Nebraska SBIR/STTR Match Program

Nebraska SBIR/STTR Match

Funds Nebraska small businesses to extend federal innovation milestones with state matching support.

Eligibility · United States · US-NE

The Nebraska SBIR/STTR Match Program is one of four programs funded under Nebraska's Business Innovation Act (BIA) and administered by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (NE DED). It provides state matching grants to Nebraska-based for-profit small businesses that are applying for or have already received a federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award from any participating federal agency. The program is designed to extend the impact of federal R&D investment by layering state dollars on top of federal Phase I and Phase II SBIR/STTR awards.

Eligible applicants must be for-profit companies with a principal place of business in Nebraska. The program is sector-agnostic — any technology area eligible for federal SBIR or STTR funding qualifies. Specific award amounts and match percentages for the current fiscal year were not published on the program page available at the time of research; applicants should contact NE DED directly to confirm current award sizes and application requirements before preparing a submission. Like the other BIA programs, funding is allocated on a rolling basis until the annual appropriation is exhausted.

The match program is particularly attractive for Nebraska-based deep-tech, life sciences, hardware, and cleantech startups that have already secured or are actively pursuing federal SBIR/STTR funding. Because federal SBIR/STTR competition is national, the state match provides a meaningful additional incentive for companies to maintain Nebraska headquarters and operations. Interested applicants should reach out to NE DED's Business Innovation Act team at opportunity.nebraska.gov to obtain the current program guide and verify funding availability before beginning the application.