Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hubs for IDeA States (STTR) (UT2 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA GM 21 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA GM 21 001

The Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hubs for IDeA States (STTR) (UT2 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) funding opportunity (RFA-GM-21-001) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement designed to strengthen and expand regional technology transfer "accelerator hubs" serving Institutional Development Award (IDeA) states. The program focuses on building practical, scalable systems that help move biomedical discoveries and early technologies out of academic laboratories and into the marketplace, with the end goal of improving patient care and advancing human health. Because it is structured as a cooperative agreement, awardees should expect substantial NIH involvement in shaping or coordinating certain programmatic elements, rather than operating with the lighter-touch oversight typical of many standard grants.

At its core, the FOA is aimed at developing comprehensive entrepreneurship and commercialization programs that address the real-world gaps that often prevent promising academic innovations from becoming viable products. The hubs are expected to provide structured support around technology transfer, business formation and growth, small business finance, management, and other commercialization skills that researchers and early-stage founders typically lack. The emphasis is on creating an ecosystem that consistently produces commercialization-ready projects, trained entrepreneurs, and stronger institutional capacity to translate research into products.

Each funded hub is expected to serve a network made up of multiple institutional sites across IDeA states, organized within one of four regions based on where the academic partners are located. In practice, that means the hub is not meant to be a single-institution effort. It is intended to coordinate resources, expertise, and programming across a regional consortium, making it easier for investigators and innovators in IDeA states to access high-quality commercialization support without needing to relocate to established biotech corridors.

The FOA lays out five main goals. First, it seeks to build on existing regional technology transfer programs and further strengthen the capacity of academic institutions to bring scientific results to market. Second, it funds a pilot project program focused on product definition studies, which can include feasibility work, prototype development, proof-of-concept efforts, and preclinical studies. This piece is meant to help projects cross the early "validation" hurdles that investors and commercialization partners commonly require before engaging. Third, the hubs are expected to provide access to specialized expertise and resources needed for early-stage technology development, such as regulatory planning, intellectual property strategy, reimbursement considerations, product design, market research, customer discovery, and commercialization pathways. Fourth, the program expects meaningful skills development and hands-on experience in entrepreneurship, implying practical training opportunities rather than purely academic instruction. Fifth, the FOA emphasizes the need to promote a sustainable culture of biomedical entrepreneurship within IDeA states, meaning the hubs should create lasting institutional and regional capabilities that continue beyond the grant period.

A notable expectation is that educational tools created through the program will be positioned for broader dissemination, including being licensed or sold to other institutions that want to create similar accelerator hubs. This signals that NIH is not only funding local capacity-building, but is also encouraging reusable training content, playbooks, curricula, and operational models that can scale to other regions and organizations.

Long-term sustainability is a major theme. The FOA explicitly calls out the importance of establishing public-private partnerships and securing additional non-federal funding. In other words, the hubs are expected to actively cultivate relationships with industry, investors, foundations, state and local economic development groups, and other stakeholders, and to reduce reliance on federal funds over time by building diversified support for the accelerator activities.

Eligibility and participation rules are also clearly defined. The opportunity is associated with the STTR context and lists small businesses as eligible applicants. Foreign institutions (non-U.S. entities) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, may be allowed in certain circumstances, which typically means limited and well-justified foreign involvement could be permissible when it is essential to the project.

Administratively, the opportunity falls under NIH, in the health funding activity category, with CFDA number 93.859. The original closing date listed is January 5, 2021, and the FOA is dated October 30, 2020. The mechanism is UT2, and clinical trials are not allowed, which indicates the funded activities should not include clinical trial execution, even if they may include preclinical or other preparatory studies that support eventual translation.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hubs for IDeA States (STTR) (UT2 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.859.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-10-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-01-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA GM 21 001

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