This report analyzes the impact of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which awards research and development (R&D) grants to small firms. Specifically, it examines two applied programs at DOE, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Fossil Energy (FE). With detailed application and ranking data between 1995 and 2013, it uses a regression discontinuity design to establish a causal relationship between the grants and recipient outcomes.
