Businesses all across the country – from Ontario, New York to Friday Harbor, Washington – have received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards from the SBIR/STTR program led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Goddard’s SBIR program, together with the STTR program (which includes a formal collaboration with a research institution) provides funds to domestic small businesses. These businesses then participate in federal research and development to advance promising technologies with commercial potential.
Through this competitive program, NASA receives approximately 1,900 high-quality proposals that go through a rigorous process to ultimately select approximately 300 Phase I proposals for awards across the agency.
Each year, Goddard subject matter experts develop subtopics that contain NASA’s technology needs. Companies can submit proposals related to those subtopics and participate in a competitive process to receive funds from NASA to develop these technologies.
The program is divided into several funding and development phases. During Phase I of the SBIR program, companies have six months to complete SBIR awards to study scientific, technical and commercial feasibility, while companies have 13 months to complete STTR awards. Phase II covers 24 months, in which companies develop, demonstrate and deliver their innovation. In Phase III, companies reach successful commercialization of their innovation.
In 2023, Goddard-managed companies received over $6 million for SBIR/STTR Phase I projects, and in 2021, over $19 million was allocated for Phase II initiatives. NASA announces a Phase I solicitation each year, and the agency invites successful Phase I awardees to submit proposals to participate in a follow-on Phase II competition.
Companies funded by the SBIR/STTR program help move NASA’s missions forward – for example, a company in Charlottesville, Virginia, developed technology that played a pivotal role in a CubeSat mission called IceCube, which detected cloud ice from space. See NASA’s SBIR/STTR website for more success stories.
NASA announces Phase I solicitations once a year – please visit NASA’s SBIR/STTR program website for specific dates. Also, companies can sign up for NASA’s SBIR/STTR Newsletter.
For more information, contact:
Quenton Bonds
301-286-7083
Quenton.Bonds@nasa.gov