For six months, the SBIR and STTR programs were stuck. Their legal authority expired on September 30, 2025, and agencies couldn’t issue new solicitations until Congress acted. For a lot of small defense tech companies, that meant a pipeline of Phase I and Phase II work simply stopped.
That’s over. And with a new fiscal year starting under a continuing resolution, we’ve been getting the same question from founders: is SBIR safe to plan around right now?
Short version: yes. Here’s what changed, what didn’t, and what we’d do with the next three weeks.
SBIR and STTR reauthorization: what actually passed
On April 13, 2026, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act became Public Law 119-83. It reauthorized SBIR, STTR and the related pilot programs through September 30, 2031, ending what the Congressional Research Service called a six-month lapse in authority.
A few details matter for planning:
- Five years of runway. A 2031 sunset means you can plan a Phase I to Phase II to Phase III path without betting on another reauthorization fight next fall.
- Carry-over funds. Section 9 lets agencies that have SBIR or STTR money left at the end of fiscal 2026 use it in fiscal 2027. Some of the money that couldn’t be awarded during the lapse can still go out.
- Foreign influence and eligibility got attention. CRS notes the law addressed foreign influence, eligibility and commercialization, which were the subject of debate before it passed. Expect due-diligence questions about ownership, investors and foreign ties to be taken seriously.
Crowell & Moring’s summary is a good read if you want the legal detail.
Does the continuing resolution stop SBIR?
No. This is the most common confusion we hear, and BW&CO lays it out clearly: last year’s stoppage was an authorization problem. A continuing resolution is a funding question.
SBIR doesn’t have its own appropriation. Agencies with more than $100 million in extramural R&D set aside 3.2% of it for SBIR, and agencies above $1 billion set aside another 0.45% for STTR. The reauthorization left those percentages alone. Under the CR, agency R&D budgets continue at the fiscal 2026 rate, so the SBIR share continues with them.
What a CR can do is slow award decisions. Plan for that. Don’t plan for a stop.
The October 21 deadline
The current Department of War SBIR/STTR release closes October 21. If you were waiting for the dust to settle, it has. Three weeks is enough time to submit a solid Phase I if you start now and stay focused.
What we’d do in the next three weeks
1. Pick one topic and say no to the rest
The temptation after a long pause is to chase every topic that’s close to your product. Don’t. One strong proposal beats three rushed ones. Pick the topic where you can show the clearest technical approach and the most believable path to a real user.
2. Write the technical approach like an engineer will read it
Reviewers aren’t grading prose. They want to know you understand the problem, have a specific plan, and know where the risk is. A good technical volume names:
- The system you’ll build or prove out, at the architecture level
- The data it needs and where that data comes from
- How you’ll know it worked: measurable results, not adjectives
- What you won’t do in Phase I, and why
3. Plan Phase II now
Phase I is short and small. The real goal is Phase II, and after that, a program office that wants to keep paying for it. Write the Phase I so its results feed directly into a Phase II scope. If you can’t sketch what Phase II looks like, the Phase I is probably too vague.
4. Line up your engineering capacity
This is where a lot of small teams get stuck. A founder with a strong concept and two engineers can win a Phase I and then struggle to deliver it while also running the company. Decide now who’s going to build what:
- What stays in-house because it’s your core IP
- What a trusted partner can build under your direction
- Who owns architecture, security and delivery
5. Get your security house in order
Even at Phase I, you’ll be asked how you handle sensitive information. Make sure you know what kind of data you’ll touch, where it’ll live, and who can get to it. If you expect to handle Controlled Unclassified Information later, start designing for it now rather than retrofitting.
Where we fit
We’re a San Antonio engineering firm. We help defense and dual-use startups with the technical side of SBIR work: shaping the technical approach, designing the architecture, and building the software when a Phase I or Phase II comes through. We also act as a fractional CTO for teams that need senior technical leadership without a full-time hire.
You can see more about the kind of work we do on our defense and dual-use page.
The bottom line
SBIR and STTR are authorized through 2031, they keep running under the CR, and the next DoW deadline is October 21. The programs are stable enough to plan around again. Pick one topic, write a technical approach an engineer would respect, and make sure you can actually deliver what you propose.
If you want a second set of eyes on a technical volume before you submit, book a call.
