Grants.gov
All discretionary grants offered by the federal grant making agencies can be found on Grants.gov. It provides a searchable grant opportunities database and subscription funding alerts. It includes grants from agencies including, but not limited to:
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Endowment of the Humanities
- U.S. Department of State
DARPA
DARPA is not like other, more traditional, agencies, in that they don’t send out RFAs and hope that lots of scientists respond. They have a much more targeted approach, looking for smart people with great ideas to solve really hard problems. DARPA program managers look for “out of the box” thinking and approaches that would be too risky for traditional funding agencies.
It is highly recommended that you learn about the interests and programs of the program managers, which are posted on the DARPA website. If you have ideas that might resonate with a particular program manager, you are highly encouraged to communicate directly with the program manager about your ideas. If the program manager is intrigued by your ideas, pilot funding and RFAs may stem from these conversations. RFAs often stem from pilot funding projects.
Federal Business Opportunities
Listing of federal business opportunities including contracts
SBIR/STTR
This US Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Technology administers the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. Eleven federal departments participate in the SBIR program; five departments participate in the STTR program.