Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Ireland

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) falls under pre-commercial procurement. It enables public bodies to purchase research to stimulate innovation, when goods or services are currently not available in the marketplace. SBIR helps the public sector to address identified ‘Challenges’ that impact the citizen. SBIR is underpinned by a sharing of both risks and benefits between contracting organisations and suppliers.

SBIR Ireland is administered by Enterprise Ireland. SBIR Ireland’s aim is to drive innovation across all sections of the Irish Public Sector via robust engagement with technology rich companies and organisations. Enterprise Ireland has established a dedicated fund to co-support innovative and competitive Challenges in partnership with Irish Contracting Authorities.

An SBIR Challenge is divided into two Phases:

• Phase 1 – up to 6 companies undertake a technical feasibility study to understand the challenge and identify a potential solution to solve the problem
• Phase 2 – a smaller number of companies protype a specific project, through extensive R&D

Click on the videos below to find out more about how SBIR works:

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