NOAA invests $5.9M in small businesses to advance innovative technologies

The NOAA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program awarded approximately $5.9 million in Phase II SBIR grants to 12 small businesses. This seed funding will support research and development of innovative technologies in the NOAA mission space. The winning proposals represent projects across multiple research topic areas, which include Blue Economy, ‘Omics, Artificial Intelligence, Uncrewed Systems, and Citizen Science & STEM Education.

The NOAA Phase II competition is open to small businesses that completed a Phase I project funded by the NOAA SBIR Program. Phase II is an opportunity for high-performing small businesses to expand on promising feasibility and proof of concept testing conducted during Phase I and further advance the development of technologies. NOAA Phase II awards are funded at a maximum of $500,000 over 2 years.

The list of NOAA Phase II awardees and their projects titles include: