NSF — SBIR/STTR competition data
Data through FY2025
2,259 proposals → 245 awards. SBA SBIR/STTR Annual Report FY2022 (latest published edition; SBA lags ~2 years).
233 proposals → 114 awards (same source).
2022 Phase I cohort: 101 of 324 won a linked Phase II within 3 years.
65% to first-time winners · n=331 awards.
Awards and typical amounts
| FY | Awards | Phase I | Phase II | Median Phase I | Median Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 496 | 390 | 106 | $256k | $1,000k |
| 2022 | 445 | 324 | 121 | $256k | $999k |
| 2023 | 419 | 278 | 141 | $275k | $1,000k |
| 2024 | 419 | 303 | 116 | $275k | $1,000k |
| 2025 | 331 | 207 | 124 | $305k | $1.2M |
Phase I→II conversion by cohort
| Phase I cohort | Phase I awards | Linked Phase II | Conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 207 | 12 | 6% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2024 | 303 | 20 | 7% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2023 | 278 | 57 | 20% | provisional — cohort still inside the 3-year window |
| 2022 | 324 | 101 | 31% | |
| 2021 | 390 | 102 | 26% | |
| 2020 | 388 | 129 | 33% | |
| 2019 | 361 | 167 | 46% | |
| 2018 | 292 | 124 | 42% |
First-timers vs incumbents (Phase I only)
| FY | Phase I awards | First-time winners | 1–4 prior | 5+ prior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 207 | 97% | 3% | 0% |
| 2024 | 303 | 96% | 4% | 0% |
| 2023 | 278 | 97% | 3% | 0% |
| 2022 | 324 | 96% | 4% | 0% |
| 2021 | 390 | 92% | 8% | 0% |
Most-awarded firms (last 5 FYs)
| Company | Awards | Total obligations |
|---|---|---|
| SOSTOS LLC | 3 | $1.8M |
| EARTHSHOT LABS PBC | 3 | $1.4M |
| ASTEK DIAGNOSTICS INC. | 3 | $1.5M |
| Xheme Inc. | 3 | $1.7M |
| SOCTERA, INC. | 2 | $1.3M |
| GRAVEL CAPITAL LLC | 2 | $1.3M |
| RATTAN LIFE SCIENCE INC | 2 | $1.5M |
| WUI-GO, LLC | 2 | $1.5M |
| INAEDIS, INC | 2 | $1.5M |
| IIAM CORPORATION | 2 | $1.5M |
Search NSF 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.