The SBA FAST Partnership Program published a list of thirteen states and territories this summer, and almost every write-up read it the same way: here is who can apply. Read it the other way and it becomes far more useful. That list is a map of the places where no organization is currently funded to help a small business write an SBIR proposal — and Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington are on it.

The Eligibility Roster Is a Shortage List

Statute limits FAST to one applicant per state or territory, and that applicant has to carry a letter of endorsement from the governor or the governor’s designee. Layered on top is a second rule that does the real work: an entity located in a state that already has a funded FAST recipient is automatically ineligible. So the roster SBA published is not a competitive field. It is the remainder — every place where the previous award has lapsed or was never made.

For FY 2026 that remainder was American Samoa, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Guam, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, Vermont, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Three of those are among the country’s strongest SBIR states. Using the FY 2024 award data SBA printed in the same notice, Massachusetts ranked second in the nation with 382 Phase I awards. Maryland ranked ninth with 137. Washington ranked fourteenth with 75. Oregon and Connecticut sat in the top twenty.

That combination is the part worth sitting with. A founder in Cambridge or Bethesda operates in one of the densest federal R&D markets in the world and still has no FAST-funded organization in the state writing them a Phase 0 check. Meanwhile a founder in Georgia — outside the list, therefore covered — can draw on a University of Georgia FAST program that pays up to $2,450 toward a grant consultant. The support does not track where the innovation is. It tracks which state kept a FAST application current.

The $9 Million Headline and the $1.26 Million Reality

Congress funded FAST at $9 million for fiscal 2026 under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, Public Law 119-75. SSTI’s read of the appropriations language notes that FAST, the Growth Accelerator Fund, and Regional Innovation Clusters each landed at $9 million, inside a $330 million total for SBA entrepreneurial development — $13.2 million above the prior year and well above the $150 million the administration had requested.

Nine million is the number that traveled. It is not the number that matters. SBA’s FY 2026 FAST webinar put the funding planned for new awards at $1,260,000, with at least seven new awards expected at the $180,000 ceiling. Seven times $180,000 is exactly $1.26 million. The other $7.7 million continues awards already running in the roughly forty states that have a recipient.

That math explains why FAST feels invisible to most founders. It is a maintenance program with a small annual expansion budget, structured as a three-year cooperative agreement — a first budget period from September 30, 2026 through September 29, 2027, with two option years exercised at SBA’s discretion. The program was established by the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000 at 15 U.S.C. 657d, technically expired in 2005, and has run on appropriations ever since. It is not going to blanket the country in a single cycle. Anyone tracking federal grant programs for capacity-building money should size FAST accordingly.

Why the SBA FAST Partnership Program Match Keeps Rich States Uncovered

FAST requires a non-federal match, and the rate is set by how well the state already performs in SBIR. States in the bottom twenty-two by Phase I award count match 50 cents per federal dollar. The middle band matches 75 cents. The sixteen states with the most Phase I awards match dollar for dollar. At least half of whatever is matched has to be cash, and — with a narrow Community Development Block Grant exception — none of it can come from another federal program.

Run that against the eligibility list and a pattern falls out. Massachusetts and Maryland are 1:1 states. To capture $180,000, an applicant there has to produce $180,000 in non-federal money, at least $90,000 of it in cash, before the program starts. A South Carolina or Nevada applicant needs $90,000. The states that most need someone to step forward are also the states where stepping forward costs the most, which is a plausible reason high-SBIR states cycle in and out of coverage.

What a covered state actually gives you

Where a FAST recipient does exist, the benefit is concrete and usually underused. Statute authorizes three activity types: outreach and training, technical and business assistance, and direct financial support — including grants or loans that cover proposal development costs, conference travel, and gaps between phases. NIH’s Seed office maintains a state-by-state FAST awardee directory for exactly this reason. Delaware’s program funds up to $50,000 a year in SBIR consulting through pre-approved consultants. Hawaii reimburses proposal-writing costs and matches awards. These are not lottery tickets; they are budgeted services sitting unclaimed.

What a Founder Should Do With This

The FY 2026 competition is closed — the cleared notice set a deadline of 4:00 p.m. Eastern on July 22, 2026, and the Grants.gov listing for SB-OIIFT-26-001 carried a late-July close with an August archive date. So nothing on this page is an application tip. It is a diagnostic.

Check whether your state appeared on the FY 2026 eligibility list. If it did not, a funded organization exists and you should find it before you hire anyone. Ask it three questions: does it fund Phase 0 proposal costs, does it run technical reviews before submission, and does it have capacity this quarter. If your state did appear on the list, plan on paying for that help yourself and budget for it — the earliest a new recipient could begin work is a September 30 start date, and standing up outreach takes months after that.

The timing matters more than usual right now. SBIR and STTR lapsed on September 30, 2025 and sat dormant for roughly six months until the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act was signed on April 13, 2026, reauthorizing both programs through September 30, 2031. Agencies have been restarting since. Solicitation volume is climbing back at the same moment several high-output states have no FAST-funded help desk, which is a genuine mismatch for anyone building an SBIR and STTR pipeline this fall.

How to Fill the Gap If Your State Is on the List

Uncovered does not mean unsupported. It means the support is not centrally funded, so you assemble it.

• Start with the SBDC or the state economic development office. Many run SBIR workshops and proposal reviews that predate FAST and continue without it. Connecticut Innovations and MassVentures both operate SBIR-adjacent programs independent of a FAST award.
• Ask the agency program officer first. Free, and the highest-yield hour you will spend. NSF requires an invited Project Pitch before a Phase I proposal; NIH publishes submission rules that no longer forgive late applications.
• Budget the consultant cost as a real line item. In a covered state that money often comes from the FAST recipient. In an uncovered state it comes from you, and it is cheaper than a rejected proposal cycle.
• Track the next FAST cycle for your state. Awards are annual. If a nearby university or economic development authority is assembling a FY 2027 application, a founder letter of support carries weight in the scoring, where coordination across state and regional SBIR efforts is worth 25 of 100 points.

Founders who need a broader view of what is open while they sort this out can filter non-dilutive programs by agency and deadline in the OpenGrants funding database, or start from the small business grants hub if SBIR is only one part of the plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my startup apply to the SBA FAST Partnership Program?

No. FAST funds organizations that serve small businesses — universities, economic development authorities, nonprofits — not the businesses themselves. Only one entity per state may apply, and it must be endorsed by the governor or the governor’s designee. A startup’s role is to use a funded FAST recipient’s services, or to write a letter of support for the entity applying on the state’s behalf.

How much is a FAST award worth?

The FY 2026 notice capped awards at $180,000 against a $9,000,000 program total, with SBA expecting at least seven new awards and about $1.26 million budgeted for them. Recipients must supply a non-federal match of 50, 75, or 100 cents per federal dollar depending on their state’s SBIR Phase I ranking, and at least half of the match has to be cash.

How do I find out if my state has a FAST recipient?

Check the current awardee list published on SBA’s FAST page at SBIR.gov, which links each state to its funded organization. As a cross-check, any state that appeared on the FY 2026 eligibility roster had no funded recipient at the time the notice went out.

What is “Phase 0” and does FAST pay for it?

Phase 0 is the informal name for pre-application support: proposal coaching, mock reviews, market research, and small grants covering the cost of a grant writer. It is not part of the SBIR statute. FAST recipients are explicitly authorized to fund it, which is why Phase 0 dollars appear in some states and not others.

Does the SBIR reauthorization change FAST?

Not directly. FAST is funded through SBA’s entrepreneurial development appropriation, separate from agency SBIR set-asides. The reauthorization matters indirectly: it restarted agency solicitations after a six-month lapse, so demand for proposal help is rising while several states remain uncovered.

Bottom Line

The single most useful thing in the FY 2026 SBA FAST Partnership Program notice is not the award amount. It is the eligibility roster, read as an absence. Thirteen states and territories — including the second- and ninth-ranked SBIR states in the country — went into this fiscal year with no funded organization whose job is to get local companies through a Phase I proposal.

Find your state on that list or off it, and act accordingly. Off the list means a paid resource exists and you should be calling it this week. On the list means the cost of proposal preparation is yours to carry until a new recipient stands up, which will not be before the fall at the earliest. Either way, do not budget an SBIR attempt on the assumption that free state help is waiting.

If your state is uncovered and you need proposal support now, the OpenGrants grant writer marketplace lets you scope an SBIR-experienced writer against a fixed budget rather than guessing at a retainer — the practical substitute for a Phase 0 program your state does not currently have.