Open Topics Are Shrinking. Here Is How to Keep Funding Moving When You Have Demand.
For years, a broad open topic let a founder bring almost any dual-use technology to the Air Force and let the government decide whether it fit. That door is narrowing. More of the money now starts with a customer who has already defined the problem.
What changed
When AFWERX and SpaceWERX reopened SBIR and STTR solicitations after reauthorization this spring, they organized them around seven focus areas and a cohort-based model that groups related technologies against specific capability gaps. AFWERX describes its specific topics as having "clearly-defined requirements and a known Air Force customer built into the topic solicitation." The current DoW SBIR/STTR Release 6 window runs through October 21.
The practical effect is simple. The customer shows up before the topic does. If you wait for a solicitation to meet your first user, you are starting after the people who helped shape it.
Talk to new users before there is a topic
The companies that keep funding moving treat user conversations as continuous work, not a pre-proposal step. Two reasons.
First, one champion isn't a pipeline. Government advocates rotate, retire and move to new jobs. A single relationship can disappear in a PCS cycle.
Second, different users open different money. An operational unit, a program office, a lab and a sustainment organization each use different funding and different contracting routes.
In every conversation, try to leave knowing:
What problem this person owns, and how they measure it today.
Who else feels the same problem, in their organization or another one.
Whether money exists this fiscal year or next, and what kind.
Which contracting routes their office actually uses.
What evidence they would need to see before acting.
When you already have demand
A user who wants your technology is the asset. The question is which route turns that interest into a contract. Here are the main ones, and what each needs.
A sponsored topic. Specific topics come from government customers. If your user has a real gap, ask whether they would sponsor a topic in a future release. It takes time, but it points a solicitation at the problem you solve.
TACFI and STRATFI. For companies with a current or recent Phase II, AFWERX matches SBIR funds with government or private dollars. TACFI provides $375,000 to $2 million with 1:1 cost share. STRATFI provides $3 million to $15 million in SBIR funds matched by $6 million to $45 million. Both need a government customer committed enough to put up money.
A public example: in 2020, the Texas Military Department secured $7.5 million from the National Guard Bureau, plus $6 million from AFRL and the Rapid Sustainment Office, to back an additive manufacturing startup through STRATFI, with the SBIR program matching those funds. The relationship began a year earlier, when an Air National Guard metals technician met the Phase I company during a customer discovery session.
SBIR Phase III. If the new work derives from, extends or completes earlier SBIR work, an agency can award a Phase III without a new competition. Phase III uses non-SBIR money, so the customer still has to find the funds.
Commercial Solutions Openings and OT consortia. These let a program office fund a prototype outside the SBIR calendar. They work best when the user can point the contracting office to an existing opening or consortium.
APFIT. For production-ready technology, APFIT provides $10 million to $50 million in procurement funding per project. Only a government organization can submit, on behalf of an eligible small business or nontraditional contractor. Companies can't apply directly.
The common requirement
Every route above needs a government person willing to act for you: sponsor a topic, commit matching funds, find Phase III money or submit a nomination. That is why the user conversations matter more now than the proposal writing.
Checklist
List every government user you have spoken with in the last 90 days, and mark the ones who own a problem and a budget.
Add at least two new users outside your current champion's organization.
For each interested user, identify the money (type and fiscal year) and the contracting route their office uses.
Match your stage to the route: Phase II for TACFI or STRATFI, prior SBIR work for Phase III, production readiness for APFIT.
Decide what evidence you need to produce before the user can act.
Have demand? Let's talk
If you have a government user who wants what you've built and you're not sure which route fits, send me a message. I'm glad to talk it through.
Sources
DVIDS, "AFWERX, SpaceWERX open new SBIR/STTR solicitations following reauthorization," Apr. 29, 2026
Featured photo: Soldiers familiarize themselves with legacy LRAS3 hand grips before evaluating FALCONS sensor prototypes during a Soldier Touch Point, February 2026. U.S. Army photo by M. Scott Bortot, via DVIDS. The appearance of U.S. Department of War visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.