SBIR Phase II Bridge Award

The SBIR Phase II Bridge Award is intended to augment previously funded NIH-wide SBIR Phase II projects that require additional funding in order to achieve key technical and regulatory milestones along the path toward commercialization.

This funding opportunity focuses on the continued development of cancer therapies and cancer imaging technologies, which require clinical evaluation and approval by a Federal regulatory agency. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to commit up to $10 million to fund five to ten SBIR Phase II Bridge Awards in fiscal year 2009.

Budgets up to $1 million in total costs per year for up to three years may be requested from the NCI. Development efforts may include preclinical R&D, which is needed for regulatory filings (e.g., IND or IDE) and/or clinical trials.

The salient feature of this award is that it encourages partnerships between NIH's SBIR Phase II awardees and third-party investors and/or strategic partners that have significant prior experience in the commercialization of emerging technologies. To incentivize these partnerships with third party investors, the SBIR Program expects the Bridge Award amount to be matched by non-federal funds. Competitive preference and funding priority will be given to applicants that demonstrate the ability to secure substantial independent third-party investor funds (i.e., third-party funds that equal or exceed the requested NCI funds).

RFA-CA-08-021: SBIR Phase II Bridge Awards to Accelerate the Development of New Cancer Therapies and Cancer Imaging Technologies Toward Commercialization (SBIR [R44])

Receipt Dates: September 19, 2008; February 27, 2009

Download a PDF of the SBIR Bridge Award postcard