Find SBIR and STTR topics for an R&D business

A solicitation cycle is open and you want to know which topics are worth the proposal effort.

Who this is for

Written for Technology startups, engineering firms, SBIR advisors. You bring the commercial question; the published record behind it comes back with the answer, and you can see where each figure came from.

What to bring

Have these to hand before you paste the prompt. Anything you leave out should be asked for rather than guessed at.

Your capability, in a paragraph
The agencies you would work with
Your phase, and whether you have prior awards

Try this prompt

Paste this where you connected HARBOR Port and replace the bracketed parts. It asks for sources and periods on purpose: that is what makes the answer checkable.

Our capability is [description], our target agencies are [agencies], and our phase is [I, II or III]. Find the currently open topics and the closely related past awards. Explain why each match is close, show the cycle, status and dates, and list the requirements I still have to verify in the solicitation.

Then ask a narrower question. These are the ones people ask next.

Which firms have won repeatedly under these topics.

Which of these topics are pre-release rather than open.

What the answer looks like

The shape below is the point of the workflow. If a response arrives without the periods and the source behind each number, ask for them before you use it.

Open and pre-release topics, separated
Why each one is a close match, in the source's own terms
Related past awards, with agency and year
The proposal requirements still to confirm

Limits to keep in view

The funding sources cover the SBIR and STTR programmes and their published topic data, not every grant or funding programme.

Census, BEA and BLS series are published on different calendars and for different periods. Every figure carries the period and geography that were actually returned, not the one that was asked for.

Not answered by this data:

Your revenue, customers, bookings, pipeline or churn
Inventory, capacity, staffing rosters or payroll
Your actual utility bills, fuel spend or supplier quotes
Business credit, insurance premiums, or lending decisions
Permit, licence or certification status
A local forecast, a hazard estimate, or a legal opinion

Where the numbers come from

The answer is built from the published sources below. Each one keeps its own geography, period and definitions, and the answer states which was used.

SBIR.gov topics, solicitations and awards

The exact names, and where to read the detail

sbir-sttr

sbir_sttr_sbir_topics_open
sbir_sttr_sbir_topics_by_agency
sbir_sttr_sbir_solicitations_open
sbir_sttr_dsip_active_solicitation_cycles
sbir_sttr_sbir_topic_search
sbir_sttr_sbir_awards_by_keyword
sbir_sttr_sbir_award_for_topic_code

Scoped to what your plan reaches, and to the sources each workflow names. Reviewing the catalogue first is the cheap way to decide whether this covers your question: source catalogue.