Ike HolleyUnder the fiscal year 2026 DoW SBIR/STTR BAA, Release 5 closed on September 23, 2026, and Release 6 opened the same day. Release 6 closes October 21 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, and its Topic Q&A closes to new questions on October 7. Since reauthorization the Department has released topics monthly, with each release overlapping the next, so there is almost always one release in pre-release, one open, and one closing. A transition-minded company should stop reading that calendar as a series of deadlines and start reading it as a steady flow of topics to decline, keeping its submissions for the offices that could buy the result.
For most of the program’s history, the SBIR calendar had seasons. Three or four big solicitations a year, long gaps between them, and a familiar rhythm of scramble, submit, and wait. Founders built their year around those peaks.
That rhythm is gone. September 23 made it plain: Release 5 closed at noon, and Release 6 opened the same day. The company that just finished one proposal was already looking at the next set of topics.
What does the fiscal year 2026 calendar actually look like?
After the reauthorization was signed on April 13, the first release went to pre-release that same day. From there the Department moved to monthly releases, each with the same three stages: a pre-release period of about three weeks, an open period of about four weeks, and a close.
| Release | Pre-release | Opens | Closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release 1 | April 13 | May 6 | June 3 |
| Release 2 | May 6 | May 27 | June 24 |
| Release 3 | June 3 | June 24 | July 22 |
| Release 4 | July 1 | July 22 | August 19 |
| Release 5 | August 5 | August 26 | September 23 |
| Release 6 | September 2 | September 23 | October 21 |
Look down the columns and the overlap is obvious. Each release opens the day the previous one closes, and each pre-release begins while the prior release is still open. At any point this summer a company was looking at up to three sets of topics in three different stages.
Which windows are still open on Release 6?
Three dates matter, and they are easy to confuse.
- Direct contact with topic authors has ended. During pre-release, the BAA publishes each topic author’s contact information and allows technical questions. Once the release opens, direct contact stops, except for a topic author answering a question you asked during pre-release. For Release 6 that window closed on September 23.
- Topic Q&A is open until October 7 at noon Eastern. Questions go through the DSIP Topic Q&A system, are anonymous, and are published for everyone. They must be technical. Questions about eligibility, page counts, budgets, or due dates are not answered there.
- Proposals are due October 21 at noon Eastern, unless a topic states otherwise. After close, no communication of any kind is allowed.
October 7. The Q&A closes two weeks before the proposal deadline, not at it. If you have a real technical question about a Release 6 topic, it has to be asked in the next nine days.
What does a continuous calendar change?
When solicitations came a few times a year, missing one felt expensive, and companies bid on marginal topics because the next chance was months away. A monthly calendar removes that pressure. If a topic is not right, another release is weeks away.
At the same time, the reauthorization made submissions themselves scarce. Beginning in fiscal year 2027, each agency sets a limit on how many proposals a company can submit. Those two changes pull in the same direction. The calendar no longer rewards speed, and the limits punish volume. What is left to compete on is choosing well.
One timing detail is worth checking with your agency now. Release 6 closes on October 21, which falls in fiscal year 2027. If you are near an agency’s limit, confirm how that agency counts submissions to a release that opened in one fiscal year and closes in the next. Do not guess.
What does transition-minded topic selection look like?
A transition-minded company reads a topic and asks a different first question. Not “can we do this?” but “who would buy the result?”
Start from the office, not the release. Keep a short list of the program offices that could plausibly fund your technology after a Phase II. When a release drops, search it for those offices first. A topic from an office you already know is worth more than a better-written topic from an office you have never met.
Use pre-release for what it is for. Three weeks of direct contact with a topic author is the only time you can learn, in their words, what problem the topic is trying to solve. Ask about the problem, not the solution. We cover what is and is not allowed in a separate piece.
Decline more than you submit. With a topic set every month, a company can review dozens of topics in a quarter. The discipline is to submit only where the problem fits, the office has a path to buy, and you can name a transition sponsor.
Plan the follow-on at the start. If a Phase I is worth doing, the Phase II and the transition instrument after it should already be visible, whether that is TACFI, STRATFI, a Strategic Breakthrough window, or a program of record. If you cannot sketch that path, the Phase I is probably research for its own sake.
What comes after Release 6?
Release 6 is the last release on the fiscal year 2026 schedule. The fiscal year 2027 BAA and its calendar will set the next cycle, and the per-company submission limits take effect with it. We would not plan around specific fiscal year 2027 dates until the Department publishes them. We would plan around the pattern, which has been steady since April: a new set of topics roughly every month.
The companies that do well in that pattern are not the fastest writers. They are the ones who already know which offices they are writing for.
Sources: DoW 2026 SBIR/STTR BAA, Release 6 Preface (Amendment 3, September 2, 2026), including the release schedule and Section 6.2 communication rules; AFWERX Get Funded release calendar; Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act of 2026 (S. 3971).