IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program (STTR) (UT2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA GM 22 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA GM 22 001

The IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program (STTR) (UT2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity designed to strengthen biomedical entrepreneurship capacity in states that are eligible for the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program. The core goal is to support U.S. small business concerns (SBCs), working in partnership with academic institutions, to create practical educational products that help IDeA-state universities and research organizations improve how they move discoveries from the lab into real-world health products and services. In other words, the program is not primarily about funding a single research project or testing a medical intervention in people; it is about building the training tools, curricula, and structured resources that make technology transfer and commercialization more effective across these regions.

This opportunity uses the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) framework and is offered as a cooperative agreement, meaning NIH expects to have a more active role than with a standard grant. Applicants should anticipate collaboration and coordination with the program and potentially other awardees, since the intent is to develop educational products that can address broad, regional needs across the IDeA landscape rather than narrow, one-off materials that only serve a single institution. The FOA is organized around the four geographic regions that encompass IDeA-eligible states, and it is specifically aimed at improving entrepreneurship and translational pathways within those regions.

The educational products supported under I-RED are expected to directly address two linked needs. First, they should help academic institutions in IDeA states develop or strengthen technology transfer programs, with an emphasis on stimulating technological innovation and improving the institutional processes that support commercialization (for example, building capability around intellectual property, licensing strategy, startup formation, and industry partnerships). Second, they should help investigators and research teams in IDeA states translate scientific discoveries and technologies into commercial products that improve human health and contribute to economic growth. While the FOA text does not list every acceptable product type in the excerpt provided, the phrase "educational products" typically points to deliverables such as structured training programs, curricula, modular courses, toolkits, mentoring frameworks, instructional materials, and scalable resources that can be adopted or adapted by multiple institutions and investigator communities.

Key administrative details from the opportunity include the following. The funding opportunity title is "IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program (STTR) (UT2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)." The funding opportunity number is RFA-GM-22-001. It is categorized as discretionary funding and uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument. The activity category is health, and the CFDA number associated with the opportunity is 93.859. The sponsoring agency is the NIH. The opportunity was created on October 7, 2021, and the original closing date for applications was January 5, 2022. The listed award ceiling is $252,000, indicating the maximum funding level expected per award under this announcement as presented in the source data.

Eligibility is tightly defined. The eligible applicant organization type is U.S. small businesses, consistent with STTR requirements, and applications are expected to be submitted by eligible U.S. small business concerns partnering with academic institutions. Foreign participation is explicitly prohibited in multiple ways: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply; non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible; and foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed. Additionally, the FOA specifies "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," which means projects proposing clinical trials (as NIH defines them) are out of scope for this mechanism. This reinforces that the program is oriented toward entrepreneurship education and translation support infrastructure rather than human-subjects clinical testing.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a capacity-building and commercialization-enablement program for IDeA states, leveraging small businesses and academic partnerships to produce tangible, shareable educational resources that strengthen technology transfer and improve the pipeline from discovery to market. It targets the practical barriers that often slow commercialization in historically under-resourced regions, aiming to increase the number and quality of translational outcomes that can ultimately improve human health while also supporting regional economic development.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program (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 2021-10-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-01-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $252,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA GM 22 001

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: