Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (U01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 24 325

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 24 325

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled "Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)" (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-24-325) supports collaborative projects that bring academic researchers and industry partners together to speed up the development, validation, and real-world adoption of promising bioengineering tools and technologies. The central idea is to move beyond early prototypes and isolated demonstrations by pushing technologies to become robust, well-characterized, and genuinely usable solutions that address clear biomedical needs. NIH is looking for projects where the technology is not just interesting on paper, but is positioned to meaningfully improve how scientists study biology or how clinicians diagnose, monitor, or treat disease.

This announcement emphasizes multidisciplinary teams that use an integrative, quantitative bioengineering approach. In practice, that means proposals should blend relevant expertise across engineering, computation, biology, and medicine, and should include rigorous performance measurement and characterization. The aim is to produce technologies that are reliable, reproducible, and ready for broader use, rather than tools that only work under narrow lab conditions. NIH frames the program around delivering new capabilities, with the expectation that supported innovations could lead to meaningful solutions within about 5 to 10 years, so applicants should be prepared to lay out a credible path from development through validation and toward adoption.

The funding mechanism is a U01 cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial NIH programmatic involvement compared with a standard research project grant. That structure often fits projects where coordination, milestones, and active collaboration between parties (including NIH involvement and input) help keep technology development on track. The "Clinical Trial Optional" label means a clinical trial may be included if it is appropriate for the technology and the project goals, but it is not required. Projects can therefore range from advanced preclinical development and testing all the way to clinical evaluation when justified.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations, reflecting the partnership and translation focus of the program. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, as well as public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education. It also includes Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized tribal governments), public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions), for-profit organizations other than small businesses, and small businesses. The announcement also highlights additional eligible groups such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), and U.S. territories or possessions. This wide eligibility is consistent with NIH's intent to encourage strong cross-sector teams and broaden participation across institution types and geographies.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and falls under the broad activity areas of education and health. It is associated with multiple CFDA numbers (93.286, 93.394, 93.395, 93.866, 93.867), reflecting NIH program areas that may support bioengineering and biomedical technology development. The FOA was created on 2024-11-06, and the listed original closing date is 2027-09-07, indicating a multi-year window in which applications may be accepted according to NIH receipt dates and cycles. The source data does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards, so applicants would typically look to the full FOA text and NIH institute-specific guidance for budget expectations, project period norms, and the anticipated scale of awards.

Overall, this program is aimed at teams that can convincingly show (1) a high-impact biomedical problem and unmet need, (2) a bioengineering technology that can realistically be matured into a reliable, well-understood tool, and (3) a partnership structure where industry and academic investigators each play essential roles in development, validation, scaling, or dissemination. The strongest projects will usually be those that make a clear case that, with focused support, the technology can evolve into something the broader research or clinical community can adopt and use with confidence.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.286, 93.394, 93.395, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2027-09-07.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for PAR 24 325

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