DOT — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2025
196 proposals → 12 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
2020 Phase I cohort: 21 of 33 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
49% to first-time winners · n=45 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | 19 | 19 | $150k | $500k |
| 2022 | 29 | 12 | 17 | $176k | $500k |
| 2023 | 23 | 12 | 11 | $150k | $992k |
| 2024 | 40 | 26 | 14 | $200k | $500k |
| 2025 | 45 | 28 | 17 | $200k | $999k |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 33 | 21 | 64% | |
| 2015 | 35 | 13 | 37% | |
| 2001 | 38 | 16 | 42% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 28 | 79% | 11% | 11% |
| 2024 | 26 | 62% | 35% | 4% |
| 2023 | 12 | 42% | 42% | 17% |
| 2022 | 12 | 75% | 25% | 0% |
| 2021 | 19 | 63% | 26% | 11% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| NEWPORT SENSORS INC | 6 | $2.5M |
| AIWAYSION INC | 6 | $1.7M |
| Design Interactive, LLC | 6 | $3.7M |
| CREARE LLC | 6 | $3.6M |
| OCEANIT LABORATORIES INC | 4 | $1.8M |
| Integrated Solutions for Systems, Inc. | 4 | $1.3M |
| TDA RESEARCH, INC. | 4 | $1.8M |
| PROTECTION ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS LLC | 4 | $900k |
| INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC MACHINES CORPORATION | 3 | $849k |
| HAAS, INC | 3 | $1.4M |
Search DOT 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.