Agencies and eligibility
Eleven federal agencies award SBIR grants or contracts: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the departments of Agriculture (USDA), Commerce (NIST and NOAA), Defense (DoD), Education (DoED), Energy (DOE), Health & Human Services (NIH, FDA and CDC), Homeland Security (HSARPA), and Transportation (DOT).
To be eligible to apply for SBIR funding a business must be:
- an organized for-profit business in the United States;
- at least 51 percent owned by individual U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens and be independently operated;
- a small business with 500 or fewer employees;
- the primary employer of the project's principal investigator (PI) for the duration of the project.
