The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a United States Government program, coordinated by U.S. Small Business Administration.  The NWS SBIR program led by OSTI helps facilitate the ability of businesses with less than 500 employees to meet the requirements of a Weather Ready Nation and improve the economy.  Program incorporates annual development of subtopics by NWS scientists and engineers that get included in NOAA SBIR Solicitation in October.  NOAA and non-NOAA employees review proposals for both Phase I (concept development) and Phase II (prototype development) and awards are given during July. NWS also smooths the transition from R&D to commercialization during Phase III.  NWS leads the way with helping NOAA at National SBIR conferences and leading participation in SBIR road tours, which stimulate involvement of companies from states that do not get many awards from SBIR program.

 

Competitive Opportunity for Small Business

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was originally established in 1982 by the Small Business Innovation Development Act (P.L. 97-219), codified at 15 U.S.C. § 638. It was then expanded and extended by the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-564), and received subsequent reauthorization and extensions, the most recent of which extends the SBIR program through 2022. (P.L. 114-328).

Each Federal agency with an extramural budget for research/research and Development (R/R&D) in excess of $100,000,000 must participate in the SBIR program and spend (obligate) a minimum percentage of their extramural R/R&D budgets (obligations) of not less than 3.2% of such budget in fiscal year 2017 and for the percentage required by statute for each fiscal year after for awards to small business concerns (SBCs) for R/R&D under the SBIR program.

▌TOP NEWS

The NOAA and NWS SBIR programs are deep into FY24 cycle.  The FY25 SBIR Solicitation will go out during first 2 weeks of November 2024 and will request small companies for proposals (via Grantsonline) that will address the topics addressed in the solicitation.  These topics are very much related to NOAA R&D goals and strive to meet requirements for improved use of satellite data, integration of new observations, modeling for all spatial scales, and addressal of flood mitigation.  Phase I proposals were reviewed by scientists from NOAA and partner organizations from Jan-Mar 2025 via Online Grants system. Phase II (prototype) proposals were submitted and are related to approved Phase I proposals from FY24.

SBIR Road Tours

In 2015 the director of the Small Business Administration, the honorable Maria Contreras Sweet, came up with a great idea that involved agency SBIR leads travelling from one city to another by bus, especially in states where small companies were not very successful in getting SBIR awards.  Agency reps, like Dr. Roohr (center of photo with NIST rep four people to his right), would fly to one city, talk with companies (short 3-5 min presentations and then interact via one-on-one discussions), and then get on a bus to travel to another city.  There would be four of these visits in one week before reps would fly back to their home locations.  The SBA would host about 4-5 of these on a regional basis annually.  Dr. Roohr participated in seven of these tours (mostly in 2015-2017 period) through 2023.