SBIR / STTR
Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business Technology Transfer
Contract TypesDefinition
SBIR and STTR are federal programs that fund small businesses to conduct R&D with commercial potential. SBIR is for individual small businesses; STTR requires a partnership with a research institution. Both programs award contracts in three phases, from feasibility studies to full commercialization.
Phase I awards are typically $50,000-$275,000 for 6-12 months of feasibility research. Phase II awards are $500,000-$1.75 million for 2 years of full R&D. Phase III is the commercialization phase, which can include non-SBIR federal contracts to deploy the technology.
Eleven federal agencies participate in SBIR (DOD, NIH, DOE, NSF, NASA, and others). Each agency publishes topics aligned with their mission needs, and small businesses submit proposals addressing specific topics.
SBIR/STTR contracts are fully funded R&D — you keep your intellectual property rights. This makes the program especially attractive for technology startups that want government funding without giving up IP. Phase III contracts can be sole-sourced, giving SBIR winners a path to production contracts.
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