• Join your peers at SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference!

    Join us December 10-12 in Arizona to connect with and learn from your peers working around the country to strengthen their regional innovation economies. Visit ssticonference.org for more information and to register today.

  • Become an SSTI Member

    As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.  Learn more about membership...

  • Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest

    Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!

Useful Stats: 2020 SBIR/STTR awards by state and agency

April 07, 2022
  • Forward logo
  • LinkedIn logo

Despite the shutdown of many business and government activities during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of SBIR/STTR awards made to innovation-focused companies continued to increase over record-breaking 2019 levels, rising 3.7 percent. This edition of SSTI’s Useful Stats examines the total number of SBIR/STTR awards and the top awarding agency by state in 2020.

The total number of SBIR/STTR awards made nationally reached 7,305 in 2020. As seen in the first interactive map below, the states with the greatest total number of SBIR/STTR awards in 2020 were California (1,489), Massachusetts (731), Virginia (452), Texas (380), and Maryland (362). All states captured at least two awards in 2020; the only states seeing less than ten awards were Mississippi (5), Alaska (2), North Dakota (2), and Puerto Rico (2).

While there are 11 participating agencies in the SBIR/STTR program, only a few agencies account for most awards. Nationally in 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) made the most SBIR/STTR awards (3,842), followed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (1,396), Department of Energy DOE) (664), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (573), National Science Foundation (NSF) (508), Department of Agriculture (USDA) (112), Department of Commerce (DOC) (70), Department of Transportation (DOT) (45), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (38), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (33), and the Department of Education (ED) (24). The second map below shows that DoD also accounted for the greatest number of awards made in most, but not all, states in 2020. HHS was the top SBIR agency in Arkansas (6), Iowa (7), Kentucky (14), Minnesota (35), Missouri (25), Nebraska (8), North Carolina (97), Oregon (31), Puerto Rico (1), South Carolina (17), and Wisconsin (20). USDA was tied for first in Alaska with DoD and NSF (1), in Maine with DoD (4), and in North Dakota with DOE (1).

Click here for the data used in this analysis.

useful stats, sbir