Skip to content
News & Opportunities

News & Opportunities

Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces the 2020 Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program.  FAST provides one-year funding to organizations to execute state or regional programs that increase the number of SBIR/STTR proposals leading to an increase in the number of SBIR/STTR awards.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to refer to the above Notice of Funding Opportunity on www.grants.gov for more details, including matching-fund requirements, application and submission deadlines, and other information.  The application period will close June 19, 2020.

 

Pre application webinar will be on May 15, 2020 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT 

 

The Notice of Funding Opportunity, Synopsis, Grants.gov Instructions, and Terms & Conditions will also be available shortly on www.sbir.gov/about-fast.

NIBIB Announces Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Program

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is urgently soliciting proposals and can provide up to $500M across multiple projects to rapidly produce innovative SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests that will assist the public’s safe return to normal activities. Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx), is a fast-track technology development program that leverages the NIH Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN). RADx will support novel solutions that build the U.S. capacity for SARS-CoV-2 testing up to 100-fold above what is achievable with standard approaches. RADx is structured to deliver innovative testing strategies to the public as soon as late summer 2020 and is an accelerated and comprehensive multi-pronged effort by NIH to make SARS-CoV-2 testing readily available to every American.

 

NIBIB is providing substantial support to accelerate the development, validation, and commercialization of innovative point-of-care and home-based tests, as well as improvements to  clinical laboratory tests, that can directly detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. NIBIB will support the full range of product development including commercialization and product distribution.

 

Please see the program webpage, press release, and blog post from Francis Collins for details.

Event Recap: Responding to COVID-19 A Ground-Zero Perspective from Washington’s Life Science Community

Life Science Washington and the University of Washington through the WE-REACH Biomedical Entrepreneurship Center teamed up to share stories and perspectives from scientists, researchers, and policymakers about the COVID-19 response.

If you missed the webinar held April 23 with experts in Seattle talking about where we are with COVID-19 you can watch the video here.  

Recaps and follow-ups from Seattle Times,  Geekwire, and MyNorthwest

Jeff Duchin, MD,Seattle and King Co Public Health, noted we should work on getting to know each other’s groups better and understand where core teams with expertise are, especially in our academic institutions, so they can help in these emergency situations.

“Open for testing!” was the message we heard from Keith Jerome, MD, PhD, director of the UW Virology Lab. The lab can handle up to 7000 tests a day now but are only receiving about 1000 per day. Why? Word needs to get out that the capacity is now online, but we also may be short on sample collection kits including swabs.

Should we be opening things up again soon? Not according to Elizabeth Holloran, MD, DSc from the Fred Hutch. If we do, we will see a rebound. First, we need to have in place the ability to test, isolate, and contact trace. Once we can do that we should be able to manage the situation such that only 7% or so of the population is in isolation at a time and the economy can get humming.

It was a great event, moderated deftly by Luke Timmerman of the Timmerman Report.

 

WE-REACH Executive Director Talks Covid-19 with USA Today, Salon, and Geekwire

Dr. Rodney Ho, the Principal Investigator (PI) and Director of the Center for WE-REACH talked with USA Today, Salon, and Geekwire to discuss remdesivir, lopinavir, and hydrochloroquinine as potential treatments for Covid-19.

As part of the center’s focus on providing scientists a bridge to medical impact, WE-REACH has prepared a list of funding opportunities with the NIH. For additional opportunities, see WE-REACH partner ITHS.

Funding for Coronavirus 2019 Treatments, Diagnostics, and Related Solutions

Congress and US federal agencies have responded to the coronavirus threat with funding aimed at fast-tracking promising technologies and products that can help address the needs. Examples of recently funded projects include support of the first high-throughput COVID-19 diagnostic test from Hologic as well as tests from several other companies.

Medical Countermeasures BARDA Portal

BARDA has provided a single point of entry to government agencies that are looking for products and technologies to address the COVID-19 outbreak. Open to independent entities or teams from academic institutions, government labs and private sector organizations.

Required submission materials include a description of your product or technology, a slide deck, manuscript, publications, or other non-confidential information.

Agencies are looking for vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and other products and services.

Broad Agency Announcement
Additional information about the program
BARDA and the Public Health Emergency

COVID-19 Research Supplements to Current NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has issued a Notice of Special Interest in response to the urgent need for research on the Coronavirus 2019 and the biological effects of its causative agent, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Research interests include, but not limited to, host factors, manifestations, complications, time course of virus-host interactions, biological pathways, use of artificial intelligence to understand the COVID-19 pathways and comorbidities, antibody response, development of GMP quality hyperimmune globulin from patients who have recovered, and testing strategies.

Additional information >>>

Center for AIDS Research Resource Support

Informational Webinar: March 25, 2020 (link)
Required Core Consultation Deadline: April 15, 2020
Application Deadline: April 22, 2020

Purpose: To encourage investigators, especially those junior or new to CFAR, to leverage existing CFAR services, data, and/or specimens for short-term, innovative HIV-related pilot projects that are likely to generate sufficient data for subsequent applications for future research funding.

Eligibility:

A Principal Investigator must:

1. Be a faculty member, senior post-doctoral fellow, or scientist at a UW/Fred Hutch CFAR affiliated institution, including the University of Washington, Fred Hutch, Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), Seattle Children’s, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and affiliated international institutions.  Applicants from affiliated non-U.S. institutions must have a primary mentor at one of the U.S.-based UW/Fred Hutch CFAR institutions named above.
2. Have attained a qualifying terminal degree (or equivalents), defined as follows:
  • PhD
  • MD
  • MBChB or MBBS, plus two years of research experience or training

3. Be a UW/Fred Hutch CFAR Member.

Funding:

A CFAR Core services voucher mechanism for up to $15,000 of direct costs per project, and projects must be completed within one year.  The awards are intended to fund Core services in excess of what can routinely be provided by a Core, although up to 25% of the iCFAR budget can be used on non-Core expenses that are essential to the project. Those expenses can be in the categories that the National Institutes of Health deems allowable.
Apply Now
Contact cfardev@uw.edu with questions.

UW Innovation Highlighted on Italian TV for Treating Covid-19

Dr. Simone Perazzolo, a scientist in the TLC-ART Program, was featured on Italian national TV explaining how an FDA approved protease inhibitor called Lopinavir (Kaletra) may be effective against Covid-19 since requires protease enzymes to replicate.

He has highlighted targeted and long-acting drug combinations containing Lopinavir + Tenofovir (HIV and Hepatitis B drugs) currently in late-stage development for human testing by TLC-ART. This therapy may potentially replace 30-60 daily pills with a single injection. This product candidate was made possible by innovations in drug combination nano-particle technology (DcNP) discovered by the TLC-ART Program led by Drs. Rodney Ho and Ann Collier with the support of the NIH/NIAID, Division of AIDS (DAIDS).

Please follow the video link for the full interview.

 

Unitaid to Fund $2MM for Oxygen Therapy Innovations

Unitaid, a partner of the UW TLC-ART Program and a funding arm of the WHO, has announced for innovations in the development of fit-for-purpose oxygen therapy for global health and access. Depending on the scope of the project, the funding range is between USD 500k-2M. The deadline is March 19th, 2020. Please follow the link for details.

WE-REACH is Open for Business

WE-REACH Launch

The Center for WE-REACH officially launched on Friday January 31st, 2020. With this announcement to ITHS partners in the WWAMI region, the center plans to educate the next generation of life science entrepreneurs and support value-added project funding to accelerate biomedical products from innovation to reach market and impact the community at large.

The news release has been covered by the following outlets: Geekwire, UW Today, and UW Medicine.