IMPORTANT UPDATE: Effective 1 October 2025, SBIR/STTR program authorization has expired. New activity is paused; ongoing awards remain valid. Awardees are encouraged to contact their TPOCs and contracting officers with questions regarding active awards.
Spark
Space Spark is the ingest point for both industry seeking funding through the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) pipeline and Guardians trying to connect with small business to close operational gaps. Spark provides platforms through our velocities, challenges, and colliders for our end-users, acquisition professionals, and engineers to collide with industry and academia. Spark focuses on outreach and strategic partnerships with startups, investors, and academia to integrate them into the SpaceWERX ecosystem.
Warfighter Integration
SpaceWERX synchronizes warfighter needs with emerging commercial technologies in its portfolio to rapidly deliver new capabilities to Guardians and other end users worldwide.
Innovation Platforms
The Innovation Platforms section runs a series of programs that complement the Specific Topic and Open Topic processes by pairing upcoming solicitations with workshops and industry days, increasing demand signals, expanding industry participation and forming cohorts.
- Challenge Series: SpaceWERX Challenges are conducted alongside a Specific or Open Topic SBIR or STTR solicitation. They address broad technology needs and provide opportunities for individuals and companies to submit solutions to challenges facing the Space Force. Selected companies receive an SBIR or STTR contract and join a cohort that provides additional resources, including accelerators, technology assessments and exercise participation.Past Challenges can be found here. For upcoming challenges, companies may register at afwerxchallenge.com.
- Velocities: SpaceWERX Velocity events are paired with Specific Topic solicitations to increase engagement and outreach to industry. Before a solicitation, a Velocity event typically includes stakeholder briefings, solicitation expectations and an opportunity for questions and answers with program and SpaceWERX teams.
- Colliders: The SpaceWERX Reverse Collider is an Open Topic SBIR/STTR engagement in which government end users present mission needs directly to industry. These virtual or in-person events give companies early insight into validated capability gaps and the opportunity to ask questions directly of customers. By clarifying demand upfront, Reverse Colliders help industry better align solutions, reduce proposal risk and accelerate transition pathways.
Strategic Partnerships
SpaceWERX’s Strategic Partnerships team serves as the outreach arm of Spark, building and sustaining relationships across industry, investment communities, academia and government. Through targeted engagement, the team educates partners on the SpaceWERX ecosystem and creates pathways for collaboration that accelerate innovation and expand participation across the national security space enterprise.