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Federal R&D grant programs

The federal SBIR and STTR programs, through which eleven agencies fund research and development at small companies without taking equity. One entry per agency program, with what it awarded in the latest fully reported fiscal year.

  • All 17, by name and place. With what each one does, in its own words or the register’s.
  • From the public record. From SBIR.gov award data and participating agencies, linked to each entry’s source.
  • Take it with you. Every capital source as CSV, and all of them searchable together in Capital Sources.

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17 federal R&D grant programs on the record

Federal R&D grant programs, by name
SourceLocationOn the record
Department of Agriculture SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $36MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Agriculture: 105 awards totalling $35.7 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Agriculture STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $4.5MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the Department of Agriculture: 18 awards totalling $4.5 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Commerce SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $24MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Commerce: 82 awards totalling $24.4 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Defense SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $2.5BSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Defense: 2,787 awards totalling $2.49 billion in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Defense STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $385MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the Department of Defense: 654 awards totalling $384.7 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Education SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $14MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Education: 23 awards totalling $14.0 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Energy SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $275MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Energy: 480 awards totalling $275.2 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Energy STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $34MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the Department of Energy: 74 awards totalling $34.5 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Health and Human Services SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $1.1BSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Health and Human Services: 993 awards totalling $1.09 billion in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Health and Human Services STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $144MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the Department of Health and Human Services: 232 awards totalling $144.4 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Homeland Security SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $15MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Homeland Security: 31 awards totalling $15.2 million in fiscal year 2024.
Department of Transportation SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $14MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Department of Transportation: 40 awards totalling $14.4 million in fiscal year 2024.
Environmental Protection Agency SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $5MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the Environmental Protection Agency: 29 awards totalling $5.0 million in fiscal year 2024.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $156MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: 373 awards totalling $155.8 million in fiscal year 2024.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $26MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: 72 awards totalling $25.7 million in fiscal year 2024.
National Science Foundation SBIRFederal R&D grant program—SBIR awards, fiscal year 2024: $174MSmall Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Science Foundation: 361 awards totalling $174.2 million in fiscal year 2024.
National Science Foundation STTRFederal R&D grant program—STTR awards, fiscal year 2024: $24MSmall Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program of the National Science Foundation: 58 awards totalling $23.7 million in fiscal year 2024.

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About the data

Federal R&D grant programs. The federal SBIR and STTR programs, through which eleven agencies fund research and development at small companies without taking equity. One entry per agency program, with what it awarded in the latest fully reported fiscal year. One entry per agency program: each agency on sbir.gov’s Participating Federal Agencies page, once for SBIR and once for STTR when it runs both. Awards and dollars are counted from sbir.gov’s award file (award_data_no_abstract.csv, linked from https://www.sbir.gov/data-resources, dated 2026-10-07) by its Agency, Program, Award Year (“the fiscal year of the award”) and Award Amount columns; Phase II counts awards whose phase begins “Phase II”, including Direct to Phase II. Fiscal year 2024 is the latest in which every listed agency has awards in the file (6,412 awards, $4.91 billion in all): when read, fiscal year 2025 had 5,219 awards and none from Department of Agriculture; fiscal year 2026 had 303 awards and none from Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; agencies report to sbir.gov after a year ends, so later years are still filling in. The Phase I and Phase II amounts, the funding type and the agency’s program page (the link the page labels “Agency Website”; Commerce has one for NIST and one for NOAA) are as the agencies page gives them, per agency and not per program. The page heads the Department of Defense’s card “Department of War (DOW)”; the award file calls it the Department of Defense, as here. No company, award title or person in the award file is read. As of October 7, 2026. Source: SBIR.gov award data and participating agencies.

Organizations only: no individuals are listed. A listing is a public record, not a recommendation.

Data feed: every capital source as CSV.

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