Department of Defense – SBIR Funding Opportunity is Now Open!
The Department of Defense (DOD) is committed to supporting small businesses through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The 2024.4 and 2024.2 Cycles SBIR funding announcements recently issued offer a multitude of opportunities for small businesses to engage in cutting-edge research and development (R&D) projects that align with the DOD’s mission.
Please read carefully below for topics that may be of your interest. If you are interested in a specific topic, you can enter the main DoD SBIR website to review its specific technology areas, modernization priorities, keywords, and objectives. The topic descriptions also include specific Phase I and Phase II plans for that topic area which provide a guide to the scope of work expected.
Additionally, if you click on the Solicitation Instructions of that specific topic, for example, DoD SBIR 2024.2 and Component Instructions, for example USAF you will find the specific funding guidelines related to that topic and DoD sub agency or component.
Reading and going through these topics can be challenging, so, I have written this Blog Post to help our audience understand how to read through it in a way that allows them to make a decision on whether or not there is an opportunity for that specific company.
Open Topic versus Specific Topic
One of the most important parts of the process is to understand that there are open topics that allow clients to choose the proposed project, instead of solving a specific issue as prescribed in a topic. By now, most of the DoD components have developed an open topic program, for example, the US Air Force, the US Navy, and now more recently the US ARMY.
Pre-Release versus Open and Close Dates
Additionally, another key area to have in mind is that there is generally a 60 day cycle when it comes to the opening of a pre-release period and the closing of that funding opportunity within the DoD SBIR. Typically, this will be divided into two 30 day periods, one for the pre-release where you can ask questions and program officers can respond, and then a “silent” period, where program officers can no longer respond to questions, and clients focus on preparing and submitting their applications.
New Funding Opportunities in the 2024 SBIR Funding Announcement:
An example of the topics available in this round are:
DoD 2024.4: Army (A), Defense Health Agency (DHA), Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Similarly, the topics within the Air Force and Space Force 2024 summer cycle are the following:
Air Force SBIR X24.6 CSO
There are other topics for the DoD STTR 24.B (STTR/ARMY) and for the DOD STTR 2024.D (DARPA).
Should you have any questions, and/or require any support in navigating the DoD landscape feel free to reach out to one of our consultants.
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