INNOVATE Act

The INNOVATE Act would reform the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, which provide federal funding to small businesses for research and development. The bill would implement a lifetime cap on how much SBIR funding individual companies can receive and strengthen commercialization requirements for companies that receive multiple awards. It would also establish a new Strategic Breakthrough Awards program providing up to $30 million in additional funding to help transition SBIR- or STTR-developed technologies into federal procurement. The bill would require federal agencies to deny awards to companies with foreign ties to adversarial nations and would allow agencies to claw back funding if companies sell intellectual property derived from the awards to non-allied foreign entities within five years. These changes aim to ensure that taxpayer-funded research leads to commercial products while protecting American innovation from foreign exploitation. The bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.