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Useful Stats: 10-year SBIR awards by state and agency, 2013-2022

May 11, 2023
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By: Conor Gowder

In anticipation of America's Seed Fund week on May 15-18, 2023, this article will explore the last 10 years of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program award data. These data cover all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

SBIR is a highly competitive awards-based program that funds small businesses to support R&D projects with potential for commercialization. Eleven federal agencies participate in the SBIR program, each with varying budgets, requirements, and goals.

The treemap below shows a visual, interactive breakdown of agency award share at the state level. Clicking any box zooms further into the map, showing the awards per agency--and branch when applicable--by phase.

For example, clicking on the outer ring of CA shows the share of agencies proportionally sized to the number of awards. Within each applicable agency, the branch is visible, and clicking inside either the agency or branch shows a breakdown of the number of SBIR awards by Phase (I or II). Additionally, the dropdown menu near the top left can select one state at a time.

Between 2013 and 2022, more than 50,000 SBIR awards were granted across all participating agencies, with a majority located in California (21% of all awards), Massachusetts (11%), and Virginia (6%). States like North Dakota, Alaska, and Mississippi each had less than 0.1% of all awards.

The bulk of SBIR awards came from the Department of Defense (DoD at 47%) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS at 22%). Thirty-six states received most of their SBIR awards from DoD over the past 10 years; 17 of these states received more than 50% of their total SBIR awards from the agency.

sbir, useful stats, states