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Set-asides › 8(a)

8(a) Business Development set-aside contract opportunities

31 open federal solicitations on SAM.gov restricted to 8(a) firms, refreshed nightly and sorted by response deadline.

Who can bid

Firms holding 8(a) status. Being a small business is not enough on its own: the certification is what qualifies a firm, and it never runs in reverse.

A contract can be both an 8(a) set-aside and sole source at the same time. Those are two independent things, not opposites.

Set-aside and sole source are independent. A contract can be both at once — being 8(a) does not mean it will be competed among 8(a) firms.

Source: FAR 19.805, current as of 07 August 2026 · eCFR.

The socioeconomic certifications are all built on top of small business status, so any of them also qualifies the firm for a general small-business set-aside.

The reverse is false and is the costly direction: being small does NOT make a firm 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB or SDVOSB. Each of those needs its own certification, and most need SBA or VA to grant it.

Source: 13 CFR 128.102, current as of 11 August 2026 · eCFR.

Open 8(a) solicitations

Agencies posting 8(a) set-asides

AgencyOpen
Department of Defense (DoD)23
Department of Justice (DOJ)2
General Services Administration (GSA)2
Department of Transportation (DOT)1
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)1
Department of Energy (DOE)1
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)1

Notices coded as a sole-source award (8(a) Sole Source) name a single firm and are listed as records, not as open competition.

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