The NASA SBIR and STTR programs fund the research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that fulfill NASA needs as described in the annual Solicitations and have significant potential for successful commercialization. If you are a small business concern (SBC) with 500 or fewer employees or a non-profit RI such as a university or a research laboratory with ties to an SBC, then NASA encourages you to learn more about the SBIR and STTR programs as a potential source of seed funding for the development of your innovations.
The SBIR and STTR programs have 3 phases:
The SBIR and STTR Phase I contracts last for 6 months with a maximum funding of $125,000, and Phase II contracts last for 24 months with a maximum funding of $750,000 - $1.5 million.
Opportunity for Continued Technology Development Post-Phase II:
The NASA SBIR/STTR Program currently has in place two initiatives for supporting its small business partners past the basic Phase I and Phase II elements of the program that emphasize opportunities for commercialization. Specifically, the NASA SBIR/STTR Program has the Phase II Enhancement (Phase II-E) and Phase II eXpanded (Phase II-X) contract options.
Please review the links below to obtain more information on the SBIR/STTR programs.
Provides an overview of the SBIR and STTR programs as implemented by NASA
Provides access to the annual SBIR/STTR Solicitations containing detailed information on the program eligibility requirements, proposal instructions and research topics and subtopics
Schedule and links for the SBIR/STTR solicitations and selection announcements
Federal and non-Federal sources of assistance for small business
Search our complete archive of awarded project abstracts to learn about what NASA has funded
Still have questions? Visit the program FAQs
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":73,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36648,"title":"Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer","acronymOrTitle":"SBIR/STTR"},"description":"To address the NASA GRC Laboratory need for navigation capabilities to provide location awareness, precision position fixing, best heading, and traverse path planning for planetary EVA, manned rovers, and lunar surface mobility units, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Lunar completely Autonomous Automatic Surface Navigation (LAAN) system. This system will incorporate a POC-developed highly-efficient miniature self-mixing interferometric speedometer sensor, POC's proprietary tunable liquid crystal lens autofocusing system, and a robust prediction tracking algorithm that will enable us to meet NASA lunar mission requirements. The LAAN system will offer position accuracy better than 2.5 m with 95% probability per 0.5 hr of motion without interaction with other positioning systems, and be compact (less than 10 cubic in.), lightweight (less than 8 oz), and consume less than 0.5 W. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of LAAN by creating and testing a preliminary prototype, which will demonstrate TRL-4 by the end of Phase I. In Phase II, POC plans to develop a fully functional prototype and demonstrate its complete feasibility (TRL-6). The results will offer NASA capabilities to provide better navigation for lunar mobile units during creation of scientific, industrial, and transport facilities, space monitoring stations, etc.","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","viewCount":777,"destinationType":[],"lastUpdated":"10/10/18","favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"projectContacts":[],"programContacts":[{"contactId":206378,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Jason","lastName":"Kessler","fullName":"Jason L Kessler","fullNameInverted":"Kessler, Jason L","middleInitial":"L","email":"jason.l.kessler@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":143,"programId":73,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":62051,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Carlos","lastName":"Torrez","fullName":"Carlos Torrez","fullNameInverted":"Torrez, Carlos","email":"carlos.torrez@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":194,"programId":73,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"leadOrganization":{"organizationId":4853,"organizationName":"Johnson Space Center","acronym":"JSC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Houston","stateTerritoryId":29,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"77058","projectId":7798,"projectOrganizationId":10243,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"},"otherOrganizations":[{"organizationId":4853,"organizationName":"Johnson Space Center","acronym":"JSC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Houston","stateTerritoryId":29,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"77058","projectId":7798,"projectOrganizationId":10243,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"},{"organizationId":2728,"organizationName":"Physical Optics Corporation","organizationType":"Industry","city":"Torrance","stateTerritoryId":59,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"CA","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"California","stateTerritoryId":59,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"","dunsNumber":"153865951","uei":"GELNG3K35FA5","cageCode":"0AZ36","congressionalDistrict":"California 43","projectId":7798,"projectOrganizationId":13730,"organizationRole":"Supporting_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Supporting Organization","organizationTypePretty":"Industry"}],"primaryTx":{"taxonomyNodeId":11089,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11087,"code":"TX04.1.2","title":"State Estimation","description":"State estimation uses inputs from inertial sensors, vision systems, and other sensors to provide essential knowledge of the relative position, attitude, and motion of a vehicle near or on the surface of other bodies and knowledge of the internal state of the system (i.e., system health status).","exampleTechnologies":"Vision-based aiding of dead reckoning for navigation of surface vehicles, map-based position estimation for navigation of surface vehicles, vision-based aiding of dead reckoning for above-surface vehicles, map-based position estimation for navigation of above-surface vehicles, radio frequency (RF) navigation aiding for above-surface vehicles, altimeter for small above-surface vehicles, manipulator state estimation, manipulation object state estimation","level":3,"hasChildren":false,"selected":false,"isPrimary":true,"hasInteriorContent":true},"primaryTxTree":[[{"taxonomyNodeId":11086,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"code":"TX04","title":"Robotic Systems","level":1,"hasChildren":true,"selected":false,"hasInteriorContent":true},{"taxonomyNodeId":11087,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11086,"code":"TX04.1","title":"Sensing and Perception","description":"Sensing and perception provides situational awareness for exploration robots, human-assistive robots, and autonomous vehicles and improves drones and piloted aircraft navigation and flight.","level":2,"hasChildren":true,"selected":false,"hasInteriorContent":true},{"taxonomyNodeId":11089,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11087,"code":"TX04.1.2","title":"State Estimation","description":"State estimation uses inputs from inertial sensors, vision systems, and other sensors to provide essential knowledge of the relative position, attitude, and motion of a vehicle near or on the surface of other bodies and knowledge of the internal state of the system (i.e., system health status).","exampleTechnologies":"Vision-based aiding of dead reckoning for navigation of surface vehicles, map-based position estimation for navigation of surface vehicles, vision-based aiding of dead reckoning for above-surface vehicles, map-based position estimation for navigation of above-surface vehicles, radio frequency (RF) navigation aiding for above-surface vehicles, altimeter for small above-surface vehicles, manipulator state estimation, manipulation object state estimation","level":3,"hasChildren":false,"selected":true,"hasInteriorContent":true}]],"technologyOutcomes":[],"libraryItems":[],"states":[{"abbreviation":"CA","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"California","stateTerritoryId":59,"isTerritory":false},{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false}],"endDateString":"Jul 2009","startDateString":"Jan 2009"}}