DARPA SBIR and STTR awards and R&D opportunities
DARPA funds high-risk research. Besides its SBIR/STTR topics, its offices post office-wide broad agency announcements (BAAs) on SAM.gov that small businesses can answer directly. DARPA's official SBIR/STTR site has its current topics and deadlines.
- Awards, 2022–2026
- 424
- Awarded
- $644 million
- Phase II share
- 75%
- Open DARPA R&D notices
- 25
Open DARPA R&D opportunities, due soonest
25 open notices on SAM.gov have an R&D NAICS code or a BAA, SBIR, STTR or commercial solutions opening in the title.
- 2026 MXO Spark Tank Special Notice
Due in 8 daysOct 19, 2026
- Resilient
✦ DARPA's Defense Sciences Office wants research teams to build a portable machine that ages concrete samples more than 1,000 times faster than nature, plus a computer model that…
Due in 9 daysOct 19, 2026
- Protein ENGineering (PENG)
✦ DARPA's Defense Sciences Office wants teams to build a platform that can edit existing (endogenous) proteins inside living cells, without permanently changing DNA. It is a…
Due in 9 daysOct 19, 2026
- Disruptioneering Program Announcement
✦ DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has posted a standing Program Announcement called Disruptioneering.
Due in 20 daysOct 31, 2026
- High-throughput Unmasking of Biological Interactomes with Binding Landscape Emulators (HUBBLE)
✦ DARPA's Biological Technologies Office wants research teams to build computer (in-silico) models that map protein-protein interactions across the human proteome, using traumatic…
Due in 26 daysNov 5, 2026
- RFI for Next Generation Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
Due in 27 daysNov 6, 2026
Get alerts for R&D notices from DARPA
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Get R&D alertsDARPA and the 2026 SBIR restart
SBIR and STTR lapsed from October 1, 2025 until the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act reauthorized them on April 13, 2026, through September 30, 2031. DoD pre-released its first post-reauthorization topics on April 13, 2026 (open May 6 to June 3) and has released new topics every month since. Its first fiscal year 2027 release pre-released October 7, 2026 and accepts proposals October 28 to November 25, 2026, through the DoD SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP).
DARPA SBIR and STTR awards by year
| Award year | Phase I | Phase II | Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | 3 | 9 | $15.5 million |
| 2025 | 20 | 50 | $100.8 million |
| 2024 | 27 | 57 | $159.2 million |
| 2023 | 7 | 108 | $179.1 million |
| 2022 | 51 | 92 | $189.4 million |
| 2021 | 59 | 68 | $122.1 million |
| 2020 | 53 | 49 | $102.5 million |
| 2019 | 19 | 45 | $83.9 million |
| 2018 | 32 | 79 | $140.4 million |
| 2017 | 146 | 98 | $165.3 million |
| 2016 | 64 | 57 | $92.7 million |
70 of the 424 awards since 2022 were STTR, which requires a research institution partner.
2025 and 2026 are low because the programs' authority lapsed from October 2025 to April 2026, and because agencies report new awards to SBIR.gov months late (some agencies' newest reported awards are from 2024 or 2025).
Top DARPA SBIR recipients
Small businesses with the most DARPA SBIR and STTR dollars since 2022:
| Company | State | Awards | Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy Robot Inc | PA | 1 | $18 million |
| Physical Sciences Inc. | MA | 11 | $17.1 million |
| Triton Systems, Inc. | MA | 11 | $12.8 million |
| Galois, Inc. | OR | 8 | $11.8 million |
| Radiabeam Technologies, LLC | CA | 5 | $9.7 million |
| Episys Science Inc | CA | 3 | $9.5 million |
| Rydberg Technologies Inc | MI | 3 | $9.3 million |
| Charles River Analytics, Inc. | MA | 7 | $9.2 million |
| Scientific Systems Company, Inc. | MA | 7 | $9 million |
| Trusted Science and Technology, Inc. | MD | 5 | $8.4 million |
| Kryptowire, LLC | VA | 5 | $8.3 million |
| Smart Information Flow Technologies LLC | MN | 5 | $7.5 million |
| Cornerstone Research Group Inc | OH | 2 | $7.5 million |
| Influit Energy LLC | IL | 1 | $7.4 million |
| Aether Argus Inc | GA | 5 | $7.3 million |
Newest DARPA SBIR and STTR awards
| Awarded | Company | Project | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 22, 2025 | Technergetics, LLC | SBIR Phase I Comb-Integrated Photonic Hardware for Energy-Efficient Routing (CIPHER) | $249,686 |
| Dec 22, 2025 | Analog Photonics LLC | SBIR Phase I On-Chip Wavelength Generation for DWDM Photonic Transceivers | $249,969 |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Charles River Analytics, Inc. | SBIR Phase II Neural Network Enhancements for Customized Reduced Order Models to Accelerate Nuanced COA Evaluation and… | $1.8 million |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Aimdyn, Inc. | SBIR Phase II Koopman Operator-Based Rapid Adjudication of Federated COA's (KOBRA) | $1.8 million |
| Dec 10, 2025 | Octave Photonics LLC | SBIR Phase I Terabit-Per-Second Integrated Photonic Transceiver for Reduced Optical-Link Power (TIPTOP) | $249,944 |
| Dec 10, 2025 | Physical Sciences Inc. | SBIR Phase II Bio-inspired Energy Dissipating Structures for Enhanced Airdrop Capabilities | $1.8 million |
| Nov 12, 2025 | Toyon Research Corporation | SBIR Phase II Advanced Modeling and Evaluation of Air Combat Autonomy | $1 million |
| Nov 6, 2025 | Spectral Energies LLC | SBIR Phase II Turbulent boundary layer (TBL) Drag Reduction Flight Demonstration via Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma… | $1.8 million |
| Oct 29, 2025 | Galois, Inc. | SBIR Phase II Mapache | $1.4 million |
| Oct 22, 2025 | Whisper Aero Inc | SBIR Phase II Inertial Scaling for Derisking Stability and Control of Tightly Coupled Aeropropulsive Aircraft Configurations | $1.8 million |
| Oct 21, 2025 | Radiant Technologies, Inc. | SBIR Phase II Hybrid AlN PZT PiezoMEMS PDK | $1.3 million |
| Oct 8, 2025 | Abram Scientific Inc | SBIR Phase II CoagCare: Novel Miniaturized Handheld Thromboelastographic Platform for Rapid Assessment of Coagulopathy… | $2 million |
Frequently asked questions
How many SBIR awards does DARPA make?
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made 424 SBIR and STTR awards worth $644 million from 2022 through the latest SBIR.gov data, 316 of them Phase II. The average Phase I award was about $221,753 and average Phase II about $2 million.
Where does DARPA post SBIR topics?
On its official SBIR/STTR site (www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/communities/small-business/sbir-sttr-participate). All DoD components release topics and accept proposals through the DoD SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP). Related R&D solicitations and broad agency announcements are also posted on SAM.gov.
Is DARPA accepting SBIR proposals in 2026?
SBIR and STTR lapsed from October 1, 2025 until the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act reauthorized them on April 13, 2026, through September 30, 2031. DoD pre-released its first post-reauthorization topics on April 13, 2026 (open May 6 to June 3) and has released new topics every month since. Its first fiscal year 2027 release pre-released October 7, 2026 and accepts proposals October 28 to November 25, 2026, through the DoD SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP).
Other SBIR agencies
Air Force · Navy · Army · MDA · DHA · DLA · SOCOM · OSD · CBD · DTRA
Award data from SBIR.gov's public award file, updated monthly; contact and researcher names are left out. Open notices from SAM.gov, updated daily.