The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), is providing this notice to issue its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Phase I solicitation pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The purpose of this solicitation is to invite U.S. small businesses to submit innovative research offers in response to the solicitation topics, which serve as key research areas for the U.S. DOT. Each small business concern submitting an offer must qualify as a small business in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); 13 CFR 121.702. The applicable North American Industry Classification System code is 541715 with a size standard of 500 employees.
In addition to this SAM posting, the U.S. DOT SBIR FY 2025 Phase I solicitation and any documents related to it will be available on the U.S. DOT SBIR program website at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/work-with-us/small-business-innovation-research. This solicitation is issued through electronic means only; no hard copies will be available. A pre-offer webinar is being held on February 10, 2025 from 2:00-3:00 pm Eastern Time. Information on the pre-offer webinar may be found in the solicitation on page ii and/or from the U.S. DOT SBIR program website.
Technical questions and answers received on the SBIR FY25 topics released during the pre-solicitation period of January 3-31, 2025 are available at https://usdot.uservoice.com/forums/964763-u-s-dot-fy-2025-phase-i-pre-solicitation-q-a. On the U.S. DOT SBIR program website there are frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) relative to the overall SBIR program. Offerors must go to the website to access the FAQs.
As shown in the solicitation document, the U.S. DOT's topic list shared during the pre-solicitation period has been amended as follows:
Topic 25-FH3, Concrete Shrinkage Measurement Device, has been updated with clarifications on desired testing parameters and requirements for field use.
Topic 25-FR4, Human Factors Fatigue Assessment System (HFFAS), has been updated with clarifications in the Topic Objectives.
Topic 25-FT1, Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets (Buses), has been updated with clarifications adding "buses" to the title and in the body of the topic to better define fleets and provide an initial data source for potential offerors.
Topic 25-NH1, Automated Police Crash Report Data Collection and Management Software, has one update made to Phase I Outcomes.