Deadline: 9-Jan-23
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the qualifying research institutions is pleased to launch the Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) Awards to accelerate the creation of small businesses and the transition of discoveries originating from academic research into products that improve patient care and enhance health.
REACH Hubs foster the advancement of therapeutics, preventatives, diagnostics, devices, and research tools that address unmet patient and public health needs across the entire NIH mission. Applicants are encouraged to focus on building robust entrepreneurial ecosystems in the areas of highest U.S. burden of disease and disability and areas that historically attract lower levels of private biomedical capital investment.
The program aims to strengthen and de-risk technologies toward this goal through a team-based developmental approach that addresses downstream requirements, including but not limited to intellectual property, regulatory, and reimbursement issues, and business case development. It is expected that spinout companies will be in a position to submit strong SBIR and STTR program applications. The Hubs will establish novel partnerships, strengthen existing alliances between stakeholders (including academic, non-profit, and industry sectors), provide entrepreneurial educational opportunities for innovators from diverse backgrounds, and create cultural and systemic changes to more rapidly transform breakthrough innovations into products that will have health, economic, and societal impact.
Funding Information
- The participating Institutes and Centers intend to commit an estimated total of $20,000,000 to fund up to five awards, over 4 years at $5 million per year.
- The maximum budget for a Hub is $1,000,000 total costs per year.
- Award Project Period: The maximum project period is 4 years.
Types of Project
- The new REACH Hubs will build upon lessons learned from previous awardees to transition promising technologies to the next stage of commercialization. Proposed technology development projects should have already advanced from scientific discovery into the early stages of product development. As a guiding principle, proposed technology development projects should be within one or two steps of a commercial transaction (selling, partnering, licensing, startup, or entry into another suitable program to continue development), but require additional validation in order to be considered competitive for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award. Although every technology development project is unique, broad guidelines for different types of projects are as follows:
- Small Molecule Therapeutics: The compound is at the lead optimization or preclinical stage. The target is known, and/or there is some method or assay to determine its effect.
- Biologics or Cell Based Therapies: The biologic or cell population has been identified and some reasonable method of development, sourcing, manufacture, or proliferation is proposed. Mechanism of action has been determined to a sufficient level that there is a reasonable understanding of the product to be developed or tested in the project.
- Interventional Medical Device: The proposal includes prototype development and testing, either on the bench or in animals. Physiologic experiments have been conducted or reported in the literature, providing rationale for prototype development.
- Diagnostic Medical Device/IVD/MDx: The proposal includes prototype development and some method of testing.
- Health IT, Software, Apps, and Algorithms: The proposal should be beyond the concept stage and already have an existing code base. The idea should be grounded in previous experiments or solid peer reviewed evidence. The proposal should include steps to validate the technology by demonstrating its efficacy versus the standard of care or utility in pilot studies or user testing, or, if already validated, to refine the technology to make it appropriate for commercialization.
Eligibility Criteria
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Hispanic-serving Institutions
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
- Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- The primary applicant organization must be a university or other research institution that participates in the NIH STTR program. Participation means that a university or other research institution has been a formal partner to a small business on an STTR award. Many NIH-supported universities or other research institutions will be eligible. Please contact the Scientific/Review staff for clarification. Institutions in IDeA-eligible states are strongly encouarged to apply for this funding opportunity.
- Non-eligible Organizations include:
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions)
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations
- Businesses are not eligible to serve as the primary applicant organization
- Previous recipients of NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) and REACH awards are not eligible to serve as the primary applicant organization
- Government entities.
- Foreign Institutions
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
- Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.
For more information, visit NIH.