The federal agencies participating in SBIR have the responsibility for selecting topics, releasing solicitations, evaluating proposals received, and awarding funding agreements on a competitive basis. The Small Business Administration has responsibilities for coordinating the SBIR program. The SBA information is not a substitution for specific agency data. You must make specific requests to those agencies each year. Worldwide commercial rights to any patents normally go to the small company.
Federal agencies issue solicitation bulletins at least once per year.
The list contains research problem areas or topics on which they are willing to accept proposals from small businesses. Phase 3 is the commercialization of the prototype, and is not federally funded. A small business must find an agency and a current solicitation topic that is relevant to their own technology skills, business plan, and innovative concept. Competitions pit one small business against another for proposals on how they can meet the specific federal agency research need. Each small business generally tries to find a subject solicitation that is not just helpful to the supporting federal agency, but also capable of leading to a new product, service, or process that will increase production in the private sector and still fit within that small business' own plans.