The Minnesota SBIR/STTR Accelerator's mission is to secure federal research and development funding for startups and small businesses to enable them to transform their high risk, high-impact technologies into marketable products and services that solve problems by leveraging SBIR/STTR investments.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, also known as America's Seed Fund, are one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. These programs enable US-owned and operated small businesses to conduct research and development that has a strong potential for commercialization.

The SBIR program, as established by law and reauthorized under Public Law 114-328, Section 1834 and Public Law 115-232, is intended to meet the following goals: stimulate technological innovation in the private sector; strengthen the role of small business in meeting federal research and development needs; increase the private sector commercialization of innovations developed through federal research and development funding; and foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons.

The STTR program aims to foster technology transfer through cooperative research and development between small businesses and research institutions. Federal agencies with extramural research budgets over $100 million are required to set-aside 3.2% of their extramural research budget to the SBIR program, and those with extramural research budgets over $1 billion are required to set aside an additional 0.45% to the STTR program.