SBIR & STTR

SBIR/STTR Evaluation Tool

Decide whether an SBIR or STTR opportunity is worth pursuing before your team spends days preparing the application. QualiGrant reviews eligibility, technical and commercial fit, application complexity, risks, and evidence so you can make a faster go/no-go decision.

Evaluate an SBIR/STTR opportunity View sample evaluation

Your uploaded documents are processed only to generate your evaluation. They are not used to train QualiGrant's own models.

SBIR/STTR opportunities need careful screening before writing

SBIR and STTR opportunities can be highly attractive, but they often include detailed eligibility rules, agency-specific priorities, research scope requirements, commercialization expectations, partner requirements, budget constraints, and strict deadlines. Before committing technical, business, and proposal time, it helps to understand whether the opportunity appears realistic and worth pursuing.

Avoid poor-fit solicitations

Identify opportunities that appear misaligned with your technology, business stage, research focus, or applicant profile before writing begins.

Estimate proposal burden early

Understand whether the opportunity may require heavy technical narratives, commercialization planning, budgets, partners, or supporting documents.

Support go/no-go decisions

Use a structured evaluation to decide whether to pursue, review further, or pass before deeper proposal work begins.

What QualiGrant checks in an SBIR/STTR opportunity

QualiGrant reviews the uploaded SBIR/STTR solicitation, NOFO, RFP, or funding guideline against your organization profile and extracts the decision factors that matter before proposal development begins.

Applicant eligibility requirements
Small business, startup, university, or research partner requirements, when mentioned
SBIR vs STTR participation requirements, when mentioned
Agency mission and topic alignment
Technical innovation fit
Research scope and project phase fit
Commercialization or market relevance indicators
Principal investigator, team, or partner requirements, when mentioned
Award amount, project period, and budget restrictions
Eligible and ineligible use of funds
Required proposal sections and attachments
Letters of support, subcontractor, or research institution requirements
Submission deadline and timing pressure
Review criteria and scoring factors
Reporting, compliance, or administrative burden indicators
Red flags and unclear criteria
Evidence from the uploaded document where possible

What you receive

Eligibility review

A summary of which SBIR/STTR requirements appear to be met, not met, or unclear based on the opportunity document and organization profile provided.

Technical and commercial fit assessment

A review of whether the opportunity appears aligned with your technology, research focus, market direction, agency topic, and available team capacity.

Complexity estimate

An indication of likely application effort based on required narratives, technical detail, commercialization planning, budgets, partners, deadlines, and review burden.

Go/no-go recommendation

A practical recommendation to pursue, review further, or pass, with risks and supporting evidence where possible.

Built for SBIR/STTR funding decisions

QualiGrant is useful when your team has already found an SBIR/STTR opportunity and needs a fast, structured review before committing to the full proposal process.

Startups

Screen non-dilutive funding opportunities before spending founder, technical, and advisor time on a full proposal.

Small businesses

Review whether the opportunity appears aligned with your business, technology, project stage, and funding needs.

Research teams

Evaluate whether the topic and requirements appear realistic before deeper technical proposal work begins.

Universities and labs

Support early review when a research partner, commercialization route, or STTR-style collaboration may be involved.

Grant consultants

Use a structured evaluation to support early client recommendations and proposal scoping.

How it works

Upload the SBIR/STTR document

Upload a text-based PDF solicitation, NOFO, RFP, funding opportunity announcement, grant guideline, or topic description.

Add organization and project context

Provide business type, location, technology area, project focus, research stage, commercialization context, team capacity, and relevant details so the evaluation is tied to your situation.

Get the SBIR/STTR evaluation

Receive an AI-assisted review covering eligibility, technical and commercial fit, complexity, risks, evidence, and recommended next step.

Evaluate an SBIR/STTR opportunity

1 free evaluation · no credit card required

Manual SBIR/STTR review vs QualiGrant

Manual SBIR/STTR review

Long solicitations require slow review
Eligibility rules can be scattered across sections
Technical and commercial fit may be judged informally
Partner or research institution requirements can be missed
Proposal burden is hard to estimate early
Notes vary across reviewers and opportunities

QualiGrant

Structured extraction of key requirements
Highlights eligibility issues and unclear criteria
Reviews fit against your organization and project profile
Flags partner, phase, scope, or commercialization risks that need verification
Estimates complexity and application burden
Produces a repeatable decision summary

Important limitation: QualiGrant supports early SBIR/STTR screening and decision-making. It does not replace legal advice, accounting advice, agency guidance, compliance review, commercialization strategy, consultant judgment, university review, or a final eligibility confirmation. Use the evaluation to identify what looks promising, what looks risky, and what needs verification before committing to a full application.

When to use QualiGrant for SBIR/STTR opportunities

Use QualiGrant when your startup, small business, research team, university partner, or consultant has found an SBIR/STTR opportunity and needs a structured early review. It is especially useful when eligibility is unclear, the topic fit is uncertain, the deadline is close, partner requirements may apply, commercialization expectations are demanding, or several opportunities need to be compared.

Reviewing an SBIR solicitationScreening an STTR opportunityComparing multiple agency topicsDeciding whether to involve a consultant or proposal teamPreparing an internal go/no-go recommendation

From SBIR/STTR evaluation to application plan

The free evaluation helps you understand whether the opportunity is worth pursuing. Paid evaluations can unlock an Application Plan with a writing roadmap, required document checklist, timeline, funder-specific tips, and AI prompts to support the next stage of work.

View sample application plan

See a sample grant evaluation

Review a sample QualiGrant report to see how eligibility, fit, complexity, risks, evidence, and recommendation are presented. The same evaluation format applies to any opportunity, including SBIR and STTR solicitations.

View sample grant evaluation

Frequently asked questions

What is an SBIR/STTR evaluation tool?

An SBIR/STTR evaluation tool helps teams review an SBIR or STTR funding opportunity before writing. For QualiGrant, this means reviewing the uploaded solicitation, NOFO, RFP, or funding guideline against your organization and project profile, then producing an AI-assisted assessment of eligibility, fit, complexity, risks, and recommended next step.

Can QualiGrant evaluate SBIR and STTR solicitations?

Yes. QualiGrant can help review text-based PDF SBIR and STTR solicitations, NOFOs, RFPs, topic descriptions, funding opportunity announcements, and related documents by extracting requirements, highlighting eligibility issues, identifying unclear criteria, and supporting an early go/no-go decision.

Can QualiGrant tell us if we are definitely eligible for SBIR or STTR funding?

No. SBIR/STTR eligibility can depend on agency interpretation, business status, ownership, team structure, partner arrangements, project details, documentation, and information not always visible in the uploaded document. QualiGrant helps with early screening, but final eligibility should be verified with the agency, consultant, legal team, compliance team, or appropriate advisor.

Does QualiGrant replace an SBIR/STTR consultant?

No. QualiGrant does not replace consultant judgment, commercialization strategy, agency knowledge, or final proposal review. It is designed to support early opportunity screening before deeper proposal work begins.

Does QualiGrant find SBIR/STTR opportunities?

No. QualiGrant is not a grant database or grant discovery platform. It is built for the stage after your team has already found an SBIR/STTR opportunity and needs to decide whether it is worth pursuing.

What types of SBIR/STTR documents can I upload?

QualiGrant works best with text-based PDF documents such as SBIR solicitations, STTR solicitations, NOFOs, RFPs, topic descriptions, funding opportunity announcements, agency guidelines, and related opportunity documents.

Does QualiGrant write the SBIR/STTR application?

QualiGrant is focused on pre-writing evaluation. Paid evaluations can unlock an Application Plan with a writing roadmap, checklist, timeline, funder-specific tips, and AI prompts, but QualiGrant does not submit applications for you.

Who should use QualiGrant for SBIR/STTR evaluation?

QualiGrant can be useful for startups, small businesses, research teams, universities, labs, grant consultants, founders, commercialization leads, and technical teams that need to decide whether an SBIR/STTR opportunity deserves deeper review.

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NOFO analysis

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Evaluate an SBIR/STTR opportunity before you write

Upload an SBIR solicitation, STTR solicitation, NOFO, RFP, topic description, or funding guideline and get a structured review of eligibility, technical and commercial fit, complexity, risks, evidence, and whether the opportunity is worth pursuing.

Evaluate an SBIR/STTR opportunity