When applying for NIH grants, Specific Aims are the strategic backbone of your project’s work plan, guiding reviewers through the roadmap of your research.

When searching for a grant writer, it’s important to understand their philosophy as well as their skills. Different writers bring distinct frameworks to the table, and you want to be able to assess if that framework aligns with your team and your project.

On September 24, 2024, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) officially relaunched their Grants and Funding website with a fresh design, enhanced functionality, and reorganized content based on years of user analytics and feedback. For grant writers, particularly those focused on SBIR and STTR applications, these improvements represent a significant shift in how you can navigate the grant application process.

Your team is likely already aware of the NIH SBIR/STTR Omnibus Solicitation. However, many projects qualify for funding opportunities outside of the SBIR/STTR omnibus application cycle (January, April, and September each year).

With Phase II grants offering significantly higher funding amounts than Phase I, it’s natural to wonder if your team should skip Phase I and aim directly for a Phase II application. But is this the right strategy for your team?

As you work through the prompts, you find yourself easily answering “yes” to each of the prompts, but you know that can’t be all there is to this! You ask yourself “what proof do I need to persuade an NIH reviewer that our project is supported?”

In this post, we’ll briefly discuss the NIH’s scored criteria for SBIR/STTR grant applications and apply our experience writing and evaluating grant applications to help you better understand each criterion.

We recently posted about communicating with NIH Program Officers during your National Institutes of Health grant application journey. One of the milestones we highlighted was also the topic of an All About Grants podcast from early 2023, receiving and responding to reviewer critique.

We’re starting this series with a focus on Significance. This important section of an SBIR/STTR grant application is a pitfall that we have previously written about, but this time we’ll be going into more detail on how to convey this section to a reviewer.

Communication with your NIH program officer will provide you with valuable guidance and insight throughout your SBIR/STTR grant application and review experience. As an applicant, you’ll be navigating various NIH institutes and feedback processes that may be unfamiliar to you. Establishing clear lines of communication with a program officer will help steer you in the right direction.

Time for another AAG Unplugged! In this entry we’ll be summarizing an All About Grants episode that covers material that overlaps with one of our prior posts about managing your SBIR/STTR grant.

It is likely that your expertise is in the science of your innovation, not necessarily in the commercialization of that innovation. When you work with Blue Haven Grant Consultants, we’ll work with you refine those plans as part of our individualized BHGC Advantage.

National Institute of Health (NIH) reviewers have the difficult task of identifying promising innovations and identifying the teams that can turn that innovation into a workable project that will lead to commercialization and improvements in public health.

If you’re here it’s because you are an innovator. You’re exploring how to solve meaningful medical problems with your ideas and projects. That means you are producing Intellectual Property (IP).

As part of our service to the industry, we’re happy to provide brief summaries and take aways about podcasts and where we see BHGC being able to help you take that information and make it actionable. This episode discussed the general application process and the importance of the funding cycle.

At Blue Haven Grant Consultants we take pride in staying informed about NIH grant news. You can do the same by checking out their All About Grants Podcast. You might not have the time to listen to each episode, however. As part of our service to the industry, we’re happy to provide brief summaries and take aways about podcasts and where we see BHGC being able to help you take that information and make it actionable.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs are two of the most popular sources for funding medical device innovation. Understanding the differences between these two grants is essential to making an informed decision about which grant is best suited for your project.

When it comes to securing funding from the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, it's not just about having a great idea – it's about how well you can communicate that idea.

If you were exploring investment in a medical device project, you would likely seek third party perspectives about whether that project had the resources, ideas, and team to make your investment worthwhile.

They say that seeing is believing. When it comes to applying for grant funding, your data is the “seeing” that the reviewers need in order to “believe.” Unfortunately, many applicants overlook data presentation, missing an opportunity to make a positive impact on reviewers.