Department of Energy — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2024 · Department of Energy uploads award data on a lag; FY2026 is only partially reported so far.
1,925 proposals → 376 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
621 proposals → 223 awards (same source).
2022 Phase I cohort: 164 of 442 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
24% to first-time winners · n=554 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 664 | 440 | 224 | $200k | $1.1M |
| 2021 | 694 | 465 | 229 | $200k | $1.1M |
| 2022 | 689 | 442 | 247 | $200k | $1.1M |
| 2023 | 583 | 390 | 193 | $200k | $1.1M |
| 2024 | 554 | 361 | 193 | $200k | $1.1M |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 149 | 7 | 5% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2024 | 361 | 64 | 18% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2023 | 390 | 155 | 40% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2022 | 442 | 164 | 37% | |
| 2021 | 465 | 206 | 44% | |
| 2020 | 440 | 196 | 44% | |
| 2019 | 418 | 184 | 44% | |
| 2018 | 407 | 183 | 45% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 149 | 20% | 27% | 53% |
| 2024 | 361 | 35% | 22% | 43% |
| 2023 | 390 | 31% | 26% | 44% |
| 2022 | 442 | 33% | 21% | 46% |
| 2021 | 465 | 35% | 17% | 48% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| RADIATION MONITORING DEVICES, INC. | 76 | $45.2M |
| RADIABEAM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC | 49 | $30.9M |
| ADVANCED COOLING TECHNOLOGIES INC | 40 | $24.5M |
| TDA RESEARCH, INC. | 40 | $21.6M |
| PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. | 32 | $15.7M |
| RADIASOFT LLC | 29 | $15.1M |
| Faraday Technology, Inc. | 26 | $17.7M |
| RADIABEAM SYSTEMS, LLC | 24 | $17.4M |
| GINER INC | 23 | $12.4M |
| Coreform Inc. | 23 | $16.2M |
Search Department of Energy 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.
Freshness: Department of Energy uploads award data on a lag; FY2026 is only partially reported so far.
Sources: sbir.gov award data · SBA FY22 Annual Report. Free to use; verify anything critical against the originals.