DHS — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2025
137 proposals → 30 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
2022 Phase I cohort: 14 of 30 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
35% to first-time winners · n=23 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 47 | 34 | 13 | $150k | $998k |
| 2022 | 44 | 30 | 14 | $150k | $998k |
| 2023 | 37 | 21 | 16 | $150k | $1,000k |
| 2024 | 31 | 19 | 12 | $175k | $999k |
| 2025 | 23 | 16 | 7 | $175k | $1,000k |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 30 | 14 | 47% | |
| 2021 | 34 | 13 | 38% | |
| 2016 | 38 | 19 | 50% | |
| 2015 | 30 | 13 | 43% | |
| 2014 | 34 | 18 | 53% | |
| 2012 | 36 | 19 | 53% | |
| 2011 | 47 | 20 | 43% | |
| 2010 | 51 | 20 | 39% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16 | 44% | 12% | 44% |
| 2024 | 19 | 42% | 21% | 37% |
| 2023 | 21 | 48% | 33% | 19% |
| 2022 | 30 | 60% | 20% | 20% |
| 2021 | 34 | 50% | 18% | 32% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. | 9 | $4M |
| INTELLISENSE SYSTEMS INC | 9 | $2.3M |
| SECURELOGIX CORPORATION | 6 | $3.5M |
| LYNNTECH INC. | 6 | $3M |
| N5 SENSORS INC | 5 | $2.4M |
| TRITON SYSTEMS, INC. | 5 | $2.4M |
| CASPIA TECHNOLOGIES INC | 4 | $2.3M |
| VADUM INC | 3 | $1.3M |
| OCEANIT LABORATORIES INC | 3 | $2.1M |
| DEEP ANALYTICS LLC | 3 | $1.3M |
Search DHS awards by topic code →
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.