Phase I is the opportunity to establish the scientific, technical, commercial merit and feasibility of your proposed innovation. 

Army SBIR Phase I contracts are typically a three- to six-month timeframe with awards up to $250K.

For the Army STTR Program, traditional Phase I funds are typically a six-month timeframe with awards that are up to $204K.

If you establish the scientific and technical merit, as well as the commercial potential of your proposed innovation, you can compete for Phase II funding. 

Phase II focuses on the development, demonstration and delivery of your innovation from Phase I. Traditional Phase II contracts provide continued research and development funding for successful Phase I projects and frequently result in the development of a prototype.

Army SBIR Phase II contracts are typically a 12- to 18-month timeframe with awards up to $2M.

Army STTR Phase II contracts are typically a 24-month timeframe with awards up to $1.36M. 

The process for Phase II submissions has not changed, except for new solicitations released under the ASA(ALT) program since 2023. Per the Small Business Administration’s policy, any firm that receives a Phase I award is eligible to submit a Phase II proposal for that topic.

For all current and future topics, if your firm receives a Phase I award, you will receive submission instructions for the Phase II proposal, including the Phase II solicitation window through DSIP notification. All instruction documentation needs to be downloaded from DSIP. The Army will review all Phase II proposals for each topic at the same time. 

A traditional Phase II contract follows the award of a Phase I contract based on SME evaluations of the Phase II proposal. If you are an established company with direct customers and commercial sales, and you have a product that could be useful for the Soldier, you may skip Phase I and submit a Direct to Phase II proposal to enter the process at the prototyping and demonstration phase. 

Phase III awards are commercial applications of a company’s products, tools or services that receive funding from non-Army SBIR|STTR Program sources, such as the government or private sector. View our Phase III SBIR Contracts page to learn more.

To respond to critical Army needs as they arise, the Army releases SBIR solicitations on an ad-hoc, rolling basis on an always-open Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), which maximizes the initial cash flow for companies while minimizing the time to contract.

The STTR Program develops a set of research topics that represent the Army’s current and anticipated war-fighting technology needs and releases solicitations during a specific annual solicitation period each fiscal year. View our Schedule and Phases page to learn more.

Small businesses, nontraditional firms or academia may submit proposals through the Defense SBIR|STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP).

During the pre-release phase, you can review the solicitations and ask questions about the open solicitations. Once the announcement opens, the Army does not permit any direct (oral or written) conversations with the topic authors or any direct conversations with government representatives about specific technical matters.

The Army will communicate the timeframe for notification and award in the individual solicitation instructions. Per SBIR policy, notification will occur within 90 days from the date the submission window closes; however, the Army SBIR Program averages 30-50 days.

To change the firm admin, the current firm admin must submit a DSIP help desk ticket and provide the email address of the user that will assume the firm admin role. If the current firm admin has already departed the firm, another designated individual from the firm can contact DSIP to change the firm admin. Contact dodsbirsupport@reisystems.com to open a DSIP help desk ticket.

After you receive your selection notification, the acquisition requirements package is compiled and reviewed by the technical point of contact. A contract specialist will then reach out to discuss next steps ahead of the contract awarding. It can take up to 120 days for your contract to be awarded, although the contracting office often awards contracts sooner than 120 days.

During this part of the process, a Government Contracting Officer may contact the offeror to discuss and request additional information required for the award. This may include representations and certifications, certified or other than certified cost data, a subcontracting plan for small businesses and/or other information as applicable to the proposed award. It’s important to respond as quickly as possible to the Contracting Officer’s request for documentation. Offerors must not regard these communications as an authorization to commit or expend funds. Unless a Government Contracting Officer signs the award document (i.e., contract), no obligations to provide funding are made. The government may reject the proposal or cancel the contract action at any time.