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Stephen Lieberman
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SBIR and STTR (America's Seed Fund)

U.S. Small Business Administration (coordinating 11 participating federal agencies)

NontraditionalPilot / seed funding

Equity-free federal seed funding to small businesses to develop and commercialise a technology or service. Several participating agencies, including HHS components, award it as contracts rather than grants.

Indicative award
$323k–$2.2M (total award)Thresholds as published on the page as of April 2026: Phase I up to $323,090 and Phase II up to $2,153,927, inclusive of modifications. Awards above these levels require an SBA waiver. These are ceilings, not typical awards.
Timing
Several times a yearNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.Each of the 11 participating agencies runs its own solicitation cycle; the page publishes no single deadline. Check the specific agency's SBIR/STTR solicitation schedule.
Who can apply
Practitioner, Any faculty rank, Mid-career & senior
Eligibility
The applicant must be an American small business, not a university. An academic social-work researcher participates as a partner, subawardee or principal investigator based at the small business; under STTR a formal research-institution partner is required. Awards above the published thresholds need an SBA waiver.
SSWR clusters
Topics
seed funding · commercialization · small business · technology development · non-dilutive funding
Apply at
https://www.sbir.gov/about
This entry
Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. Funder link last confirmed to resolve on 2026-09-25.

Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.

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