Funding Opportunities for Test Method Developers

NIEHS is offering funding for small businesses developing technologies of interest to the Tox21 program. These technologies include:

• Informatics tools and platforms to organize, store, retrieve, extract, and integrate information on exposures and health effects data.
• Application of machine learning methods and natural language processing for extracting and integrating diverse data types and for generating causal networks from experimental data and public knowledgebases.
• Adapting or developing new methods and tools for automating environmental health-related literature and systematic reviews, including article selection and prioritization, data extraction, study quality evaluation, and summarization of for environmental health impacts.
• Mid- to high-throughput and high-content assays using in vitro or tissue chip technologies to screen and rank toxicity of emerging engineered nanomaterials for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and metabolic toxicity.
• Human and rodent organotypic culture models and microphysiological systems.
• Approaches to characterize and integrate key molecular and cellular changes related to effects of toxicant exposures in carcinogenicity, developmental neurotoxicity, or cardiotoxicity.
• Screening systems that incorporate genetic diversity into toxicology testing.
• Short-term tests, assays, or systems designed specifically to reduce or replace existing regulatory animal studies for acute toxicity (oral or inhalation), reproductive or developmental toxicity, carcinogenicity, or ocular toxicity

The funding is being offered as part of the 2023 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH, CDC, and Food and Drug Administration. This funding is available for small business grant applications to support development and commercialization of innovative technologies. View more information on the NIEHS website.

SBIR/STTR Omnibus Solicitations and Accompanying Resources

• Solicitation notices on NIH website (posted July 12, 2023)
  • Small Business Innovation Research Grants
  • Small Business Technology Transfer Grants
• Program Descriptions and Research Topics
• Application Guide for SBIR/STTR Grant Applications

For more information about this opportunity, contact:

The NIEHS SBIR/STTR Program Staff encourages applicants to submit grants at least one week before the deadline and to take advantage of the following resources:

• NIH "All About Grants" Podcast on the Office of Extramural Research website.
• NIH RePORTER Matchmaker – useful for an initial screen for matching your technology to an institute and a relevant study section for review. It is also a great place to better understand what types of technologies NIH institutes fund.
• NIH Grants Policy Statement – rules for applying for and accepting a grant.
• Frequently Asked Questions about SBIR and STTR grants on the NIH website.
• SBIR/STTR tutorials
• Annotated SBIR/STTR SF424 application forms.
• Webinar series for funding opportunities for environmental technologies.
• NIH study section identifier – allows you to search your topic of interest.
• Application cover letters are optional but provide you an opportunity to designate an institute or study section.
• Rules for calculating number of employees.
• Registration and application instructions (this process can take six to eight weeks and should be initiated well before the deadline).

The UK National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) in partnership with UK Research and Innovation and collaborators are funding a consortium for novel human in vitro models of complex disease with the aim to:

• Improve understanding of human disease mechanisms and better support therapeutic development for disease intervention.
• Overcome limitations of current in vivo and in vitro models to represent human (patho) physiology and disease heterogeneity.
• Accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to accurately and reproducibly model human physiology and disease and reduce the reliance on animal models.

This initiative anticipates funding five interdisciplinary research clusters for four years each with a total fund of £15M. Expressions of interest are due Monday, December 6; applications are due March 20, 2025.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, along with its partner NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices has published two Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) to support the Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) Program. Complement-ARIE will accelerate the development, standardization, validation, and use of human-based new approach methodologies (NAMs). Investigators with expertise and insights into the area of NAMs are encouraged to consider applying for these funding opportunities, which will support Technology Development Centers and a Data Hub and Coordinating Center. NIH also encourages collaborative investigations combining expertise in in vitro, in silico, and in chemico NAMs. NIH expects to offer four or five awards with funding of approximately $18M per year.

• First estimated application due date for the Technology Development Centers (UM1 Clinical Trial Option) is February 28, 2025. 
• First estimated application due date for the Data Hub and Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Option) is March 10, 2025. 

Complement-ARIE program goals include:

• To better model and understand human health and disease outcomes across diverse populations.
• To develop NAMs that provide insight into specific biological processes or disease states.
• To validate mature NAMs to support regulatory use and standardization.
• To complement traditional models and make biomedical research more efficient and effective.

The National Eye Institute is leading an NIH collaboration to incentivize the creation, development, and validation of a quantitative data sharing index. The Data Sharing Index (S-index) Challenge aims to incentivize and reward effective data sharing practices by assessing how effective a researcher is in sharing their data in a way that has utility for future study. This metric will incorporate factors such as adherence to findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) standards; data timeliness; completeness of annotation; frequency of utilization in other studies; and related publications and patents. This metric seeks to recognize and incentivize the efforts of individuals and teams in sharing data, rather than just the value of the data itself.

Phase 1 of the Challenge will open in April 2025; the deadline to register to participate is March 3, 2025. In Phase 1, participants will engage in brainstorming and idea generation, culminating in the submission of a proof-of-concept proposal. These proposals will compete in the first round, with up to six finalists selected to receive a $15,000 prize and advance to Phase 2. The Challenge will award up to $1M to support development of winning submissions. 

PETA Science Consortium International e.V., the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and the Alternatives Research and Development Foundation are offering grants for free recombinant antibodies for use in research and testing. Awardees will receive commercially available recombinant antibodies to test in applications that currently use animal-derived antibodies. Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae and a proposal describing in detail the how the antibody will be used. Awardees will be expected to provide updates to grant sponsors on the progress of their work and publish their results. The offering has a rolling deadline, and grant amounts will vary based on details of the projects.

The National Cancer Institute is offering grants to support the development and characterization of state-of-the-art biomimetic tissue-engineered technologies for cancer research. Projects supported by this funding will become part of the Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC) Research Program. The goals of the Cancer TEC Program are to (1) catalyze the advancement of innovative, well-characterized in vitro and ex vivo systems available for cancer research, (2) expand the breadth of these systems to several cancer types, and (3) promote the exploration of cancer phenomena with biomimetic tissue-engineered systems.

Applications for funding were accepted beginning in May 2022, with applications due quarterly through February 2025. Grants of up to $400,000 will be awarded to fund projects that can continue up to five years. Eligibility for these grants is open to for-profit and nonprofit institutions within and outside the United States.