Department of Education — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2025
213 proposals → 12 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
2010 Phase I cohort: 19 of 35 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
54% to first-time winners · n=26 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 29 | 18 | 11 | $200k | $900k |
| 2022 | 21 | 12 | 9 | $250k | $1M |
| 2023 | 24 | 15 | 9 | $250k | $1M |
| 2024 | 23 | 12 | 11 | $250k | $1M |
| 2025 | 26 | 16 | 10 | $250k | $1M |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 35 | 19 | 54% | |
| 2008 | 33 | 16 | 48% | |
| 2006 | 59 | 19 | 32% | |
| 2004 | 54 | 21 | 39% | |
| 2003 | 31 | 21 | 68% | |
| 2002 | 72 | 29 | 40% | |
| 2001 | 55 | 26 | 47% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16 | 75% | 19% | 6% |
| 2024 | 12 | 33% | 42% | 25% |
| 2023 | 15 | 80% | 20% | 0% |
| 2022 | 12 | 83% | 8% | 8% |
| 2021 | 18 | 72% | 22% | 6% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| CHARMTECH LABS LLC | 7 | $4.7M |
| EDIFY TECHNOLOGIES, INC | 4 | $2.5M |
| SIRIUS THINKING, LTD | 3 | $1.5M |
| GAIAXUS LLC | 3 | $1.5M |
| SOWN TO GROW, INC. | 3 | $1.4M |
| MYRIAD SENSORS, INC. | 3 | $2.1M |
| FUTURE ENGINEERS LLC | 3 | $1.4M |
| LITERABLY, INC | 3 | $1.4M |
| 2SIGMA SCHOOL INC | 2 | $1.2M |
| CHIBITRONICS INC | 2 | $1.2M |
Search Department of Education 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.