The mission of America's Seed Fund is support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of federal research funds in critical American priorities.
Program Goals
- Stimulate technological innovation.
- Meet Federal research and development needs.
- Foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons.
- Increase private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal research and development funding.
In addition, the STTR program aims to:
- Foster technology transfer through cooperative R&D between small businesses and research institutions.
A History of Success
1980
Qualcomm
“The SBIR program was among the critical factors that contributed to Qualcomm’s early success…” - Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Co-Founder of Qualcomm
2001
IntraLase Corporation
Development of lasers for Lasik eye surgery.
2020
Perseverance Rover on Mars
Eight SBIR technologies are enabling the Mars Perseverance rover, which is designed to better understand the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life
Impact Reports
1,508,295 Jobs
The research team found that the total employment resulting from the DoD SBIR/STTR awards in this study was 1,508,295 job years, or an average of 65,578 jobs per year over the 23-year period from 1995-2017.
Supporting Diversity
More diversity means more innovation.
America's Seed Fund supports all of our nation's startups. We foster and encourage participation by women, people of color, and people from all socioeconomic backgrounds and communities across the United States. We track participation by women-owned small businesses (WOSB), socially and economically disadvantaged businesses (SDB), and small businesses in historically underutilized business areas (HUBZone).
