Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase II | USDA NIFA SBIR 008080

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NIFA SBIR 008080

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase II opportunity is a discretionary grant designed to help small, for-profit U.S. businesses continue and expand research and development that began under a prior USDA SBIR Phase I award. Phase II is specifically meant to build on a successful Phase I project, moving the work further along the development path and closer to commercialization. The program highlights USDA's broader mission of supporting a healthy, productive nation while protecting natural resources, and it encourages innovation across a wide range of agriculture-related research areas, including emphasis on agriculturally related manufacturing as well as alternative and renewable energy technologies. Historically, the program reports relatively strong Phase II selection odds, with applicant success rates commonly cited around 50 to 60 percent.

A core requirement of this Phase II solicitation is that only prior USDA-NIFA SBIR Phase I awardees may apply, and the Phase I project must have been successfully completed. Eligibility is also tightly limited to Phase I awardees who have not previously applied for Phase II support for that Phase I project. In other words, a Phase I project gets only one chance to submit a Phase II application. If a business already applied for Phase II and was not selected, the rules described in the opportunity state that the business cannot resubmit that Phase II proposal under this or any future Phase II solicitation. The solicitation also recognizes situations where the Phase I award has been transferred through a revised funding agreement, such as a "novated" award or a "successor-in-interest" arrangement; those entities may still be eligible as long as they meet the one-application rule and the other requirements.

Beyond having the right Phase I history, the applicant must qualify as a Small Business Concern (SBC) and be properly registered with the Small Business Administration for research and development purposes by the time an award would be made. The SBIR eligibility framework is intended to ensure federal R&D dollars go to small, independent U.S. businesses that are positioned to commercialize new technologies. The solicitation summarizes three major compliance areas: the type of firm (it must be a for-profit business concern), the ownership and control structure (to ensure U.S. control and independence), and size (based on employee counts including affiliates, to keep the program focused on genuinely small firms).

On the type-of-entity requirement, the firm must be organized as a for-profit business concern and meet the definition in applicable federal regulations (the notice cites 13 C.F.R. 121.105). Nonprofit organizations are explicitly not eligible for SBIR awards. If the applicant is a joint venture, each participant in the joint venture must independently satisfy all SBIR program eligibility rules, meaning one ineligible partner can make the overall joint venture ineligible.

On ownership and control, the opportunity states that more than 50 percent of the firm's equity must be directly owned and controlled by one of several allowable categories. The most common qualifying structure is majority ownership by one or more individuals who are U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens. Another allowable structure is majority ownership by other for-profit small business concerns that themselves are directly owned and controlled by U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens, or a combination of these two categories. The solicitation also notes an additional pathway involving multiple venture capital operating companies, hedge funds, or private equity firms, so long as no single such firm owns or controls more than 50 percent of the equity, but it emphasizes that this option depends on specific statutory authority available to certain agencies. The notice further clarifies that if an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) or a trust owns part of the company, the relevant trustees, plan members, or beneficiaries are treated as owners for purposes of evaluating eligibility, which can matter when determining who truly controls the business.

The solicitation also calls out subsidiary situations: if the applicant is a subsidiary, it must be able to show that the parent company (or parent companies) also qualifies as a small business as defined by the program and is located within the United States. The parent entity must provide documentation supporting its small business status, and the applicant should be prepared to include that supporting material in the application package as directed. More generally, the notice warns that missing an eligibility requirement by the deadline can lead to the application being excluded from consideration or, even if it is reviewed, can still prevent USDA NIFA from issuing an award.

Key administrative details included in the listing are that the funding instrument is a grant and the activity category is agriculture, with CFDA number 10.212. The funding opportunity number is USDA NIFA SBIR 008080. The original closing date listed is May 3, 2021, and the maximum award amount (award ceiling) is $650,000. The program has a long operating history, reporting more than 2,000 R&D awards since 1983, with the stated goal of helping small businesses validate and develop high-potential technologies and move them toward commercialization. For applicants needing deeper compliance guidance, the opportunity points to the SBIR eligibility and size compliance guide hosted at sbir.gov.

• The National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase II" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.212.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-12-28.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-05-03. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $650,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for USDA NIFA SBIR 008080

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: