SBIR Funding Opportunities Report | Edition #7

By Akela Consulting

December 17, 2024

This time of year is one of the busiest for SBIR programs. Take a look at some of the open SBIR opportunities due in early 2025.

Akela Spotlight - DoD SBIR is Back        

Dual-Use Technology | DoD SBIR | February 5, 2025

Phase I ~$180k - $250k / Phase II up to $2M

With over 130 topics spanning a wide range of technologies the first cycle of Department of Defense’s 2025 SBIR program is packed with opportunity.

Here are some of the focus areas and a few sample topics:

• Mixed Reality
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Navigation Systems - Passive Positioning Sensing and Navigation in GPS-Denied Environment
• Deep Neural Networks
• Supply Chain Analytics
• Energy - Autonomous Charging and Energy Management for Large Drone Fleets
• Autonomous Robotics
• Unmanned Aerial Systems and Counter UAS Systems - Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Advanced Networking Interoperability / Persistent Airborne cUAS surveillance
• Advanced Infrastructure & Advanced Manufacturing
• Advanced Battery Technologies
• Cybersecurity - Resilience against Supply Chain Cyber Vulnerabilities
• Large Language Models
• Data and Sharing - Open Architecture Solution for Data Transfer / Automated Data Synchronization Across Multiple Databases
• Advanced Materials, and more.

If this piques your interest, consider taking a few minutes to explore these topics further and see if any align with your development plans.

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Upcoming        

Measurement Science Innovation | NIST SBIR | December 27, 2024

Phase I $100k / Phase II $400K

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) agency promotes frontier measurement science. This program is essentially an open-topic for measurement related technology development within these areas of research:

• Advanced Communications ?
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biotechnology
• Cybersecurity and Privacy
• Energy Technologies
• Manufacturing
• Quantum Information Science
• Resilience – impact of hazards, disasters, wildfire on communities and infrastructure. ?
• Standards ?

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Biotech, med-device, dig. health, & more | The NIH SBIR Program | Jan. 5, 2025

Phase I $307k / Phase II $2.04M

The National Institute of Health has an annual budget of $1.3B to fund small businesses over a wide-range of health related technology and drug development.

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Secure Wireless Data Transfer | Army SBIR | Jan. 8, 2025

Phase I $250k / Direct-to-Phase II $2M ?

The Army seeks to fund the development and implementation of a secure wireless data transfer solution for Predictive Logistics. This program is also accepting Direct-to-Phase II proposals.

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Weather, water, and Atmosphere Tech | NOAA SBIR | Jan. 15, 2025

Phase I $190k / Phase II $690k

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) SBIR program invites proposals addressing six critical challenges:

• Extreme Events and Cascading Hazards
• Coastal Resilience
• The Changing Ocean
• Water Availability, Quality, and Risk
• Effects of Space Weather
• Monitoring and Modeling for Climate Change Mitigation

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Homeland Security Related Tech | The DHS SBIR | Jan. 21, 2025

Phase I $175k / Phase II $1M - $1.5M

The DHS SBIR program is seeking innovative solutions to address significant challenges in public safety, cybersecurity, and advanced technology. If your work aligns, this could be a great opportunity.

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Energy Supporting Technology | DoE SBIR | February 26, 2025

Phase I - up to $250k / Phase II - up to $1.6M

The Department of Energy invests in a wide range of tech segments in addition to typical energy solutions. This proposal period is focused on small business funding coming from 7 different offices within the DoE.

Let’s take a look at some of the research topics each office is looking to fund:

• Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response?- ?Seeking to fund innovation for AI enabled detection and analysis of cyber attacks as well as technologies that help mitigate physical damage to electrical installations.
• Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation – Seeking to fund innovation for quantum sensors, AI, Federated Learning as a Service (FLaaS), radiation detection, and much more.
• Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – Seeking to fund digital twin, electronics manufacturing, material refining, recycling, bioenergy, data collection and analysis, cyber security, innovative software, EV battery, solar and water energy?and much more.
• Office of Nuclear Energy – Seeking to fund innovation for modeling & simulation, high speed power electronics. Fuel synthesis, software development, robotics and much more.??
• Office of Environmental Management – Seeking to fund innovation for monitoring soil, treatment of soil for PFAS and microplastics, decontamination methods of equipment, robotics , and much more?
• Office of Electricity – Seeking to fund innovation for advanced grid technologies for database development and visualization tools.??
• Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management – Seeking to fund innovation for conversion capture, conversion, and storage as well as CO2 removal.

Deep-Tech Innovation | NSF SBIR | March 5, 2025

Phase I $305k / Phase II $1.25M ?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is essentially an open-topic SBIR with an agenda to help foster American technology innovation. This program prioritizes high risk innovations with the potential to make a large market impact. ?

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

Special Mention        

Dual-Use Open Topic | AFWERX SBIR | March 6, 2025

Direct to Phase II (D2P2) $1.25M ?

AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force’s innovation arm, challenges you to demonstrate how your solutions can serve the Air Force’s needs. This cycle, the program is exclusively seeking Direct-to-Phase II (D2P2) proposals. Any technology is fair game—as long as it helps the Air Force achieve its goals. To qualify, you’ll need to secure a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from an Air Force customer as the first step toward success.

Talk to Akela Consulting about this program

That’s all for this Funding Opps Report. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Have a great day,

Josh Bar-on

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www.akelaconsultants.com