SBIR.gov: Small Business Innovation Research

SBIR.gov is the federal portal for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and its companion, the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. Together these programs channel more than $4 billion a year in research and development funding to small businesses, and they do it without taking equity. For an early-stage technology company, SBIR and STTR are among the few ways to fund risky R&D with federal dollars while keeping full ownership of the resulting intellectual property.

Overview

SBIR and STTR are not contracts in the traditional sense. They are structured R&D funding programs run across roughly a dozen participating federal agencies, with SBIR.gov serving as the central directory where solicitations, topics, and award data are aggregated. The combined programs distribute over $4 billion per year, making them a meaningful source of capital for small businesses that build novel technology rather than deliver commodity products or routine services. The defining feature is that the funding is non-dilutive: a company can pursue an SBIR award without giving up shares to an investor, which is why founders often treat these programs as a bridge between a research idea and a commercial product. STTR works the same way but requires the small business to partner with a research institution, such as a university or a federal lab, which suits teams whose innovation depends on academic research.

Where opportunities are posted

SBIR.gov is the front door, but the actual solicitations originate from the participating agencies. Each agency, including the Department of Defense, NASA, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation, publishes its own SBIR and STTR topics on its own schedule, and SBIR.gov indexes them in one searchable place. This is an important difference from ordinary procurement: many SBIR topics are not individually posted on SAM.gov, so a company that monitors only the standard contract feed will miss a large share of these opportunities. Some agencies issue solicitations on fixed annual cycles, while others run continuous or rolling submission windows, so the cadence varies by buyer. Once an award is made, the resulting transaction appears in USAspending.gov alongside the rest of the federal award record, which means past SBIR and STTR awards are publicly searchable even when the original topic was not on SAM.gov. The same agencies that fund SBIR also run conventional procurement; you can read more about two of the largest in our DOE procurement and NASA procurement guides.

What they buy

SBIR and STTR fund research and development, not finished goods, so the "purchase" is the work needed to mature a technology. Agencies publish topics that describe a specific technical problem they want solved, and small businesses propose how their innovation addresses it. Typical areas include advanced materials, sensors, software and cybersecurity, autonomy and robotics, energy systems, aerospace components, biomedical devices, and health research. The programs are organized into phases. Phase I funds a short feasibility study to prove the technical concept. Phase II funds the full prototype and development effort for companies whose Phase I results justified continued investment. Phase III is the commercialization stage, where the technology moves toward a real product or a follow-on contract, and Phase III work can be funded by non-SBIR sources, including standard agency contracts. Because the work is R&D, the relevant NAICS context is usually the research and development codes (the 5417 family) rather than a product manufacturing code, and award abstracts for funded projects can often be studied through agency tools such as NIH Reporter and the NSF awards search to understand how winners frame their technical approach.

Set-asides and small business

SBIR and STTR are, by design, small business programs end to end. To compete, a company must qualify as a small business under SBA size standards, be majority-owned by US citizens or permanent residents, and meet the program-specific ownership and employee-count rules. There is no separate set-aside to chase here; the entire program is reserved for small businesses, which removes the large-prime competition that dominates most federal contracts. STTR adds one more requirement: the small business must formally partner with a nonprofit research institution and share the work according to defined minimum percentages, which makes STTR a natural fit for spin-outs and university-affiliated teams. For an innovator without a long federal past performance record, these programs are often the most accessible on-ramp to working with the government, because evaluation centers on the strength and feasibility of the technical idea rather than a track record of prior awards. If you also want to understand the broader grant landscape that sits next to these programs, our Grants.gov guide explains how federal assistance opportunities are posted and applied for.

How to win

1. Map the topic to a real agency need. SBIR awards go to proposals that answer a specific published topic, so read the topic description closely and respond to exactly what the agency asked for, not to a generic version of your technology.
2. Lead with feasibility in Phase I. The reviewers funding a Phase I are buying a credible plan to prove a concept quickly, so make the technical risk, the experiment, and the success criteria explicit rather than promising a finished product.
3. Build the commercialization story early. Even Phase I proposals are stronger when they show a clear path to Phase III and a real customer, because agencies want technology that transitions, not research that stalls. The fundamentals of structuring this funding journey are covered in our deep dive on SBIR and STTR funding for small business R&D.
4. Study funded abstracts before you write. Award abstracts published through agency tools reveal how winning teams describe innovation, approach, and impact, which is a faster way to calibrate your proposal than guessing.
5. Track topics across every participating agency. Because many SBIR topics never appear on SAM.gov, set up monitoring against the agency solicitations themselves so a relevant topic does not close before you see it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between SBIR and STTR?

Both programs fund small business R&D with non-dilutive federal money, but STTR requires the small business to partner with a research institution such as a university or a federal lab and to share a defined minimum portion of the work with that partner. SBIR has no mandatory research-institution partner, so the small business can perform the majority of the work itself. STTR suits teams whose innovation is rooted in academic research, while SBIR suits companies that can carry the technical work in-house.

Are SBIR opportunities posted on SAM.gov?

Not all of them. Many SBIR and STTR topics are published on the participating agencies' own portals and indexed on SBIR.gov rather than posted individually on SAM.gov. A company that watches only the standard SAM.gov feed will miss a large share of these opportunities, so it is important to monitor the agency solicitations and SBIR.gov directly.

How much money is available through these programs?

The combined SBIR and STTR programs distribute more than $4 billion per year in research and development funding across the participating federal agencies. The exact amount any single company can receive depends on the agency, the program, and the phase, since Phase I feasibility awards are smaller than Phase II development awards.

Do I have to give up equity to receive an SBIR award?

No. A defining feature of SBIR and STTR is that the funding is non-dilutive, which means you do not give up ownership shares to receive it. The company retains its equity and generally keeps the intellectual property rights to what it develops, which is why founders often use these programs as an alternative or complement to venture financing.

Who is eligible to compete for SBIR and STTR awards?

Eligibility is limited to small businesses that meet SBA size standards and the program's ownership rules, which generally require majority ownership by US citizens or permanent residents. STTR adds the requirement of a formal partnership with a nonprofit research institution. Because the programs are reserved entirely for small businesses, applicants do not compete against large primes, and evaluation focuses on the technical merit and feasibility of the proposed work.