Small businesses are crucial to innovative research and development efforts. Their nimble approach to solving technology challenges makes them valuable partners and results in important advances for S&T’s stakeholders. That’s why the Directorate is proud to participate in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, which is a Congressionally-mandated effort to foster technological innovation through small businesses to meet federal research and development needs.
The SBIR Program consists of three phases:
- In Phase I, successful applicants receive funding to determine the scientific and technical merit and feasibility of their proposed effort.They spend about six months studying the viability and potential impact of their concepts.
- If the initial exploratory process is successful, SBIR awardees can move to Phase II, where they receive additional funding for further research and development.They have up to two years develop prototypes and demonstrate their capability.
- In Phase III, the focus shifts to commercialization of the product, service, and/or research that was developed during previous phases.This phase is funded by sources other than the SBIR program, but the work still has SBIR status and data rights.
Given the SBIR Program‘s continued progress, S&T is proud to share its most recent success stories. This document highlights some of the companies who have made lasting impacts in the fields of particulate analysis, situational awareness, emergency management, and more. It truly shows we couldn’t bridge capability gaps without their help.
I encourage you to read and see how small businesses around the nation are working hard to help us support the Homeland Security Enterprise. I’m proud of what all of the participating small businesses have achieved, and I’m excited to see how future SBIR Program awardees continue to advance our nation’s homeland security capabilities. These successes are part of an ongoing commitment to incorporate small business innovation into the DHS acquisition strategy. The next DHS SBIR solicitation is planned for December, and I look forward to sharing success stories from some of those efforts in a future publication.