DoW SBIR/STTR Program

Also called: Department of War SBIR/STTR Program, DoD SBIR/STTR Program, Defense SBIR/STTR

The Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) SBIR/STTR Program publishes defense research topics from its components, such as the Army, Navy, Air Force and DARPA, as Broad Agency Announcements on DSIP.

A September 2025 executive order made Department of War a secondary title for the Department of Defense. Statutory references to DoD stay in force until the law changes, so many documents and sites still say DoD.

DoW solicits SBIR and STTR proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under the SBA Policy Directive. That directive treats the Army, Navy and Air Force each as its own federal agency and the remaining DoW components as one executive agency.

Proposals must go through the DoW SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) at dodsbirsttr.mil; proposals sent any other way are disregarded. DSIP lists solicitations that are pre-released or open for proposal submission.

The 2026 DoW SBIR BAA accepts Phase I or Direct to Phase II proposals, and each participating component, such as DARPA, adds its own instructions. Which components take part varies from one solicitation to the next.