace would also provide services to biotech companies like equipment evaluations, equipment rentals, temporary laboratory bench capacity; and much more

e.      This proposal is for the initial opening of a facility in [location] followed by additional facilities in Y and Z

I would not talk about anything other than the actual physical and intellectual resources you intend to provide. I would add many different examples of experiments and outputs by users of the space but definitely not point to any specific subject or science.

So, you would need to get down to it and produce as real facility creation and expansion plan with 5 year financial plan

Immediate next steps: prepare well worded logical questions for Wednesday’s info session.

So those are my initial thoughts

I'd like to say one more thing in response to the last update from Danny. Regarding the idea of health improvement services, commercialization and things like that, please keep in mind that it will difficult to pitch that when you've never done it.  just because the RFP says it's looking for those things in and ideal respondent doesn't mean that you have to say you provide those in order to be awarded money. The best way to win this is to stick to the things that are actually within your mission and which you can actually do have done in the past. I think there's more than enough of that without needing to go beyond it.  for example I can think of quite a few ways in which having a community L2 biospace serves to support existing biotech companies and provides a form of infrastructure. This includes 

providing a space in which everyone from independent scientists, physicians, researchers at biotech companies, and biotech startups getting ready to launch can do proof of concept and answer preliminary questions about their research. BWoB would provide the resources for the critical essential first step that then leads to read a real study then can lead to a breakthrough product. you provide the resources and guidance where ideas can be born and to turn into something. this is priceless and right now we don't have that here . So that's just one humongous value that you can elaborate on. 

other functions that generate revenue: Think about all of the biotech equipment manufacturers who would love to get some testers to beta tester products and give them some good feedback before they put a product out or apply with the FDA. 

Also there are tons of doctors out there who have a medical education but really no laboratory research training at all and they have opportunities to help their patients if only they could do some basic things in the lab. Those guys would love to get some training from you and they would gladly pay.

yet another branch would be that you would accumulate a bunch of well-maintained equipment that you could rent out to different buy labs when they need something for a project only. 

then there's the community education angle where you could provide an opportunity for high schools  and even colleges to conduct experiments using your lab . I'm talking about experiments well beyond just fun with fungus. It is essential that you say you're going to be a level 2 facility because that's where you can really offer a little whole range of useful services. 

so not only do I think there's no need to get into things like health improvement services and other areas that are outside of your original mission it would be potentially detrimental to your chances of getting money while at the same time you have an abundance  of value that you can elaborate on that is within the shared level 2 community bio space for New York City

Thanks for sharing some of your ideas! Any one of them or a combination could go into the RPF if this is the direction folks think is useful to the community/themselves and are willing to commit to the work then the RFP will have many supporters (and thus hopefully we be easier to write). Your inputs are a great start to forming an opinion but I do not believe it is the only one.

I want to continue discussing these ideas further on this thread especially in the light of strategic positioning as well as practical concerns that flow from specific prompts.

I hear you loud and clear about not doing something that reaches outside of our original mission. I will also note that the project mission seems like it would be written for this RFP, but of course we have our Mission Vision Values as a place where we have gained some alignment.

The way I am thinking about the questions is to build or destroy the case for our efforts towards this RFP. It would be good to get concrete evidence of how this RFP does or does not fit into our overall vision of the organization. The focus on BSL2 is a good nugget to focus on IMO. It speaks to a place I have some expertise and if you recall the NY Blood Center is also in LIC... I had been thinking about them in terms of blood borne pathogen training: an essential part of learning to work in a shared space with human blood.