Enterprise Innovation brings internal and external collaboration opportunities to our faculty and trainees. These programs provide extra funding and opportunities to work with industry to advance faculty/trainees' translational research projects.
Please contact Dr. James Bellush at james.bellush@cornell.edu if you have any questions or need guidance on your application.
1. DoD – Ovarian Cancer Clinical Trial Academy (OCCTA) – Early Career Investigator
- Eligibility: New initiative from Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) to recruit first group of early career investigators (ECIs) to train, design, and conduct effective clinical trials of innovative agents for treatment of ovarian cancer.
- Eligible ECIs will work under guidance of designated mentor and participate in monthly webinars, workshops, and other events with OCCA members
- Clinical focus areas: Diagnostic, prevention strategies, dietary interventions, therapeutic or surgical interventions, drug repurposing
- Pre-Application Submission Deadline: June 24, 2024
- Application Submission Deadline: August 6, 2024
- Award Details: $1M
2. Empire State Development Innovation Matching Grants Program
Objective: Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (“NYSTAR”), Innovation Matching Grants Program (the “IMG Program”) aims to grow small businesses and support the development of new technologies in New York State by providing matching funds for federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants.
Eligibility Guidelines:
- Businesses that are: resident in New York State; independently owned and operated, not dominant in their field; and employing 100 or less persons.
- Actively in the process of applying for a Phase I or Phase II SBIR or STTR award from a participating federal agency or have received an SBIR/STTR award within 12 months of the announcement of the specified round.
- Currently operate their business in New York.
* Grant recipients must remain headquartered and operate or manufacture in New York State for at least two years following the successful commercialization of the IMG Program grant recipient’s product or products.
Award and Application Information:
The Matching Grants Program will match:
- The award for Phase I applicants, not to exceed $100,000.
- The award for Phase II applicants, not to exceed $200,000.
- Technical assistance resources for Phase II and Phase III awards.
In no event, shall the funding provided from the IMG Program exceed 50% of the federal award.
Round 1 of funding is open now and accepting applications until July 31, 2024, or until all the allocated funds are committed. Learn more about the program and read the program guidelines here before applying.
- Eligibility: Investigators who are developing devices, biomaterials, or formulation approaches to improve the preparation, administration, viability, and efficacy of cell therapy
- Clinical Indications of Interest: Type 1 diabetes (delivery of beta cells), chronic heart failure (delivery of cardiac cells), and Parkinson’s disease / dementia (delivery of neuronal cells)
- Development Stage: Novo Nordisk is seeking projects with proof of concept data or a clear / defined route to achieve PoC within 6 month time frame
- Submission Details: Interested applicants should submit a one-page, 200-300 word non-confidential LOI which includes:
- Details of achieved PoC data
- Optional supplemental information (i.e. relevant publications)
- Award Details: $75,000
- Submission Deadline: August 12, 2024
4. Sanders Tri-I TDI Therapeutic Small Molecule Projects
Objective: Advance early-stage projects, that have the potential to benefit patients, to proof of concept studies. TDI contributes medicinal chemistry and drug development capabilities that complement the deep scientific expertise already available in our research community.
Eligibility:
- Principal Investigators whose full-time employer is The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine, or Memorial Sloan Kettering.
- Investigators who may have a faculty appointment at at any of the above institutes, but who are not full-time employees of any of these institutes are not eligible.
- Only small molecule chemical compounds will be considered.
Funding and Budgeting
- Full applications will require a clear metric-driven critical path to inform go/no go decisions and a budget.
- Continued support will be success-driven and subject to completion of predefined project milestones.
- TDI will support medicinal chemistry costs and provide assay development and execution expertise.
- TDI does NOT provide direct funding support, only in-kind service support.
- Each PI will be responsible for the cost of activities in his/ her lab.
- Beginning in 2024 PI labs will be charged 10% of the actual cost of their program, capped at $100K for the life of the program. Please note that the cost of a 3 – 5 year therapeutic discovery project is typically $2- 5M.
Submission Process
- All submissions must be in Adobe Reader (.pdf)
- LOIs should be sent to info@tritdi.org by August 12, 2024.
- Full proposals should be submitted through the “Submit Application” button at the top of this page, which will be active after LOI submissions are complete.
5. NCI Small Business Transition Grant
The National Cancer Institute Small Business Transition Grant was developed to assist early-career academic scientists in transitioning to entrepreneurship. Beginning as a Phase I STTR award that transitions into a Phase II SBIR award, it provides innovators with up to $2.4 million towards their biotech R&D efforts. As of this year’s Notice (RFA-CA-24-023), the Small Business Transition Grant has also expanded to include a Phase I STTR-only option.
This unique opportunity is ideal for early-career scientists who participated in technology discovery during their academic work and are now ready to form a startup. The technology must fit into at least one of the following categories:
- Therapeutics and preventive agents
- Imaging technologies, interventional devices, and in vivo diagnostics
- In vitro and ex vivo diagnostics and prognostics
- Technologies for cancer prevention and control, supportive care, and survivorship
Mentoring is one of the key components of this opportunity. Grantees are required to secure a mentoring team that can support the transition from junior academic scientist to entrepreneur.
Letters of Intent are due July 21, 2024. Applications are due August 22, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. ET. For questions, please contact NCI SBIR Program Director Saroj Regmi (saroj.regmi@nih.gov).