Glossary
SBIR / STTR (Small Business Innovation Research / Technology Transfer)
Phased federal grant programs for small businesses, structured in three stages — feasibility, development, and transition to production or private capital.
SBIR and STTR are structured, phased grant mechanisms aimed at small businesses rather than large primes. Phase I awards are small, feasibility-study-sized grants. Phase II awards fund further development of work that showed promise in Phase I, at a larger award size. Phase III is the transition to production or further development funded through other, non-SBIR sources — often a direct contract, an OTA follow-on, or private capital — and frequently carries no SBIR/STTR funding at all despite the "Phase III" label.
The phase attached to an SBIR award is a much stronger signal than the award size alone: Phase I means an agency is willing to let a team try; Phase III means the technology is being adopted through a real acquisition pathway.