When considering federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding for health-related technology development, it is often helpful to apply a holistic and broad mindset to find an agency that will fund your research.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are often the most-logical fit for health-related SBIR/STTR dollars. However, thinking broadly about each agency’s mission can help you uncover health-related technology development dollars in places you might not normally expect.
The da Vinci® Surgical System for robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery, for example, was first funded by Army SBIR to aid the warfighter. This robot helped offsite doctors perform surgery on soldiers in remote areas. It then received several larger follow-on investments by the NIH for further commercial development with potential applications in hospitals across the country.
Here is an overview of additional agencies, their solicitations, and program manager contact information to help you get started. Please pay attention to the Grant or Contract column. Typically, contracting agencies will issue specific calls for a technology, so a topic fit is extremely important. At granting agencies, topics or areas of emphasis are often broader, and these agencies frequently allow researcher-initiated ideas (meaning you propose your innovative idea to the government for funding)!
We tried to directly link to an agency’s health-related solicitation if possible, but sometimes agencies do not issue specific solicitations about health. Small businesses should make use of the SBIR.gov search feature to check topics across all open solicitations.
You are encouraged to contact program managers. For most of the agencies, speaking with a program manager is the best way to receive application specific advice. If you would like to meet these program managers in person, plan to attend the National SBIR/STTR Conference. Typically held annually in the spring or early summer in the Washington, DC region, this conference will give you the opportunity to conduct one-on-one meetings with SBIR/STTR program managers in several different agencies.
Remember, if small businesses submit similar proposals to different agencies, they may only accept ONE award to carry out the research. Small businesses cannot be funded by two agencies for the same research topic proposal.
For HHS or NIH SBIR/STTR specific questions, please email sbir@od.nih.gov!
Keywords: health, biomedical, issue engineering, imaging technologies, diagnostic assays, drug delivery platforms, health research tools and technologies, pharmaceutical manufacturing, synthetic biology, smart health, military community health, neurotechnology, human-machine interface, human performance, infectious disease, synthetic biology programs, chemical and biological agents, Circadian rhythm devices, battlefield ultrasound, PTSD monitors, Food Science and Nutrition, Rural and Community Development, social, behavioral, and mental health of students, electronic health records.
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
National Institutes of Health |
NIH SBIR/STTR http://sbir.nih.gov $786 M (SBIR and STTR FY15) The majority of NIH SBIR/STTR awards are researcher-initiated ideas that are proposed through the SBIR/STTR Omnibus Solicitations. This allows small businesses to propose their idea to NIH as long as it falls within NIH’s mission. Please see the 2015 Program Descriptions and Research Topics for HHS’ research priority areas. |
Both ~95% Grants |
All SBIR/STTR Grant and Contract Solicitation(s): Investigator-Initiated Omnibus Solicitations (Grants): Three standard due dates: HHS Receipt Date and Review Schedule Targeted FOAs (Grants): https://sbir.nih.gov/funding#targeted Contract Solicitation |
Matthew Portnoy 301-435-2688 sbir@od.nih.gov |
Center for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC SBIR $7M |
Both | HHS SBIR Omnibus Grant and Contract Solicitation (see above) | Sean David Griffiths 404-639-4641 sqg3@cdc.gov |
Administration for Community Living | ACL Website $2.7M |
Grants | HHS SBIR Omnibus Grant Solicitation (see above) | Brian Bard brian.bard@acl.hhs.gov |
Food and Drug Administration | FDA SBIR $1.45M |
Grants | HHS SBIR Omnibus Grant Solicitation (see above) | Kimberly Pendleton Chew 240-402-7610 kimberly.pendleton@fda.hhs.gov |
Administration for Children and Families | ACF Website $88K |
Grants | HHS SBIR Omnibus Grant Solicitation (see above) | Naomi Goldstein 202-205-3604 naomi.goldstein@acf.hhs.gov |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
National Science Foundation | Biological Technologies (BT)
Smart Health (SH) and Biomedical (BM) Technologies Budget: NSF generally focuses on proof-of-concept of early-stage technologies and therefore does NOT support pre-clinical or clinical-stage drug candidates or medical devices. Areas supported by NSF include tissue engineering, imaging technologies, diagnostic assays, drug delivery platforms, health research tools and technologies, pharmaceutical manufacturing, synthetic biology, and smart health. Proposers may find support at the NSF to develop a platform technology and also pursue support at the NIH to apply the platform to a specific disease state. |
Grants | SBIR/STTR Funding Solicitations |
Ruth Shuman Jesus Soriano All Contacts: |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | CONTRACTS | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
Defense Health Program |
Force Health Protection and Readiness Divisions $57.1M (SBIR and STTR FY15) Responsible for aadvancing collaborative, innovative medical research and development to improve military community health and save lives on and off the battlefield. |
Contracts |
DoD SBIR/STTR Solicitations (https://sbir.defensebusiness.org/) |
Defense Health Program (DHP) COL Matthew Hepburn, M.D. 703-681-8269 matthew.j.hepburn.mil@mail.mil |
DARPA | Biological Technologies Office (BTO)
BTO is responsible for all neurotechnology, human-machine interface, human performance, infectious disease, and synthetic biology programs within DoD. |
Contracts | Topics THoR Call for Proposals |
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) |
Chemical and Biological Defense | CBD SBIR CBD STTR Budget for CBD Providing innovative technologies for the warfighter to counter chemical and biological agents; specifically, medical pre-treatments (vaccines); therapeutics (biological and chemical countermeasures); and diagnostics, detection and disease surveillance |
Contracts |
Typically one SBIR and one STTR solicitation annually. Approximately 5-10 SBIR topics and 1-2 STTR topics, annually with ~50% of the topics addressing medical Science & Technology (S&T) and 50% addressing Physical S&T applications. |
Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JSTO-CBD) Larry Pollack 703-767-3307 Lawrence.p.pollack2.civ@mail.mil |
Army |
Health-related topics for both SBIR and STTR are occasionally sourced from MRMC (Army Medical Research and Materiel Command) and Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Command (NSRDEC) and the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC). The topics range from vaccines, to Circadian rhythm devices, battlefield ultrasound, to PTSD monitors, etc. |
Contracts | -- |
Army MRMC STTR: |
Navy | Occasionally will issue health-related solicitations. Check the Navy SBIR | Contracts | -- | Navy Bob Smith 703-696-7954 Robert.L.Smith6@navy.mil |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
US Department of Agriculture |
Budget for USDA SBIR program is about $20M per year Food Science and Nutrition 1) Understanding the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of food; Rural and Community Development |
Grants |
Small Business Innovation Research Program – Phase I |
Jodi Williams |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
Department of Education | ED SBIR
Overall budget: ED SBIR supports education technology learning products, including products focusing on the social, behavioral, and mental health of students, with the ultimate goal to support academic learning or other meaningful educational outcomes. |
Contracts | The ED/IES SBIR 2016 program solicitations will likely be released in late 2015, with the proposal submission deadline in early 2016. | Edward Metz (202) 208-1983 edward.metz@ed.gov |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
NASA | Human Research Program (HRP)
Delevops human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration, and to ensure safe and productive human spaceflight. The Human Research Roadmap (http://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov) describes the Program’s research activities that are intended to address the needs of human space exploration. |
Contracts | NASA SBIR/STTR Solicitation http://sbir.nasa.gov/ |
Barbara Corbin 281-483-6215 barbara.j.corbin@nasa.gov |
AGENCY | HEALTH-RELATED MISSION SPACE/ DIVISION RESPONSIBILITIES | GRANT OR CONTRACT | SOLICITATIONS | PROGRAM CONTACT |
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) | Health-related subtopics vary each year, but past subtopics have included diagnostic medical tools & electronic health records. | Grants | One solicitation per year available on grants.gov | Mary Clague 301-975-4188 mary.clague@nist.gov |
Last Updated on September 11, 2015