SBIR Phase I — America's Seed Fund (NSF)
Non-dilutive first money for US deep-tech companies whose core risk is scientific or engineering, not market.
- Amount
- $275,000
- Issuer type
- Government
- Decision time
- ~6 months
- Effort
- Heavy — 10–20 days of work
Key facts
| Amount | $275,000 — Phase II follow-on up to $1,000,000 |
| Funding type | Grant — non-dilutive, no equity |
| Issuer | National Science Foundation |
| Who can apply | US-incorporated for-profit, under 500 employees, majority US-owned |
| Sectors | Deep tech · AI/ML · Hardware · Climate |
| Payout | Milestones over 6–12 months |
| Deadline | Closes 06 Aug 2026 |
Eligibility criteria
8 criteria · 6 are hard requirements
- Company is a US for-profit, incorporated in the United StatesRequired
- Majority owned by US citizens or permanent residentsRequired
- Fewer than 500 employeesRequired
- Principal investigator primarily employed by the companyRequired
- Technology carries genuine scientific or engineering riskRequired
- Project Pitch submitted and invited before the full proposalRequired
- Not funded by another agency for the same scope of workPreferred
- Commercial potential beyond the research phasePreferred
Rewritten from the official page into yes/no checks. Nothing here is summarised away — if the source states it, it is on this list.
What you have to submit
- —Project Pitch (3 pages)
- —Technical narrative (15 pages)
- —Budget and justification
- —SAM.gov registration — allow 3 weeks
Odds, as reported by the issuer
~1,600 project pitches per cycle · ~200 Phase I awards · 12% acceptance
Update history
Source: seedfund.nsf.gov ↗
✓ checked 4 hours ago
- 4 hours agoagentFull re-crawl of the official page — no changes detected
- 11 days agoagentDeadline and amount confirmed against the issuer's page
- 01 Jul 2026humanHuman review — criteria rewritten into yes/no checks
Related
| EIC Accelerator — deep tech scale-ups | €2,500,000 | Closes 08 Oct 2026 |
| Startup Qatar Investment Program — START track | $1,100,000 | No fixed deadline |
| Innovate UK Smart Grants — July round | £500,000 | Closes 30 Jul 2026 |