In this tutorial Stacy Chin, a grants and contracting consultant who has helped startups raise over $40 million in non‑dilutive funding, walks viewers through the Defense SBIR and STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP). She explains why the DSIP is the central hub for DoD SBIR opportunities, shows how to log in at dodsbirstr.mil/submissions, and reviews the portal’s Quick Links (Solicitations, Documents & Instructions, Topics & Topics Q&A). The video details the solicitation cycle (pre‑release, open, close dates) and demonstrates how to browse active topics, interpret topic titles (e.g., A254010 – radar signal processing), and assess fit by examining funding amounts, phase options (Phase 1, Phase 2, direct‑to‑Phase‑2), and required deliverables. Stacy then differentiates between the broad agency announcement (BAA) and component‑specific instructions (Army, Air Force, Navy, etc.), highlighting where to find proposal requirements such as cover sheet, technical volume, cost volume, and budgeting rules. She emphasizes the importance of reading both the BAA and the component guidance before preparing an application. Throughout, she offers practical tips, encourages founders to avoid topics that don’t match their technology, and promotes her consulting service (keepyourequity.co) for additional support. The video concludes with calls to watch Part 1, subscribe for Part 3 (full Phase 1 submission walkthrough), and visit her website for more resources.
Chapters
Let's dive into the Defense SBIR and STTR Innovation Portal, otherwise known as the DSIP or the DSIP. And this is the ultimate tool of finding DOD SBIR contracts. Here I'll walk you through how to navigate the portal and share some of my own personal tricks and how to identify the best SBIR opportunities for you and your startup. This is part 2 of our exciting 3-part series on how to secure DOD SBIR funding. So if you missed part 1, where I break down everything founders need to know about going after those DOD SBIR dollars. Be sure to check that out after this video, and don't forget to subscribe because in part 3, I'll be guiding you through the submission process of a full SBIR Phase 1 application within the DSIP. So with that, let's jump into it. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. If you're joining us for the first time, I'm Stacy Chin, a professional grants and contracting consultant who has helped to raise over $40 million of non-diluted funding for startups developing innovations in healthcare, climate, and defense. So what is the Defense SBIR and STTR Innovation Portal, or DSIP. This is the official online platform for the DOD SBIR programs and serves as a centralized hub where small businesses can explore and apply for funding opportunities to develop innovative technologies to address today's defense challenges. In the DSIP, users can search for solicitations by browsing open and upcoming topics released by various military branches and DOD agencies such as the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and Space Force, and so many more. Two, founders can use the DSIP to submit SBIR applications applications. Here, proposals can be uploaded into the system during open solicitation periods. 3, you can also access key resources to help you with your application by finding templates, guiding documents, and tutorials to help you navigate the entire process. And finally, users can use the DSIP to track their SBIR proposal status, and they can do this by monitoring the progress of submitted applications. Here, they can also find notifications on the status of their application. Bottom line, the DSIP is a crucial tool for startup founders aiming to secure DoD SBIR funding as it streamlines the process of finding and applying to contracts. So if founders wanna go after those big DoD SBIR dollar amounts, it is important to learn how to navigate the DSIP. And by doing so, founders can position themselves to effectively tap into DoD SBIR funding, ensuring that they don't miss out on any opportunities or encounter avoidable administrative hurdles. And if you're looking for help to secure DoD SBIR funding, make sure to reach out to us at keepyourequity.co so we can learn how to best support you in your non-dilutive fundraising journey. Now let's jump behind my computer screen and I'll show you how to navigate the DSIP. To access the DSIP, you'll want to go to dodsbirstr.mil/submissions with an S, /login, and that'll bring you to the homepage. And there are a couple of important things we want to note. First, there is the login and register section here, and that's where you'll be submitting your SBIR applications. I'm going to walk you through a whole video of submitting an SBIR Phase 1 application in the following video, so make sure to subscribe so that you won't miss out. Let's go through these quick links. So in the quick links section, you'll see the solicitations, document, and instructions. And this is where you'll find all of the different opportunities available to apply for. Here are the topics and topics Q&A, and this is very important. We'll go into more detail after that. Scroll down, you will see the solicitation cycle for 2025. You'll see the pre-release date, which is when the solicitation or the topics are released. Then it's followed by the open date, which is the date when you first submit the proposal. And then you have the close date, which is the date when you should submit the application and when the topic is no longer available. Let's go over the topics and topics Q&A and then the solicitations document and instructions. These are the two most important links to keep in mind when trying to find topics and subtopic interests. So let's just go to topics and topics Q&A. Under this link, you'll see a list of topics that are available. We are filtering this by all active solicitations, the pre-release topics that are currently open. Here you'll see a topic title, open and close date, the number of release, the solicitation instructions, in the opponents. So let's first go over this. Topics are listed by a letter followed by a number. You scroll through, you're going to see A for Army, AF for the U.S. Air Force, and you have others like CBD, DHA, and so forth. You'll see that all these titles from topics that looking into fund— I like to look if there's any ping words that might be of interest for me and my company. For example, I'm interested in A254010, radar signal processing improvements for probability of detection. I'm going to click on that, and this gives me information on the topic and what they're looking to fund. This is a heavy sensor-based technology topic. We're looking for advanced computing software keywords, and this is the goal. This is very important because you— if you cannot meet this objective, I highly recommend do not apply for this topic. Now, if you do have a startup that can meet this need, you'll then want to go to the description to learn about what they're looking for. They're allocating $250,000 for a 6-month project period, and this is what they hope to achieve at the end of Phase 1. So if you're successful here, what they're expecting for Phase 2 and then Phase 3. And you'll see, even though this topic has a Phase 1 and Phase 2 option open, some topics might only have a direct-to-Phase-2. Like, for example, under this topic here, they're only looking for direct-to-Phase-2s and something a little bit further along. Now let's go back to our example. Say I want to apply for this topic, want to submit a Phase 1 SBIR application. There are two important sets of instructions. One is the DOD SBIR solicitation instructions, then one is the Army component. These two are very important to read through to understand the requirements and what proposal entails. The Army component is going to be different from the Air Force and from the Navy. If I want to understand the details of the proposal instructions, this is where I go. But before we do that, let's first go to the solicitation instructions. This is released after every single cycle. When I click here, this leads to the annual broad agency announcement, or BAA. As you scroll through this 47-page document, you will see that there is a project description, the certification and registrations, general proposal instructions and requirements, and then all the methods of evaluation and other considerations. Now let's go back to this topic area and click on the Army link. When I click here, this goes into the annual broad agency announcements specifically for the Army. And now you see this is a bit different compared to the first link. Again, are all the descriptions, objectives, and expectations when applying to the Army component of the DOD. This is going to be very different compared to the Army, the Navy, the U.S. Air Force, DHS, and so forth. I like to lean on this link when I prepare an SBI to know what the Army is looking for. Here are the Phase 1 proposal instructions, the proposal cover sheet, the technical volume, length, cost volume, content, budgeting requirements, and then other types of supporting documents. Phase 1 instructions, the components, the length, the requirements are going to be different again depending on which agency you want to apply for within the DOD. And so let's go back to this page on the DSIP. If we go back to the home page and go to solicitation documents and instructions, this is just another way to view the solicitations topic interest as well, where you can see the different release dates. Here is the Open BAA instruction, and then here's the Army topic with the component instructions here. If you want to look for the topics and subtopics of interest, they're usually located all the way at the bottom. So with that, that's a high-level tutorial of how to navigate the DSIP, how to find different topics and subtopic interests to help you apply for your SBIR application. And with that, if you found any of these tips helpful, I would greatly appreciate it if you like and subscribe to this channel so that you can learn new ways to keep your equity throughout your fundraising journey. And if you haven't done so, make sure to watch part 1 of the series where I give a brief overview of the DOD SBIR program. And don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on part 3 of this series where I go over the submission process for a full DOD Phase I application. And of course, don't forget to check out our website for more resources, tips, and advice on how you can secure SBIR funding. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you in a video very soon.
