SBIR is a powerful grant program to fund innovative research and development activities of small, for-profit businesses. Phase 1 awards, which are geared to evaluating the technical feasibility of a technology, can be as high as $150,000. Follow-up Phase II awards can be as high as $1 million.

We love grants because business owners don’t have to pay back funds (from loans) or suffer equity dilution (from investment capital).

The big purpose of SBIR is to accelerate the development of technologies or initiatives that are priority areas of interest by a U.S. Federal Agency such as the Department of Defense, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Transportation, or Health and Human Services. NASA, the EPA and the National Science Foundation also participate in the SBIR grant program.

To learn about current research topics for grant consideration, visit SBIR.gov.