How to Find SBIR Phase I Opportunities in Any Industry Vertical

Finding a Phase I opportunity is a search problem with a regulatory front end. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program operates across eleven federal agencies, and those agencies publish opportunities through different portals, on different calendars, under different contracting and grant mechanisms (GAO 2025; SBIR.gov n.d.d). A technology in any vertical has a plausible home at one or more of them, whether the technology is battery chemistry, diagnostic imaging, or crop robotics. The search succeeds when a company confirms eligibility first, translates its technology into agency vocabulary, sweeps aggregated listings, and verifies each candidate at the originating agency before it commits proposal resources.

The program itself changed in the past year. Authorization lapsed on September 30, 2025, and agencies could not issue new solicitations or commit new funds during the lapse (CSIS 2026). The President signed the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act on April 13, 2026, which extends SBIR and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program through September 30, 2031 (Crowell 2026). Several implementation details remain unsettled as of November 13, 2026, and each is flagged where it appears.

The Program Landscape

What Reauthorization Changed for a Phase I Search

Four provisions of the 2026 Act bear on a Phase I search. First, agencies holding unspent SBIR or STTR funds at the end of fiscal year 2026 may use them in fiscal year 2027 (Crowell 2026). Second, beginning in fiscal year 2027, each agency must set a limit on the number of Phase I and Phase II proposals a company may submit, applied per solicitation, per topic, or per fiscal year (CRS 2026). Third, agencies must screen applicants and key personnel for foreign risk (Crowell 2026). Fourth, the Act creates Strategic Breakthrough awards of up to $30 million, but applicants must hold at least one prior Phase I or Phase II award, so the mechanism applies only to later-stage firms (Crowell 2026; CRS 2026).

Contested Terrain: Proposal Limit Waivers

Sources describe the limit waivers differently. One law-firm summary states that agencies may waive limits for time-sensitive, mission-urgent topics, covering no more than 5 percent of an agency's SBIR and STTR topics per fiscal year (Crowell 2026). The Congressional Research Service describes a per-topic limit that can be waived with written justification approved by the SBA Administrator and the agency's responsible Under Secretary or equivalent (CRS 2026). The two descriptions may address different provisions of Public Law 119-83, and the statutory text controls (requires independent verification). The Department of War (DoW, which federal data and several sources still label DoD) already applies per-topic proposal limits effective October 1, 2026 (BW&CO 2026b).

Eleven Agencies, Two Contracting Models

SBIR.gov states that funding opportunities go by many names, including Request for Proposals, Funding Opportunity Announcement, and Broad Agency Announcement, and that some agencies post several solicitations a year while others post one (SBIR.gov n.d.d). The practical divide separates grant agencies from contract agencies. Grants.gov hosts announcements for agencies such as NIH, NSF, and DOE, and SAM.gov lists contract opportunities from agencies such as DoW and DHS, often with pre-solicitation notices and amendments (SBIR.org n.d.a). Portals change in places: DOE accepts Fall 2026 Phase I pitches through its own application hub (DOE 2026a), and DoW solicitation materials appear exclusively on the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) (Govly n.d.).

Contested Terrain: Open Topics and Conventional Topics

GAO distinguishes open topics, in which agencies issue broad topics and companies identify the research need and propose a solution, from conventional topics, in which agencies define the research need (GAO 2025). Neither the authorizing statute nor the SBA policy directive defines the terms, and SBA concurred with GAO's recommendation to adopt formal definitions (GAO 2025).

In fiscal year 2023, about half of all awards, roughly $2.2 billion of $4.5 billion, were open topic awards (GAO 2025). USDA, Commerce, Education, and NSF issued only open topic awards. HHS issued 74 percent of its awards as open topic (1,035 of 1,392), DoD 41 percent (1,299 of 3,161), and DOE 12 percent (68 of 581). DHS, DOT, EPA, and NASA issued conventional awards only (GAO 2025). This distribution tells a company which agencies accept a self-defined problem statement and which require a response to an agency-written need.

The evidence does not settle which topic type favors a newcomer. Open topics attracted more first-time applicants than conventional topics, and DoD, DOE, and HHS gave a higher percentage of open topic awards to first-time awardees. Acceptance rates were lower for open topics at all three mixed agencies: 16 percent versus 24 percent at DoD, 17 percent versus 31 percent at DOE, and 19 percent versus 28 percent at HHS. GAO found no consistent trend in Phase I to Phase II progression favoring either type, and topic labels did not consistently match topic specificity; for example, 21 percent of NASA's conventional topics were somewhat broad (GAO 2025).

Eligibility and Registration Before the Search

Eligibility Tests

A company qualifies if it is a for-profit entity organized in the United States, has no more than 500 employees including affiliates, and is at least 51 percent owned and controlled by United States citizens or permanent residents (Arizona Commerce Authority n.d.). A company also qualifies if another small business with 500 or fewer employees owns at least 51 percent of it, provided that parent is itself at least 51 percent owned by citizens or permanent residents (SBIR.gov n.d.f). Affiliated companies count as a single company for size purposes (NSF n.d.b), and the size test applies at the time of award, in contrast to the time of proposal submission (Mondaq 2026).

Ownership by venture capital operating companies, hedge funds, or private equity firms receives different treatment by agency. Firms majority-owned by such investors remain eligible at NIH and CDC and compete for up to 25 percent and 15 percent respectively of each agency's SBIR set-aside (NCI n.d.). One guide states that most other agencies, including DoD, exclude such firms (Sled AI n.d.) (requires independent verification).

Registrations

NSF requires active registrations in SAM.gov (including a valid unique entity identifier, or UEI), Research.gov, and the SBA Company Registry, with the company name, physical address, and identifying information entered identically in each system (NSF n.d.b). The SBA registry requires a Login.gov account and a UEI obtained through SAM.gov registration (SBA 2026b). Other agencies add their own portals: DSIP for DoW, eRA Commons for NIH, and an application hub for DOE (OpenGrants n.d.; DOE 2026a).

Foreign Risk Screening

Screening applies to the applicant and to any covered individual, owner, or key personnel, where a covered individual is a person who substantively contributes to a federally funded project and is designated by the agency (Crowell 2026). Agencies review foreign affiliations, investment ties, technology licensing or joint ventures, and other business relationships with parties in a country of concern. Entities on the Section 889 Prohibition List, the Military End User List, the 1260H list of Chinese military companies, and the Non-SDN Chinese Military Industrial Complex Companies List are excluded. Agencies must notify denied applicants in writing of the basis for denial, and denied applicants remain eligible in later cycles (Crowell 2026). The Air Force reported that its solicitation instructions would change in areas including Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and foreign disclosure (AFWERX 2026), so ownership, funding-source, and key-personnel disclosures belong in a company's file before a window opens.

Building a Repeatable Search

Translate the Technology into Agency Vocabulary

Search terms determine what a company sees. SBIR.gov supports keyword search across topics and awards, and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) on SBIR.gov and SAM.gov narrow results (SBIR.org n.d.a). Searching past awards at SBIR.gov identifies which agencies have funded related work (UNR n.d.). For NIH, the NIH Matchmaker tool performs keyword searches to identify the institutes and centers that previously funded a research area (NCI n.d.). State technology-assistance providers also help locate matching agency topics and search prior awards (NIH SEED n.d.).

Sweep Aggregators, Then Confirm at the Source

SBIR.gov aggregates open and upcoming solicitations across participating agencies and maintains a calendar of topic releases and opening dates (SBIR.org n.d.a; UNR n.d.). The site states that its listed solicitations and topics are copies of agency documents and may not be the latest versions (SBIR.gov n.d.g). Each candidate therefore requires confirmation on the originating agency's page or portal. Alert subscriptions provide notice of new releases: NASA recommends subscribing to its email updates and bookmarking its information hub (NASA 2026), and DOE provides an email notification sign-up (DOE n.d.b).

SBIR.gov also publishes solicitation data through a public API that supports keyword and agency filters and open or closed status (SBIR.gov n.d.c). A June 2026 review reported that the API page stated it was undergoing maintenance (Grantsights 2026) (requires independent verification), so the bulk award download serves as the alternative source for award data.

Use Award Data to Test Topic Fit

SBIR.gov offers downloadable award data, about 290 megabytes with abstracts and 65 megabytes without, refreshed monthly (SBIR.gov n.d.b). Filtering that file by agency, branch, phase, award year, and keywords shows which program offices have funded comparable work, at what award size, and how often the same companies recur. Because the files are refreshed monthly, the most recent awards may be absent.

Entry Points by Agency

Table 1 lists mechanisms and windows as of November 13, 2026. Windows change, and each entry requires confirmation at the agency.

Mapping an Industry Vertical to Agencies

Mission fit determines where to look first. The following mappings use the agency evidence retrieved for this review.

• Biomedical, diagnostics, digital health, and devices. HHS. Most HHS awards were open topic in fiscal year 2023, at 74 percent (GAO 2025), and the parent announcement accepts Phase I, Phase II, Direct to Phase II, and Fast-Track applications (SBIR.gov n.d.e). NIH Matchmaker identifies likely institutes (NCI n.d.).
• Agriculture, food, forestry, and conservation. USDA NIFA, whose topic areas include forests and related resources (8.1), plant production and protection (8.2), animal production and protection (8.3), and conservation of natural resources (8.4) (Duke n.d.). All USDA awards in fiscal year 2023 were open topic (GAO 2025).
• Energy, grid, nuclear detection, cybersecurity, and AI for science. DOE. Fall 2026 topics span grid innovation, nuclear detonation detection, and cybersecurity (DOE 2026a). A DOE Genesis Mission release for roughly 40 awards across four topic areas has closed, and DOE stated that a broader Phase I opportunity was expected later in the fall (DOE n.d.a).
• Space and aerospace. NASA through its appendix releases, and the Air Force and Space Force through AFWERX and SpaceWERX, which opened solicitations with Phase I and Direct to Phase II options after reauthorization (Clouse 2026).
• Defense, autonomy, sensing, and counter-unmanned systems. DoW components, which post topics through DSIP in monthly releases (BW&CO 2026b).
• Transportation. DOT, whose FY26 Phase I solicitation covered ten topics across five operating administrations (OST Global Solutions 2026).
• Homeland and critical-infrastructure security. DHS, whose topics originate from operational components such as CBP, TSA, CISA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard (Precision Federal n.d.) (requires independent verification).
• Frontier or cross-cutting technology. NSF funds deep technology across a broad range of sectors. Its 2024 portfolio overview reported that 62 percent of supported startups were new to NSF, with life sciences at 28 percent, information technologies at 19 percent, chemistry and environment at 18 percent, electronics, IoT, and robotics at 13 percent, materials and manufacturing at 13 percent, and photonics and semiconductors at 6 percent (Portnoy 2024).

A company may apply to and receive awards from multiple agencies as long as the projects are not duplicative (EPA 2024).

Qualifying a Topic Before Writing

Several agencies gate or filter entry before a full proposal. NSF requires a Project Pitch and an official invitation before a full Phase I proposal (NSF n.d.d). DOE uses a single application followed by Go/No-Go decision points (DOE n.d.b). AFWERX Open Topic Phase I requires the company to identify an Air Force end user and obtain a signed Customer Memorandum (AFWERX n.d.; BW&CO n.d.a) (requires independent verification) of current terms. NIH encourages applicants to contact program staff before applying so that they select the best funding opportunity (SBIR.gov n.d.e).

Contract agencies open direct dialogue with topic authors for limited windows. DoW permits direct contact with a topic's technical point of contact only during pre-release, and after a topic opens, questions go through the public Topic Q&A page on DSIP (BW&CO 2026a; BW&CO 2026b). That page closes to new questions before the proposal deadline; for FY26 Release 6, it closed on October 7, 2026 against an October 21 deadline (Granted AI 2026c). DOT accepted technical questions only during its pre-solicitation period (DOT 2026), and DHS posts all questions and answers publicly (NMSU n.d.). One practitioner source ranks the DoW pre-release question period as the highest-value activity in the DoW process (Granted AI 2026a). That assessment reflects a vendor's experience, and the retrieved sources contain no systematic evidence measuring its effect (requires independent verification).

Support organizations reduce preparation cost. Some states fund Phase 0 programs that reimburse proposal preparation costs (SBIR.gov n.d.a); Wyoming's program, for example, provides up to $5,000 (University of Wyoming n.d.). Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership awardees assist with locating matching agency topics, searching prior awards, and drafting a project summary to start conversations with program managers (NIH SEED n.d.). APEX Accelerators, Small Business Development Centers, and university technology commercialization offices also serve as service providers (SBIR.gov n.d.h). DOE and NIH offer Phase 0 resources to first-time applicants (SBIR.org n.d.b).

Odds deserve calibration. GAO reported applicant acceptance rates of 16 to 24 percent at DoD and 17 to 31 percent at DOE across topic types (GAO 2025), and a practitioner commentary estimates a newcomer's win probability near 15 percent for a 25-page proposal (Alliance for Commercial Technology in Government 2026).

Contested Terrain: Multiple Award Winners and the New Limits

Firms that win many awards, often called SBIR mills, were a major point of contention in the reauthorization (Link and Swann 2024). GAO counts as multiple award winners the companies that received more than 50 Phase II awards in a ten-year period (Schönander 2026). An opinion series describes GAO as finding that such firms account for under 1 percent of participants and over 10 percent of Phase II dollars (DefenseScoop 2025), and a policy letter describes GAO as reporting lower total and private-sector sales and investment per Phase II dollar and fewer patent-producing awards (FAI n.d.). Both sources advocate reform, which creates bias risk.

Other analyses reach different conclusions. CSIS reports that the heaviest winners are more likely than other awardees to become substantial defense contractors and win non-SBIR defense contracts at higher rates, reaching the market through follow-on procurement while private investment plays a smaller role (CSIS n.d.). The Small Business Technology Council argues that SBA data omits Phase III awards after program exit totaling $750 million over five years, along with acquisitions valued above $1 billion (SBTC 2025). The council advocates for experienced firms, which also creates bias risk. Link and Swann (2024) find a negative association between the number of previous SBIR awards and commercialization from a current project, and conclude that multiple awards form a heterogeneous metric. A Naval Postgraduate School analysis cited by Schönander (2026) found no consistent relationship between early SBIR funding and Phase III awards, with only nine of the top earners of Phase I and Phase II awards also among the top Phase III earners.

Two policy responses bear on a newcomer's competitive field. The statute requires agency proposal limits beginning in fiscal year 2027 (CRS 2026), and DoW applies per-topic limits effective October 1, 2026 (BW&CO 2026b). SBA has also proposed minimum commercialization standards. A firm with more than 25 Phase II awards in the five most recently completed fiscal years would need a non-SBIR revenue share of at least 33 percent for the fiscal year 2027 assessment and at least 50 percent from fiscal year 2028, measured over total revenue in the three most recent fiscal years. A firm that fails could not submit a new Phase I or Direct to Phase II proposal for one year (SBA 2026a). The notice is a proposal, its comment period closed October 31, 2026, and its stated effective date of November 15, 2026 follows SBA's review of comments (SBA 2026a). Final status requires confirmation (requires independent verification). The retrieved sources contain no outcome data showing whether these measures raise newcomer win rates.

Limits of the Evidence

DSIP did not permit retrieval for this review, so DoW dates and award ceilings derive from consulting-firm and aggregator pages (BW&CO 2026b; Granted AI 2026a) and require confirmation against DSIP. Aggregator sources contain internal inconsistencies in dates and amounts, and figures drawn from them carry verification notes. The review did not examine EPA, Education, or Commerce (including NOAA and NIST) opportunities in detail, state Phase 0 programs beyond examples, or agency-specific Phase I win rates for NIH, NSF, and NASA. SBA must still update its policy directive to implement Phase III advocacy provisions, and agencies must still publish fiscal year 2027 proposal limits no later than 90 days before the fiscal year begins (Crowell 2026). Windows listed in Table 1 change frequently.

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