Department of Defense — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2025
6,444 proposals → 1,172 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
4,751 proposals → 1,334 awards (same source).
2022 Phase I cohort: 796 of 1,722 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
17% to first-time winners · n=2,944 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,483 | 2,209 | 1,274 | $139k | $1,000k |
| 2022 | 3,340 | 1,722 | 1,618 | $150k | $1.1M |
| 2023 | 3,177 | 1,769 | 1,408 | $140k | $1.2M |
| 2024 | 3,441 | 1,890 | 1,551 | $146k | $1.3M |
| 2025 | 2,944 | 1,470 | 1,474 | $146k | $1.4M |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 111 | 0 | 0% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2025 | 1,470 | 74 | 5% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2024 | 1,890 | 558 | 30% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2023 | 1,769 | 756 | 43% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2022 | 1,722 | 796 | 46% | |
| 2021 | 2,209 | 978 | 44% | |
| 2020 | 2,417 | 888 | 37% | |
| 2019 | 2,217 | 1,011 | 46% |
Selection rates by component (SBA FY2022)
| Component | Phase I proposals | Awards | Rate | Phase II rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force | 2,477 | 409 | 16.5% | 22.8% |
| Navy | 1,609 | 306 | 19.0% | — |
| Other components (DARPA, MDA, DHA, SOCOM…) | 1,366 | 370 | 27.1% | 37.0% |
| Army | 992 | 87 | 8.8% | 15.5% |
Computed conversion by DoD component
| Component | Cohort | Phase I | Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force | 2022 | 697 | 42% |
| Navy | 2022 | 382 | 46% |
| Army | 2022 | 200 | 48% |
| Missile Defense Agency | 2022 | 142 | 43% |
| Defense Logistics Agency | 2022 | 67 | 61% |
| Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency | 2022 | 51 | 55% |
| Defense Health Agency | 2022 | 45 | 62% |
| Special Operations Command | 2022 | 38 | 50% |
| Air Force | 2021 | 1,137 | 46% |
| Navy | 2021 | 493 | 40% |
| Army | 2021 | 242 | 36% |
| Missile Defense Agency | 2021 | 63 | 56% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 111 | 20% | 17% | 63% |
| 2025 | 1,470 | 23% | 21% | 56% |
| 2024 | 1,890 | 26% | 21% | 53% |
| 2023 | 1,769 | 25% | 24% | 52% |
| 2022 | 1,722 | 21% | 23% | 57% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. | 299 | $203.9M |
| TRITON SYSTEMS, INC. | 246 | $143.8M |
| INTELLISENSE SYSTEMS INC | 171 | $100M |
| TOYON RESEARCH CORPORATION | 124 | $88.5M |
| CFD Research Corporation | 116 | $71.4M |
| CHARLES RIVER ANALYTICS, INC. | 115 | $83.3M |
| SPECTRAL ENERGIES LLC | 108 | $60.9M |
| LYNNTECH INC. | 104 | $59.5M |
| TDA RESEARCH, INC. | 103 | $60.3M |
| CORVID TECHNOLOGIES, LLC | 101 | $78.3M |
Search Department of Defense 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.