SBIR and STTR (America's Seed Fund)

U.S. Small Business Administration (coordinating 11 participating federal agencies)

Equity-free federal seed funding to small businesses to develop and commercialise a technology or service. Several participating agencies, including HHS components, award it as contracts rather than grants.

Indicative award

$323k–$2.2M (total award)Thresholds as published on the page as of April 2026: Phase I up to $323,090 and Phase II up to $2,153,927, inclusive of modifications. Awards above these levels require an SBA waiver. These are ceilings, not typical awards.

Timing

Several times a yearNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.Each of the 11 participating agencies runs its own solicitation cycle; the page publishes no single deadline. Check the specific agency's SBIR/STTR solicitation schedule.

Who can apply

Practitioner, Any faculty rank, Mid-career & senior

Eligibility

The applicant must be an American small business, not a university. An academic social-work researcher participates as a partner, subawardee or principal investigator based at the small business; under STTR a formal research-institution partner is required. Awards above the published thresholds need an SBA waiver.

SSWR clusters

Topics

seed funding · commercialization · small business · technology development · non-dilutive funding

Apply at

https://www.sbir.gov/about

This entry

Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.

Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.

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SBIR and STTR (America's Seed Fund)

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