You got the email. The award is real. You celebrated, you told your team, maybe you posted about it.
Then the quiet part starts. Nobody hands a first-time awardee a SBIR post award checklist, and the first 90 days is exactly where new awardees fall behind. Miss a registration renewal and your payments freeze. Miss your first progress report and you start the relationship with your program officer on the back foot.
Here is what to do after winning an SBIR, sequenced across the first 90 days and branched by whether you won a grant or a contract.
What do you have to do after winning an SBIR?
In the first 90 days after an SBIR award you must read the award document, confirm your registrations are active, turn on the payment system, set up accounting that segregates federal funds, hold a kickoff, confirm PI and work-share compliance, and calendar every report. The steps split on one fork: did you win a grant or a contract?
Start your SBIR post-award checklist by knowing which instrument you won
This is the fork that reorganizes everything else. An SBIR is either a grant or a contract, and they behave differently after award.
- Grants come from NIH, NSF, the Department of Energy, and USDA. You draw down money as you spend it, you report under 2 CFR 200 (the Uniform Guidance), and unspent money goes back.
- Contracts come from most DoD components (Air Force, Navy, Army), NASA, and DHS. You invoice for deliverables, you keep contract-grade cost records, and on a firm-fixed-price contract you keep what you do not spend.
If you do not know which one you have, the answer is on the first page of your award document. A grant arrives as a Notice of Award. A contract arrives as a signed contract with CLINs (line items) and CDRLs (deliverables). Everything below branches on this.
Days 1 to 7: read the award and turn the money on
Read the actual award document. Not the solicitation you applied under, the award. The terms and conditions, period of performance, reporting requirements, and any restrictions are binding from day one. Set aside 2 hours and read all of it.
Confirm your SAM.gov registration is active. It expires every 12 months and renewal is free. A lapsed SAM.gov registration is one of the most common reasons a new awardee cannot get paid. Check the expiration date now, not the week a payment is due.
Turn on the payment mechanism.
- Grant: get access to the drawdown system. NIH awards pay through the HHS Payment Management System. NSF pays through Research.gov's Award Cash Management Service. You cannot pull funds until this is set up.
- Contract: register in PIEE (the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment) and its WAWF module. That is how you submit invoices. No PIEE, no invoice, no cash.
Find out who your people are. On a grant that is your Program Officer plus a Grants Management Specialist. On a contract it is your Contracting Officer plus a technical point of contact (TPOC) or COR. Save their names and emails somewhere you will find them in month three.
Days 8 to 30: accounting, kickoff, and the PI rule that disqualifies people
Set up accounting that segregates the award. Federal money has to be traceable. You need to separate award funds from your other cash, track direct versus indirect costs, and record time and effort.
- Grant: 2 CFR 200 governs. Time and effort tracking is required for anyone charged to the award.
- Contract: you need contract-grade records. For cost-type contracts that means a DCAA-compliant accounting system. Even on a firm-fixed-price contract, keep contemporaneous timesheets and segregate costs from day one. Auditors can look back, and "we will clean it up later" is not a defense.
Decide your indirect cost approach. If you do not have a negotiated indirect rate, you can use the de minimis rate, which is 15% of modified total direct costs (raised from 10% effective October 2024). If you have a negotiated rate agreement, use that. Pick one now so your first drawdown or invoice is right.
Hold your kickoff. Many programs expect a kickoff call with your program manager or TPOC in the first month. Come with your timeline, your milestones, and your questions. This is a free chance to make sure your understanding of the work matches theirs before you have spent a dollar.
Confirm the PI and work-share rules still hold. This is the one that quietly disqualifies people. For SBIR Phase I, the principal investigator's primary employment (more than 50% of their time) must be with the small business during the project, and the company itself must perform at least two-thirds (67%) of the Phase I work. If your PI is still primarily employed at a university, or you planned to subcontract most of the work out, fix that now. (STTR has different rules and allows the PI to sit at the research institution.)
Days 31 to 90: reporting, IP, and your first report
Build the reporting calendar. Put every deadline on it the day you learn it.
- Grant: progress reports (the RPPR for NIH, project reports in Research.gov for NSF) plus the SF-425 Federal Financial Report. Interim and final.
- Contract: your CDRLs are the deliverables. Progress reports are usually monthly, plus a final report, plus acceptance before final payment.
Handle intellectual property early. Under Bayh-Dole, you keep title to inventions you make on the award, but only if you follow the rules. Disclose inventions and report them through iEdison, and elect title within 2 years of disclosing. Mark your deliverables with the SBIR data rights legend so you keep your protection period (20 years under current policy; on DoD contracts this is DFARS 252.227-7018). Wrong markings or a blown deadline can cost you the rights you won the award to build.
Contract only: cybersecurity. DoD contracts carry DFARS 252.204-7012. You need to meet NIST SP 800-171 and post a score in SPRS. Start this early because it is not a one-afternoon task.
Look past Phase I. Phase I is short. The gap between Phase I ending and Phase II money arriving can run several months, and that gap has killed otherwise strong companies. Start positioning your Phase II before Phase I closes out, not after.
The full 90-day SBIR post-award checklist (download)
The sections above are the framework and the highest-value traps. The complete version is an item-by-item, checkable list organized by window and branched by grant versus contract, with the deadline rule and the owner for each task.
| Window | Grant track | Contract track |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1-7 | Read NoA, confirm SAM.gov, set up drawdown | Read contract, confirm SAM.gov, register in PIEE/WAWF |
| Days 8-30 | 2 CFR 200 accounting, indirect rate, kickoff, PI rule | DCAA-grade records, kickoff, PI rule |
| Days 31-60 | Reporting calendar, iEdison/IP setup | CDRL schedule, iEdison/IP, NIST 800-171 |
| Days 61-90 | First progress report + SF-425, Phase II runway | First invoice + progress report, Phase II runway |
Download the full checklist to get every line item, the deadline rule for each, and a printable version you can check off with your team.
Frequently asked questions
What do you have to do after winning an SBIR grant? Read the Notice of Award, confirm SAM.gov is active, set up drawdown access (HHS PMS for NIH, Research.gov for NSF), stand up accounting under 2 CFR 200, hold a kickoff, confirm PI and work-share compliance, and schedule your progress and financial reports.
How long do you have to set it all up? Most of the load lands in the first 30 days: registrations and payment access in week one, accounting and kickoff by day 30. Reporting and IP setup follow by day 90. Your award document sets the exact dates.
Do you need a DCAA-compliant accounting system for an SBIR? For a cost-type contract, yes. For a firm-fixed-price contract you still need contemporaneous timesheets and cost segregation. For a grant, you follow 2 CFR 200, which is less stringent but still requires effort tracking and fund segregation.
What reports are required after an SBIR award? On grants: progress reports (RPPR or Research.gov) and the SF-425 financial report. On contracts: the CDRL deliverables, monthly progress reports, and a final report. Plus invention reporting through iEdison under Bayh-Dole.
What happens if you miss an SBIR reporting deadline? A missed report can freeze your payments, delay your next drawdown, and in repeat cases put the award or a future Phase II at risk. Program officers have long memories. Put every deadline on a calendar the day you learn it.
You can do this yourself. The question is whether you should.
None of this SBIR post-award checklist is hidden. But it is exactly the work that pulls a technical founder off the research the award is supposed to fund. The first 90 days set the compliance habits you live with for the whole award, and the next application starts here too.
Cada runs post-award administration and sets up the next application in parallel, so winning your first SBIR turns into a portfolio instead of a one-time scramble.
If you just won and you are not sure what your specific award requires, we do a free 15-minute post-award review call. We will tell you which of these apply to your award and what is due first. No pitch, no obligation.
Cada has worked on 100+ grant proposals across 30+ agencies. Every example here is illustrative.