The U.S. Department of Education and IES’s Small Business Innovation Research program (ED/IES SBIR) funds entrepreneurial developers and research partners to create the next generation of education technology products for students, teachers, and administrators. The program emphasizes an iterative research and development process and pilot studies to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and promise of new products to improve education outcomes. The program also focuses on commercialization after development is complete so that the products can be disseminated and be sustained over time. Each year, millions of students in thousands of schools around the country use ED/IES SBIR products.
The ED/IES SBIR 2025 Program Is Now OPEN
On Friday, November 8, 2025, ED/IES SBIR released three FY2025 program solicitations, including:
- The Phase IA solicitation requests proposals for the development of prototypes of novel education technology products where no or limited previous research and development has already occurred.
- The Phase IB solicitation requests proposals for the development of a new component to be added to an existing research-based education technology prototype or product.
- The Direct to Phase II solicitation requests proposals for the development of new education technology products to ready evidence-based innovations for use at scale. Researcher(s) at a university or non-profit education organization must have created the existing evidence-based innovation.
The proposal submission date and time is January 8, 2025 at 11AM EST. See this website page for more information and for URL links to download each solicitation on SAM.gov.
ED/IES SBIR Recaps its 2024 Awards
For FY2024, ED/IES SBIR made 23 SBIR awards, 12 Phase I, 8 Phase II, and 3 Direct to Phase II projects. Phase I projects ($250,000 over 8 months) include development and evaluation of a new prototype. Phase I awardees will be eligible to apply for a Phase II award in FY 2025. Phase II projects ($1M over 2 years) include full scale development and evaluation of new products initially developed with FY 2023 Phase I awards. Direct to Phase II projects ($1M over 2 years) occur without a prior Phase I award and focus on the development and evaluation of new products to prepare existing researcher-developed evidence-based innovations for use at scale. Watch short videos with more information about the ED/IES SBIR 2024 Phase II and Direct to Phase II projects here.
The FY 2024 ED/IES SBIR awards highlight trends in the field of education technology.
Trend 1: Using artificial intelligence to personalize learning and generate insights to inform tailored instruction. About half of the new projects are developing artificial intelligence (AI) based software components to personalize learning and instruction. These projects take advantage of AI functionalities to generate new or adjust existing content to meet the needs of individual learners, offer real-time feedback to scaffold learning, and produce real-time prompts and insights that educators can use to track student progress and adjust instruction accordingly.
- In the area of English language arts, Kibeam Learning, Inc. (formerly Kinoo, Inc) will support children as they independently explore and read books; Common Ground Publishing , LLC will support student writing; RapStudy Inc. will create songs with customized lyrics for academic learning; and with two new Phase I awards, Charmtech Labs LLC will develop two new prototypes, one to add items for an existing reading assessment (ReadBasix) and another to create new localized and culturally responsive assessment items to measure reading and inform instruction.
- For English learners, StoryWorld International Corp will personalize vocabulary acquisition, and Linguistic Inc will generate vocational resources for adult English learners.
- In math, Inletech LLC will allow students to create personalized stories to explore and learn math in a simulated real-world context, and Oko Labs, Inc. will engage students in a collaborative process to solve puzzles by doing math.
- For social, behavioral, and mental health, Edifii, Inc will develop a chatbot to provide guidance counselors insights on how individual students are planning for their future, and Sown to Grow, Inc. will create a logic-based algorithm to identify students at risk for mental health challenges and inform intervention.
Trend 2: Engaging students through games, interactive and hands-on activities, and collaborative learning. Projects are designing innovative learning technologies to engage students through pedagogies employing game-based, collaborative learning, and hands-on activities.
- Several awardees will develop hybrid online and in-person collaborative games, including Liminal Esports LLC (doing business as Snowbright Studio), Alterea, Inc., INFINID LEARNING INC (doing business as Mission.io), and Makefully LLC, for topics in social studies, and Immersed Games Inc and dfusion Inc. for topics in mathematics.
- In music education, Edify Technologies, Inc is developing an interactive app for K to 2 students.
- For computer science, Chibitronics Inc will develop a physical and digital circuitry toolkit.
- In the area of study skills and social emotional learning, ZenStudy LLC will develop a multi-media platform with strategies for college students to be successful.
Trend 3: Advancing research to practice at scale through education technology. Three Direct to Phase II awards will ready existing evidence-based innovations for use at scale through the development of new education technology products.
Stay tuned for updates on Facebook and LinkedIn as IES continues to support innovative forms of technology.
Edward Metz (Edward.Metz@ed.gov) is the program manager of the ED/IES SBIR program.
Laurie Hobbs (Laurie.Hobbs@ed.gov) is the program analyst of the ED/IES SBIR program.