The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has amended its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Policy Directives in response to public comments and input from all parties involved in the program.  These amendments – – published on January 8, 2014 in the Federal Register – – can be found and reviewed at https://federalregister.gov/a/2013-31374 for SBIR, and https://federalregister.gov/a/2013-31376 for STTR.

The SBIR Program Policy Directive makes several key changes to the SBIR Program relating to eligibility, the SBIR award process, SBIR Program administration, and fraud, waste and abuse.  The changes to the STTR Program Policy Directive have been made to maintain concordance with the SBIR program.  SBA also made several minor clarifying changes to ensure that the participants in both programs clearly understand certain program requirements.

On December 31, 2011, the President signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. That Act contained the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011, which amended the Small Business Act and made several amendments to the SBIR and STTR programs and required SBA to issue amendments to the Policy Directives and publish the amendment in the Federal Register.  SBA did so on August 6, 2012.

SBA sought public comments on the final Directives, and stated that it may amend the Directives in response to these comments at a later time.  This resulted in the January 2014 changes.

For more information about SBIR and STTR, please visit www.sbir.gov.