Small Business Development Grants

The Small Business Innovation Research (or SBIR ) program is a United States Government program, coordinated by the Small Business Administration, in which a small percentage (currently 2.5%) of the total extramural research budgets of all federal agencies with extramural research budgets in excess of $100 million are reserved for contracts or grants to small businesses.

The program was established with the passing of the Small Business Innovation Development Act in 1982, and must be periodically reauthorized by the United States Congress. Reauthorization was enacted in 1986, 1992, and 2000. The latest authorization was slated to expire September 30, 2008, but was extended by a continuing resolution for six months to March 20, 2009, then again extended by continuing resolution until July 31, 2009.

The SBIR program was created, in the words of program founder Roland Tibbets: "to provide funding for some of the best early-stage innovation ideas -- ideas that, however promising, are still too high risk for private investors, including venture capital firms." For the purposes of the SBIR program, the term "small business" is defined as a for-profit business with fewer than 500 employees, owned by one or more individuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident aliens in, the United States of America.

A similar program, the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR), uses a similar approach to the SBIR program to expand public/private sector partnerships between small businesses and nonprofit U.S. research institutions, and is funded at present at .3% of the relevant agencies' extramural research budgets.

The Small Business Technology Council, a member council of the National Small Business Association, hands out the Tibbetts Award annually "to small firms, projects, organizations and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in SBIR achievement."

Participating agencies

Currently, SBIR programs are in place at the following agencies:

• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Commerce (National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
• Department of Defense
• Department of Education
• Department of Energy
• Department of Health and Human Services (National Institutes of Health)
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of Transportation
• Environmental Protection Agency
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• National Science Foundation

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