NOAA SBIR Phase II

NOAA SBIR Phase II (Phase I Awardees)

Supports NOAA related small-business teams in developing follow-on environmental projects after initial approval.

The NOAA SBIR Phase II program, administered by NOAA's Technology Partnerships Office, provides up to $690,000 over up to 24 months to expand Phase I research findings toward full commercialization. The program is not an open annual competition — NOAA invites eligible Phase I awardees to apply on a rolling basis after they complete their Phase I award. Funding is non-dilutive, structured as a grant with no repayment obligation, and awardees retain all intellectual property developed under the program.

Eligibility is restricted to companies that have successfully completed a NOAA SBIR Phase I award. As with Phase I, the company must be a U.S. for-profit small business with 500 or fewer employees including affiliates, American-owned and independently operated, with all work performed in the United States. The awardee must perform at least half of Phase II work in-house. Phase II research must align with the same NOAA science and technology priorities — citizen science, data and cloud computing, uncrewed systems, artificial intelligence, and 'omics — that governed the Phase I award. NOAA's six priority areas favor applied technology that supports NOAA's environmental monitoring, prediction, and ocean science mission.

Phase III — the commercialization-to-market stage — receives no SBIR funds. Companies completing Phase II must secure private sector financing, venture capital, or other federal agency contracts for Phase III. NOAA TPO conducts outreach to facilitate connections between Phase II awardees and potential commercial partners. Applications for Phase II are submitted through Grants.gov when NOAA issues the relevant NOFO; the FY2026 Phase II NOFO had not been posted at the time of catalog ingest. Companies planning for Phase II should budget for the transition period between Phase I completion and Phase II award execution.