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Timeliness of Awards for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs

GAO-23-105591, October 12, 2022

In fiscal year 2021, 11 federal agencies awarded nearly $3 billion to small businesses across the nation under two Small Business Administration programs: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR). These awards have allowed small businesses to help meet federal agencies’ research and development needs. They also have helped bring innovative products and services to market, such as a machine that helps individuals recover from strokes and other brain injuries.

However, most of the federal agencies issuing these small business awards have not done so consistently within recommended timeframes. Small businesses told us that these delays can be costly, forcing them to let employees go or reduce workers’ hours.

We looked at the timeliness of the 11 federal agencies and their components that issue SBIR/STTR awards. In addition, we looked at timeliness based on the phase of awards. Phase I awards determine whether a project is feasible. Phase II awards further develop work from phase I.


Timeliness of Award Issuance

4,868Awards5,411Awards5,170Awards7,043Awards7,307Awards6,771Awards201620172018201920202021020406080100201620172018201920202021030609012015018021020162017201820192020202100.5B1B1.5B2B2.5B3B
Recommended 180-day award issuance deadlinePhase 2 median issuance timePhase 1 median issuance timeIssued 30 or more days lateIssued less than 30 days lateIssued on timeGovernment Wide AwardsPercentage on time, up to 30 days late, and 30 or more days lateIssuance Times by PhaseTimeliness in Dollar TermsSelect Performance Results by Agency:Percentage of awardsDaysTotal DollarsGOVERNMENT WIDEâ–Ľ

Source: GAO analysis of Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards data. | GAO-23-105591.

Notes:

  • Our analysis includes awards made by agencies through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs from fiscal years 2016 through 2021. SBA's SBIR/STTR policy directive recommends that all but two participating agencies issue awards to small business applicants within 180 calendar days after the close of a solicitation, and recommends that National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) do so within 15 months. In the drop down options above, groupings of agencies that contain these two agencies display the standard 180-day timeframe reference line. For example, the drop down options All civilian agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services have agencies and components with different individual timeframes, but the graphic displays the standard 180-day timeframe reference line.
  • The drop down options for some participating agencies have individual years where they did not issue awards in a given phase, leaving gaps in the time trend graph.
  • Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy negotiates and issues a single award for phases I and II before beginning phase I. According to ARPA-E officials, this approach can lengthen the time to issue an initial award shown in the graph, but can reduce time between phases I and II. We report these awards as phase I awards on the time trend by phase graph.
  • The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency did not issue any SBIR or STTR awards in fiscal year 2016. Therefore, no data are displayed for that year.
  • The maximum scale values of the vertical axes (y-axes) on the graphs above change automatically depending on the selected view and the underlying data.

Department of Defense Compared to Civilian Agencies

20162017201820192020202100.5B1B1.5B2B2016201720182019202020211,860Awards2,372Awards1,957Awards3,693Awards4,005Awards3,501Awards2016201720182019202020210204060801001,354Awards1,375Awards1,431Awards1,435Awards1,576Awards1,549Awards201620172018201920202021
Issued 30 or more days lateIssued less than 30 days lateIssued on timeDepartment of DefenseCivilian AgenciesExcept NIH and NSFTotal DollarsPercentage of awards

Source: GAO analysis of Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards data. | GAO-23-105591

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For more information, read our report, GAO-23-105591.