SBIR/STTR · Department of Defense component
Defense Health Agency: SBIR/STTR odds
452 Phase I and 410 Phase II awards since 2015, to 311 firms.
The verdict for a first-time applicant
An insiders' program: only 15% of Phase I awards go to firms new to SBIR. Expect to compete with repeat winners.
Median Phase I is $250K, median Phase II $1.1M. Phase II typically follows 13 months after Phase I. The 20 most frequent firms take 52% of Phase I awards.
- Phase I → Phase II
- 53%
- 2015–2020 cohorts, 3-yr window
- First-time firms
- 15%
- of Phase I awards, 2021–2023
- Median Phase I
- $250K
- 121 awards, 2021–2023
- Median Phase II
- $1.1M
- 168 awards, 2021–2023
- Months to Phase II
- 13
- median, Phase I award to Phase II award
- Top-20 firm share
- 52%
- of Phase I awards
Open SBIR/STTR solicitations at Department of Defense
Phase I → Phase II by cohort
Share of each year's Phase I awards followed by a Phase II within three years. Cohorts after 2020 are still open, so their rates will rise.
| Phase I year | Phase I awards | Converted | Firm-level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 37 | 57% | 58% |
| 2016 | 52 | 50% | 50% |
| 2017 | 90 | 54% | 63% |
| 2018 | 59 | 53% | 61% |
| 2019 | 49 | 47% | 63% |
| 2020 | 44 | 59% | 77% |
| 2021open | 56 | 64% | 65% |
| 2022open | 45 | 62% | 77% |
| 2023open | 20 | 0% | 41% |
Awards by year
| Year | Phase I | Phase I $ | Phase II | Phase II $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 37 | $5.5M | 44 | $44M |
| 2016 | 52 | $7.8M | 37 | $40M |
| 2017 | 90 | $13M | 35 | $34M |
| 2018 | 59 | $8.8M | 50 | $48M |
| 2019 | 49 | $7.8M | 35 | $36M |
| 2020 | 44 | $11M | 41 | $46M |
| 2021 | 56 | $14M | 45 | $59M |
| 2022 | 45 | $11M | 76 | $95M |
| 2023 | 20 | $5.0M | 47 | $59M |
By topic prefix
Topic codes group solicitations by office. Conversion is shown where enough Phase IIs matched a Phase I topic.
| Prefix | Phase I | Phase II | Phase I→II |
|---|---|---|---|
| DHA | 320 | 194 | 55% |
| DHP | 131 | 148 | 50% |
Most frequent winners
Firms with 20 or more Phase I awards from Defense Health Agency since 2015. Know who you're up against.
| Firm | State | Phase I | Phase II |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRITON SYSTEMS, INC. | MA | 38 | 30 |
Common questions
What are the odds of a Phase II after a Defense Health Agency Phase I?
53% of Phase I awards in the 2015–2020 cohorts were followed by a Phase II to the same firm within three years. Counting at the firm level (any Phase II, not matched to the Phase I topic), the rate is 62%. About 36% of recent Phase IIs had no matching Phase I in the data, which includes Direct-to-Phase-II awards.
Does Defense Health Agency fund first-time SBIR firms?
15% of Phase I awards in 2021–2023 went to firms with no prior SBIR/STTR award from any agency. The 20 most frequent winners took 52% of Phase I awards.
How current is this data?
SBIR.gov's public award export runs through 2023; the site re-computes these numbers when the export updates. Open solicitations below come from Grants.gov and are refreshed every 10 minutes.
Source: SBIR.gov award data (award_data.csv downloaded 2026-10-28; awards through 2023). overall/byCohort: share of Phase I awards followed by a Phase II to the same firm from the same agency/component with Phase II award year ≤ Y+3; each Phase II counts for at most one Phase I, matched first on identical topic code, then (for agencies whose topic code is a per-round solicitation number) to any remaining same-firm Phase II that is not Direct-to-Phase-II (firm matched on DUNS, else normalized name + state; matchedByTopicShare = share of matches made on topic code). firmLevel: share of distinct firm × Phase I-year pairs that received any Phase II from the same agency/component within 3 years (looser; inflated by multi-award firms). overall figures use cohorts 2015–2020, the cohorts whose 3-year window has closed in this data vintage; later cohorts are partial. p2WithoutMatchedP1Share5y: share of 2021+ Phase II awards with no matched Phase I (largely Direct-to-Phase-II). This section is for startups and small businesses; it is not legal or procurement advice.