SBIR/STTR Reauthorized
President Trump signed a bill reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs through fiscal 2031, restoring statutory authority after a lapse that began last September. The law includes reforms framed around national security and restores federal funding pathways for defence and aerospace startups that had been in limbo. (executivegov.com)
President Donald Trump signed the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act on April 13, restoring the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs through September 30, 2031. (sba.gov) Congress sent the bill to the White House on April 2 after the Senate passed it by voice vote on March 3 and the House approved it 345-41 on March 17. (congress.gov) (smallbusiness.house.gov) The law revives two federal programs that give research grants to small companies: Small Business Innovation Research for agency-led research contracts, and Small Business Technology Transfer for projects that pair a company with a research institution. Congress created Small Business Innovation Research in 1982 and Small Business Technology Transfer in 1992. (congress.gov) The programs had been running without fresh statutory authority since September 30, 2025, when Congress missed the deadline to renew them. That lapse left agencies and startups waiting on whether new awards could move forward. (congress.gov) (crowell.com) The new law keeps the programs alive for five more years and adds security screening aimed at blocking applicants with risky foreign ties. Congress.gov says agencies must evaluate whether applicants present security risks and give companies the basis for a denial. (congress.gov) (govtrack.us) It also creates a new post-research funding lane for companies that have already cleared earlier stages. Agencies with more than $100 million in annual Small Business Innovation Research obligations can use up to 0.5 percent of their extramural research budgets for “strategic breakthrough” awards worth as much as $30 million over as long as 48 months. (wiley.law) (congress.gov) The law also tells agencies to cap how many Phase I and Phase II proposals a company can file each year, a change aimed at repeat applicants that have drawn scrutiny in past reauthorization fights. It expands training for contracting officers on Phase III, the commercialization stage where companies try to turn federally backed prototypes into procurement deals or private-market products. (congress.gov 1) (congress.gov 2) The Small Business Administration said the two programs have invested more than $81 billion in over 34,000 small businesses since 1982. The agency listed Qualcomm, Biogen, Illumina, iRobot, and Anduril among companies that received support early in their development. (sba.gov) For defense and space startups, the immediate effect is that a federal funding pipeline that stalled last fall now has legal authority through fiscal 2031. The next test is how quickly agencies reopen solicitations, apply the new security rules, and decide whether to use the new breakthrough awards. (executivegov.com) (wiley.law)
