Small Is the New Asymmetric: How SBIR/STTR Programs and SDVOSB Sole-Source Awards Are Shifting Edge AI R&D Toward Small Businesses

The defense industry is waking up to a new reality: small businesses are becoming the asymmetric advantage in edge AI research and development (R&D). Driven by SBIR/STTR programs with DARPA, AFRL, ONR, and SOCOM, this shift empowers small businesses to move at the speed of the threat, while SDVOSB sole-source awards under FAR 19.14 create a direct path into federal programs that bypasses the 1

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• System for multi-robotic exploration of underground environments CTU-CRAS-NORLAB in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge
• UAVs Beneath the Surface: Cooperative Autonomy for Subterranean Search and Rescue in DARPA SubT
• Analysis of MiniJava Programs via Translation to ML
• How to Participate in DARPA’s SBIR and STTR Programs
• SBIR & STTR Programs Overview | DARPA
• Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) | NIST