Many of our clients are interested in the annual Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) and ask us for the tentative dates for the program. Most of the 11 agencies that participate in SBIR open funding once or twice per year at the same time annually. The Department of Defense (DoD) is no exception. It releases several rounds of Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) each year. The DoD includes Army, Navy, and DARPA BAAs. We periodically release information about upcoming solicitations to give our clients the heads up to begin preparing to apply. The next round for many of the Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is set to release soon!
Department of Defense SBIR overview
The next round of Department of Defense SBIR will be released in late August and due in September. If you are not ready yet, fear not. Additional dates will occur throughout the year. DoD is the largest Federal SBIR/STTR participant with 14 components with unique missions and a combined annual budget of 1.5-2 billion annually. DoD publishes general instructions with applicable requirements for all of DoD through its recurring BAA announcements, as well as separate instructions that address unique component-specific requirements. It is critical for small businesses to thoroughly read the general DoD instructions document as well as thoroughly read the component-specific instructions for each topic of interest. Each component determines when it will participate in one of the recurring BAAs or a component-specific BAA. Below is a list of all individual components.
DoDefense upcoming key dates
The next available application window for the Department of Defense SBIR BAA will open in late summer (see image below). If you miss this window or are not yet prepared, there are plenty of other chances to submit a proposal with additional windows opening beginning in early 2022. Applications open in January, May, and September. See below for a chart of the upcoming dates.
Many small businesses assume their product or idea needs to be defense-related to be a good fit for DOD SBIR, but this is not the case. Technology, Health, AI, Data Analytics, and Computing are major areas of interest for the DoD SBIR. If you have a high-tech, commercialisable idea for an innovative concept DOD SBIR might be right for you.
We work with high-growth startups and organizations that support the startup and innovation ecosystem. We build highly specific non-dilutive funding menus, provide proposal preparation services, and measure outcomes of funding through evaluation. Schedule a consult call with us HERE.