SBIR & STTR competition data — free

Selection rates, Phase I→II conversion, and who actually wins — computed from sbir.gov's public award records (219,320 awards, 1983–2026) and the SBA's annual reports. The numbers the expensive intelligence platforms charge for, minus the ones nobody actually has.

By agency

Department of Defense → Phase I selection: 18.2%

6,444 proposals → 1,172 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 46% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 17% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 59% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

HHS / NIH → Phase I selection: 15.9%

4,121 proposals → 654 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 36% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 31% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 30% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

NASA → Phase I selection: 19.4%

1,433 proposals → 278 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 52% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 23% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 51% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

Department of Energy → Phase I selection: 19.5%

1,925 proposals → 376 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 37% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 24% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 46% (FY2024)

Data through FY2024.

NSF → Phase I selection: 10.8%

2,259 proposals → 245 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 31% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 65% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 0% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

USDA → Phase I selection: 14.9%

523 proposals → 78 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 51% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 49% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 6% (FY2024)

Data through FY2024.

Commerce / NIST & NOAA → Phase I selection: 11.1%

352 proposals → 39 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 51% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 67% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 1% (FY2024)

Data through FY2024.

Department of Education → Phase I selection: 5.6%

213 proposals → 12 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 54% (2010 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 54% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 15% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

DOT → Phase I selection: 6.1%

196 proposals → 12 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 64% (2020 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 49% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 18% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

DHS → Phase I selection: 21.9%

137 proposals → 30 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 47% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 35% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 39% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

EPA → Phase I selection: 15.9%

195 proposals → 31 awards (SBA, FY2022)

Phase I→II conversion: 26% (2022 cohort, computed)

First-time winners: 68% · firms with 5+ prior awards: 0% (FY2025)

Data through FY2025.

Look up a topic

Award history and computed conversion per topic where the cohort is old enough to judge. Applicant counts per topic are published by no one — see below.

How to read these numbers (the honest part)

Sourced vs computed: Phase I/II selection rates (applications → awards) come from the SBA's SBIR/STTR Annual Report — FY2022 is the latest published edition, and SBA itself calls the rates estimates because proposal cohorts span fiscal years. Phase I→II conversion and first-timer shares are computed by us from sbir.gov's public award records. Linked by firm + agency + topic (suffix-tolerant for DOE's phase renumbering) with a title-similarity fallback for NSF; ~90% of links match on topic, ~5% ambiguity.

What nobody publishes: per-topic application counts are published by no one — not the agencies, and not the $500–$42,000-a-year intelligence platforms either; the data simply isn't public. Any per-topic number on this site is award-side only (who won, how often winners repeat), never your odds of selection.

Sources: sbir.gov award data · SBA FY22 Annual Report. Free to use; verify anything critical against the originals.

Refreshed weekly from sbir.gov's bulk data (last ingest 2026-08-03). Looking for regular federal grants instead? GrantsDue's main database covers every open grants.gov opportunity.