How SBIR Phase I works

Phase I is a short feasibility award. A federal agency names a topic, a small business proposes a proof, and the award is meant to answer whether the idea can work—not to field a product. Agencies post those topics on SBIR.gov and often mirror them on Grants.gov or SAM.gov. BWAI surfaces the AI-tagged ones inside Federal + California, DC and New York City.

What to read first

Start with the official topic text, not a third-party summary. Confirm the due date with clock time and time zone, the Open / Forecast / Rolling label, and any set-aside. Forecasts are not accepting submissions yet. If a notice is stale, the last confirmed time is the one that matters, not the last time a crawler ran. Open the source link and read the attachments there.

Phase I solicitations usually state a period of performance (often six to twelve months), a ceiling, and whether the agency uses a Broad Agency Announcement, a Grants.gov package, or a SAM.gov contract opportunity. Those mechanics change the submission portal, not the purpose of Phase I: show that the technical approach is feasible enough to justify a Phase II prototype.

Phase I vs Phase II

Phase I funds a proof. Phase II funds a prototype and further development. Do not treat a Phase I ceiling as a Phase II budget, and do not treat a Phase I page limit as a Phase II proposal. The Small Business Administration Policy Directive describes the three-phase structure, including the optional Phase III work that uses non-SBIR funds. BWAI does not invent award amounts; if the official notice publishes a floor or ceiling, the card shows it, otherwise it says the amount is not published.

Some agencies run Direct to Phase II or sequential Phase II awards. Those are not Phase I. If the title says Phase I, read the body anyway—agencies sometimes bundle Phase I and Phase II in one announcement with separate due dates. BWAI keeps the listing when official text names AI, ML or a related core term as the work, then quotes the sentence that triggered the tag.

Eligibility and size

SBIR is for small businesses that meet the SBA size standard and the ownership and control rules in the Policy Directive. Work is performed in the United States. The proposing firm is the awardee; universities and labs can appear as subcontractors or consultants within the limits the agency sets. STTR requires a research institution partner. BWAI does not decide eligibility. The card may repeat an eligibility sentence from the official notice when one is present; always confirm against the source.

Set-asides on SAM.gov (8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB, small business) are separate from SBIR. A Phase I topic can also be a small-business set-aside contract. The filter on the feed lets you narrow by those labels when the source publishes them. Empty or “no set-aside used” labels are hidden so they do not look like a preference.

Where topics are posted

The authoritative topic list is SBIR.gov. Many civilian agencies also post on Grants.gov as notices of funding opportunity. Defense and other contracting shops post on SAM.gov Contract Opportunities. The same topic can appear in more than one of those places with different identifiers. BWAI de-duplicates SAM.gov by notice ID and solicitation number, and Grants.gov by the numeric notice behind the Grants.gov detail URL, keeping the open posting over a forecast when both exist.

If you only watch one portal you will miss listings. A Navy Phase I might live on SAM.gov. An NIH Phase I companion might live on Grants.gov. DOE and NSF mix both. BWAI’s federal slice is those two official sources, filtered for AI work, with California, DC and New York City added from their own portals.

Dates, times and forecasts

Deadlines on BWAI show Eastern Time. If the source published a different zone, the converted ET time is the main line and the original local time sits underneath, for example “4:30 PM CDT per source.” Same-day deadlines drop off the live feed once that instant has passed, including ICE-style 10:00 AM ET cutoffs, rather than lingering until the next nightly rebuild. Grants.gov notices without a clock time default to 11:59 PM ET. SAM.gov notices without a clock time default to 5:00 PM ET. California ongoing programs display as Rolling.

Forecasts are labeled Forecast. They are not Open. An estimated post month in the past is hidden. If a forecast’s estimated dates have already gone by, the listing is marked stale. Stale items are kept briefly with an unconfirmed label, then dropped. Do not submit against a forecast.

Where BWAI helps

Each card quotes the official sentence that made the listing AI-relevant and links to the source, not to a copy of the solicitation. Core AI is the default feed: the title or a named program such as Tradewinds or GUIDE is about AI or machine learning. All AI-related adds synopsis-only matches. Licensing notices and generic vehicles that only mention AI in a laundry list are out of both views.

Use the jurisdiction chips if you only want Federal, or only California, DC or New York City. Save an alert for a daily 7:00 AM ET digest or a Monday weekly roundup. The digest is a preview of live listings, not a claim that an email already went out from this static build. Confirm the official due date on the source before you file.

A practical Phase I workflow on BWAI is: set the view to Core AI, filter type to SBIR Ph I if that chip is present, sort with Federal first, and open any card whose quote names the model, learning method or AI system the agency actually asked for. Then leave BWAI and file in the portal the notice names. If the quote is only in the synopsis, switch to All AI-related and decide whether the AI work is large enough for your proposal. Do not treat related listings as Core AI just because a machine-learning sentence appears once in a long statement of work.

Official sources

Read the primary rules and portals, not this page, before you submit:

• SBIR.gov — topic search, agency contacts, and the public award database.
• SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive — phases, eligibility, and what Phase I is for.
• Grants.gov — civilian funding opportunities, including many SBIR packages.
• SAM.gov Contract Opportunities — contracting SBIR topics and other AI contract notices.

BWAI is independent and not affiliated with SBA, Grants.gov or SAM.gov. Coverage on this site is Federal + California, DC and New York City. If a listing is missing, check those four sources first; the feed is a filter, not a replacement for the official public record. Agency-specific SBIR instructions (page limits, registration in SAM.gov, unique entity identifier, and required forms) live in the topic itself. Print or save the official PDF the day you start writing so you are not caught by a later amendment. If BWAI and the source disagree, the source wins. File only against the official topic you downloaded.