SBIR/STTR Reauthorization

“Forsee, LLC relies on SBIR/STTR funding to advance early-stage R&D, validate prototypes, and retain specialized technical talent. The lapse in reauthorization has created significant financial uncertainty, delaying planned experiments, pausing collaborations with university and laboratory partners, and forcing us to defer hiring critical personnel. Operational timelines have been disrupted, increasing costs and slowing our ability to translate innovative, high-impact technologies toward commercialization. Continued delays risk the loss of momentum, partnerships, and the competitive advantage that federal innovation programs are designed to support.”

“As an investor, I mentor founders and invest in healthcare companies. These founders rely on SBIR and STTR grants to provide non-dilutive funding that advance their companies through clinical trials and the regulatory process and connect them to other important resources. Investors see these grants as indications of the validation of the potential impact of these companies and a vehicle that de-risks their investment, encouraging more funding from angel and VC funding. SBIR funding has enabled companies that provide quantitative information on hemorrhage during bleeding, a breakthrough device for treatment of osteopenia, and new ways of teaching surgery to trainees, identification of viable embryos for IVF transfer via AI, and many, many more novel solutions that might never have seen the light of day, if not for these grants.”

“We currently have an STTR pending with a letter of intent to award that was supposed to start in December. We counted on this to advance a diagnostic blood test that could prevent heart failure in millions of patients towards commercialization after a successful clinical trial. Businesses need certainty and need to be able to plan to be successful and the uncertainty of reauthorization is creating real dilemmas. Now, we completely have to overthrow our business plans and won’t know if our company will survive past April even with stretching resources to the max. Then this test would never see the light of day and patients would continue to needlessly suffer and waste resources with getting false or no diagnosis at all. Even the delay is causing a lot of stress – laboratory lease, employees, accounting services and a myriad of other services big and small all can’t just be canceled at a whim, this takes months to do and has devastating effects on the entire economy including the companies providing said services. Many of us have stopped buying services, advancing therapies and diagnostics and are just in survival mode- benefiting no one.”

“We submitted an SBIR in September to advance a lung-targeted therapeutic to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and other severe lung conditions with high unmet medical need. The scheduled review was delayed due to the shutdown and even if we receive a favorable review, the funds have not been authorized so no funding could be received. I have written several SBIRs in the past for startups, that were funded by NIH and led to significant results. Without these funds we cannot hire professionals and contract with the US based companies that will help us advance the development of this therapeutic to the benefit of upwards of 200,000 to 400,000 patients annually in ICUs in the US. NSF previously funded this program with a Phase I SBIR, and we are looking to build on that investment and success. These and all programs from NIH and NSF are engines of science and technology advancement respected and emulated around the world. They are one of America’s treasures and hallmark of our scientific and entrepreneurial leadership and should be restored as soon as possible!”

“The reauthorization of SBIRs has been something we could always count on. It, rightfully, had bipartisan support because our legislators knew how important small businesses are to their communities and how important innovation is in improving lives and livelihoods. For the first time, we are at a precipice. If this stalling on reauthorization continues we will not get continuation funds. The work we have done around health literacy in children will immediately stop. We will be forced to cut our workforce to nearly zero. These are hardworking Americans who work in public health fields to make a difference in people’s daily lives. Because we are remote this continued stall impacts employees from the west coast to the east coast, including the Midwest and southeast. These are people that will be unemployed due to a lack of action on a well-respected bipartisan program. Please help our small business and our research survive these times.”

“I have worked for two startup medical technology companies whose early survival and success depended on SBIR and other federal funding programs. For early-stage med tech companies, this capital is not supplemental—it is foundational. The costs of clinical data collection, regulatory compliance, and patient safety requirements create barriers that private capital alone is often unwilling to bear. SBIR funding enables innovation to progress responsibly from concept to commercialization, supporting small businesses, high-skilled jobs, and life-saving technologies. Reinstating the SBIR program promptly is essential to maintaining U.S. leadership in medical innovation and ensuring patients ultimately benefit from these advances.”

“Forta Bio is a newly formed, founder-funded biotech, built on deep foundational research at City of Hope. We prepared and submitted an SBIR Concept Award application in October 2025, only to have that opportunity cancelled due to the SBIR/STTR lapse. We then invested significant time and resources to prepare a full SBIR submission for January 2026, which was also cancelled. These awards were critical to our survival during seed fundraising – non-dilutive funding would have sustained core R&D, enabled key preclinical milestones, and supported hiring. The lapse has forced us to slow execution and stretch limited runway. We urgently need SBIR/STTR reopening to help startups like Forta bridge the ‘valley of death.'”

Integrated Medical Sensors (IMS) has experienced significant delays in multiple SBIR/STTR awards due to the lapse in program authorization. This uncertainty is creating immediate operational and financial strain: we need to sign a new lease to continue scaling our U.S.-based R&D, but we cannot responsibly commit without clarity on when delayed funds will be released. IMS has developed U.S.-engineered technology gaining traction with key U.S. market leaders, and we need timely SBIR/STTR support to meet partner timelines and maintain momentum. The SBIR program has been instrumental to our progress, and delayed reauthorization risks slowing commercialization, hiring, and continued U.S. innovation just as demand is rising.