Bureaucracy Shouldn’t Be the Battle
WIN helps innovators navigate the path from research to readiness with no-cost coaching, strategic insight, and transition support.
Critical technologies need a faster path forward.
Small businesses and research institutions are driving critical advances across national security. WIN helps innovators move through the complex transition process with coaching, ecosystem access, and strategic support designed to accelerate readiness.
Companies often have scalable technologies with real defense potential, but lack the situational awareness to navigate DoW needs, stakeholders, and transition pathways.
WIN helps industry teams identify the right mission fit, connect with the right defense partners, and increase the probability that their technology becomes both commercially viable and combat-ready.
Academic research often has the technical depth to solve national security challenges, but lacks a clear path from lab discovery to operational use.
WIN helps universities translate applied research into mission-relevant outcomes by identifying dual-use pathways, connecting institutions with defense partners and turning academic expertise into real-world national security impact.
Government teams need capable solutions, but promising technologies are often buried across a fragmented innovation ecosystem.
WIN functions as a trusted filter, surfacing innovators with the technical maturity, financial stability, and execution readiness needed to support critical defense missions.
You can spot strong technical teams and promising dual-use technology, but defense demand signals are hard to read from the outside, and transition pathways are rarely clear. It's difficult to know which innovations can truly scale and which ones stall out before reaching operational use.
WIN connects capital providers directly to real mission needs so you can see where a technology actually fits within the defense ecosystem. We help you separate the promising from the practical and identify capabilities the warfighter needs, and those positioned to accelerate toward national readiness with the right capital behind them.
Clearing the Acquisition Pathway
WIN cuts through the noise to surface the sharpest innovations and connect them to mission-critical needs at the right moment. Our experts have walked this path from both sides. Whether you're early in the lab or closing in on a Program of Record, WIN meets you where you are and moves you forward.
We map your technology against active defense needs, current funding priorities, and viable transition opportunities. You know exactly where you stand and where to move next.
WIN cuts through acquisition complexity. We define funding mechanisms, contract vehicles, and engagement routes, then sharpen your positioning and messaging so federal and industry partners respond.
Through targeted outreach, curated events, and an established navigator network, WIN teaches you how to identify the decision-makers who can advance your tech.
WIN helps you evolve your preparation, partnerships, and acquisition alignment into operational deployment. This is where your concept becomes a fielded capability for the warfighter.
Regional Action.
National Impact.
WIN serves the entire nation while simultaneously providing state-specific offerings. Select your state to explore how WIN is making an impact.
News and guides
Explore the latest news, milestones, guides, and mission-driven work shaping the WIN ecosystem.
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5 Eastern Kentucky SBIR/STTR Success Stories
Announcing the Launch of the Warfighting Integration Network (WIN)
2026 SBIR Reauthorization: What Defense Innovators Need to Know
Upcoming events
WIN hosts events that connect industry, academia, and government around the challenges shaping the future fight. Join us in person or online for discussions, networking, and collaborative sessions built to move promising ideas closer to real-world impact.
WIN serves as the primary connective tissue between America’s brightest innovators and the Department of War (DoW). It is a high-performance network dedicated to bringing clarity and reach to national security innovation by accelerating the transition of mission-driven capabilities from discovery to deployment.
WIN is a program funded by the Department of War under the Academic Partnership Engagement Experiment (APEX). It is executed through a collaborative partnership between Parallax Advanced Research and Vertx Partners.
No. The WIN program provides no-cost resources to academic researchers and industry innovators. The goal is to lower the barrier to entry for promising dual-use technology development.
WIN helps startups outrun the Valley of Death, the gap between research and operational relevance, by providing a strategic roadmap to non-dilutive funding and warm introductions to mission owners. The WIN team provides expert guidance through the complex proposal labyrinth for multiple contract vehicles, including SBIR, STTR, OTAs, BAAs, etc.
No, WIN does not write proposals. Instead, we provide concierge-level one-on-one coaching, review your proposals, and provide structured feedback to raise your success rate while mitigating wasted effort.
WIN explains complex acquisition pathways and advises companies on which stakeholders to engage. We also share WIN cohort success stories and guides.
WIN matches your cutting-edge research with real-world Department of War problems. By identifying dual-use pathways, WIN helps you turn institutional prestige into national security impact, validating technologies with both commercial and military utility.
WIN acts as a "matchmaker," connecting academic researchers with small businesses to form teams for STTR solicitations. To date, WIN has engaged over 400 universities across all 50 states.
WIN acts as a curator for the military, vetting companies and researchers for technical maturity before they reach a government desk. This ensures that government officials receive a curated list of high-quality innovators capable of immediately addressing mission-critical gaps.
These are the warfighters on the front lines. Every partnership WIN facilitates must eventually tie back to providing these individuals with the technology they need to succeed and survive in the field.
WIN uses a five-step framework to move technology from discovery to deployment:
Assess the Fit: Identifying alignment with defense needs.
Clarify the Path: Demystifying acquisition and funding pathways.
Build Readiness: Refining messaging and managing expectations.Make Connections: Facilitating targeted introductions to decision-makers.
Support Transition: Final steps toward funding and frontline deployment.
Yes. While WIN has formal, funded presences in select states, the National Network Access serves as a catch-all for innovators across the entire country. Any U.S.-based company with a solution for the Department of War is encouraged to join the cohort.
No. WIN only works with U.S. innovators and researchers.
No. WIN guides you on securing non-dilutive funding through various contract vehicles. We do not fund your research or innovation directly.
