About

Understanding the purpose and scope of this project.

Purpose

Defqtel provides AI-powered analysis of Department of Defense SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) awards. By classifying awards across technology and platform dimensions, it enables stakeholders to identify investment trends, growth areas, and emerging priorities in defense R&D.

What SBIR Data Reveals

SBIR awards represent early-stage R&D investments where the DoD is actively seeking innovative solutions. Award patterns indicate:

Technology Priorities

Which capabilities the DoD is investing in developing

Platform Focus

Which domains are receiving modernization investment

Growth Trajectories

Year-over-year changes in funding allocation

Geographic Distribution

Regional concentrations of defense innovation activity

Target Audience

Contractors

Identify growth areas for R&D investment, understand competitive landscape, and align capabilities with DoD priorities.

Investors

Validate market demand for defense technology startups and identify emerging investment themes.

Researchers

Track DoD priorities and identify funding opportunities aligned with research capabilities.

Analysts

Access structured data for defense market analysis and technology trend reporting.

Data Scope

17,265

Awards

$10.8B

Total Value

5 Years

Coverage

DoD

Agency

Current dataset covers DoD SBIR awards from 2020 through 2024. Data is sourced from SBIR.gov, the official U.S. government repository.

Scope Limitations

- This tracker covers SBIR awards only, not total DoD R&D spending or procurement contracts.

- Classification is automated and may not reflect official DoD categorization schemes.

- Awards for classified programs may have generic titles that affect classification accuracy.

- This is an independent analysis tool, not affiliated with the Department of Defense.

Technical Implementation

Data Source

SBIR.gov API

Classification

Claude AI (Anthropic)

Taxonomy

18 Technology + 8 Platform categories

Update Frequency

Periodic manual refresh