When can I apply? The Department of Defense issues three SBIR and three STTR Broad Agency Announcements (BAA) for proposals annually. Each BAA has a pre-release, open, and close period. During the pre-release period the government is not accepting proposals, but small businesses can discuss technical questions directly with the...

Is Your Organization Eligible for a DoD SBIR/STTR? To be eligible for the SBIR Program your organization must be a Small Business Concern (SBC) and the Principal Investigator (PI), effectively the project manager and/or lead researcher, must be fully employed by your organization and cannot have full-time employment elsewhere.  These...

Once you have verified that you are a qualified SBC, it is time to begin the process of getting all the required registrations necessary to be able to upload your proposal to the DoD submission portal and be eligible for an award.  SAM.gov is the central supplier database for the...

Two innovation programs are the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR).  These programs have similar objectives, but differ in two major ways related to the Principal Investigator (PI) and non-profit research partner.  The PI will be better defined later, but for now think of the...

What is the SBIR Program? The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a federal government project that promotes domestic small business Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) towards government objectives.  The program is highly competitive with an average success rate of around 10%.  There are several participating agencies in the SBIR...