(e) For a small business concern that is an offeror submitting a proposal under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program or the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, the contracting officer is authorized to provide an opportunity to correct the offeror’s SAM.gov registration prior to award of an SBIR or STTR contract where:

(1) the SBIR or STTR solicitation required registration in SAM.gov for contracts;

(2) at the time of submission of the proposal, the offeror was registered in SAM.gov for grants;

(3) the offeror is able to register in SAM.gov for contracts prior to award;

(4) the corrective registration is ministerial in nature, i.e., the offeror is not changing its ownership, place of business or organization, small business size or status, or the substance of other representations and certifications; and

(5) the contracting officer determines that the correction of the SAM.gov registration from grants to contracts is in the government’s best interest and furthers the statutory policy of 15 U.S.C. 638(a) to assist small business concerns’ participation in Federal research and development.