STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer)

STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) is a federal program that funds a small business to do research and development together with a research institution, usually a university, that performs at least 30% of the work.

How it works in a university-industry collaboration

The small business applies and performs at least 40% of the work. The split is set by statute, so agencies can't approve deviations. Before award, the two sides negotiate a written allocation of rights agreement on inventions, patents, and follow-on research (SBA Policy Directive). The directive lets the PI work primarily at either organization, but agencies add rules. NSF, for example, requires the PI to be primarily employed (at least 51%) by the small business and requires an STTR co-PI from the partner research institution (NSF 26-510). Six agencies run STTR, with a 0.45% set-aside (Congressional Research Service).

How is STTR different from SBIR?

SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) is the larger sister program.

	SBIR	STTR
Research institution partner	Optional	Required
Small business's minimum share	Two-thirds in Phase I, one-half in Phase II	40%
Research institution's minimum share	None	30%
Different split allowed?	With written approval	No, it's set by statute
PI's primary employment	Small business	Small business or research institution (agency rules vary)
Participating agencies	11	6
Written IP agreement	Terms go in the subaward	Allocation of rights agreement before award

What Helikon does with it

On the Helikon platform, the Discover Funding tab shows STTR solicitations that Grants.gov posts, and matches the relevant opportunities to your profile. You can track your STTR proposals and project execution by setting up a Helikon project with timelines, milestones, file and contract sharing, and discussion threads, and invite your collaborators to a shared workspace.

The Partner search tab matches researchers to your specific aims, and the Funding tab on a researcher's profile shows whether they've been a research-institution partner on a small-business award before.