Technical and Business Assistance, or TABA, lets an SBIR/STTR awardee receive money on top of the award to pay for commercialization help. It does not come out of the R&D budget, and the company chooses the vendor. Many applicants never request it because it sits in a section of the solicitation they skip.
What TABA is
The SBA’s SBIR/STTR Policy Directive allows agencies to provide, or let awardees purchase, technical and business assistance: market research, commercialization plans, intellectual property strategy, regulatory pathway work, customer discovery and similar services. The Policy Directive sets the ceiling at $6,500 per year for Phase I and $50,000 per award for Phase II. Each agency decides how it implements this, so the number and the process in your solicitation are the ones that count.
How agencies handle it
Department of Energy: DOE funds TABA for all Phase I and Phase II awardees. Applicants may include up to $6,500 in the Phase I budget and up to $50,000 in the Phase II budget for TABA services, either through DOE’s vendor or a vendor of their choice named in the application.
NIH: NIH’s April 2026 notice (NOT-OD-26-075) lets the small business choose one or more TABA vendors by contract or other arrangement, with no additional eligibility requirements on the vendor. TABA funds cannot pay for the preparation of the SBIR application itself, for audits or for routine bookkeeping. The request goes in the budget form and justification with the vendor named.
NASA: TABA is requested in the proposal and evaluated separately from technical merit. There is no federally approved vendor list; the vendor must be a legal business in the United States, and the proposal needs an itemized list of services and costs.
USDA: TABA vendors cannot be employees, affiliates or subcontractors already required for the R&D.
NSF: NSF handles TABA as a supplement to active Phase II awards rather than in the original proposal, up to $50,000, requested through Research.gov.
DoD: varies by component and solicitation; some components provide a vendor, others allow the awardee’s choice. Read the TABA paragraph of the instructions for your release.
How to request it
- Read the TABA section of the current solicitation before you write the budget. The allowed amount, the form it goes on and the documentation differ by agency and change between releases.
- Decide on the vendor before submission if the agency requires it to be named. Most do.
- Write a short scope: what services, what deliverables, what period, what cost. Keep it tied to commercialization, not to R&D or proposal writing.
- Get a letter of commitment from the vendor if the solicitation asks for one, and include the vendor’s qualifications.
- Put the amount on the right line (often “Other Direct Costs” or a dedicated TABA line) and make sure it sits above the award cap where the solicitation says it does, not inside your R&D budget.
What TABA can pay for, and what it cannot
Allowed, in most agencies: market research and customer discovery, commercialization plan development and updates, IP landscape and strategy, regulatory pathway analysis, manufacturing and supply chain planning, investor and partner readiness.
Not allowed: writing the SBIR proposal itself, audits and bookkeeping, and anything already covered by the R&D budget. NIH says this explicitly; other agencies apply the same logic.
Where I come in
I provide TABA services for Phase I and Phase II awardees: commercialization plans, market and customer discovery, IP and regulatory overviews, and Phase II positioning. GuardianesTLV LLC, operating as InvesTech Consulting, is a US business and meets the vendor requirements I have checked across DOE, NIH, NASA and USDA. When I write a proposal, I read the TABA section of that solicitation and, where it is allowed, include a TABA request with a scope and a commitment letter, so the award pays for the commercialization work instead of the company.