SBIR and STTR Programs

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have been viewed as successful efforts to bring new, disruptive technologies to federal agencies, support innovation, new firms into the defense marketplace, and commercialize federally funded research and development. Agencies with research and development (R&D) budgets of greater than $100 million are required to dedicate 2.8% of their budget to the SBIR program, and agencies with R&D budgets greater than $1 billion are required to dedicate 0.3% of their budget to the STTR program.

Despite the successes of these small business R&D efforts, areas for improvement remain. The Department of Defense (DoD) should work towards encouraging follow-on work for SBIR recipients as either prime or subcontractors, enhance protection of intellectual property of program recipients, and ensure that SBIR activities are integrated into the Department’s overall research and development strategies and priorities.