Small Business Transition Grant For Early Career Scientists (R42 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA CA 22 017

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 22 017

The Small Business Transition Grant for Early Career Scientists (R42, Clinical Trial Not Allowed), funding opportunity number RFA-CA-22-017, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant designed to help early-career academic researchers make a practical jump from the university setting into entrepreneurship. The program is built around a common reality in biomedical innovation: universities are strong at generating discoveries, while small businesses are often better positioned to turn those discoveries into real-world products. NIH recognizes that the handoff between these two worlds can be difficult, so this opportunity aims to make that transition smoother and more intentional.

At its core, the FOA targets two problems that often slow down or derail academic-to-startup technology transfer. The first is the people problem: promising technologies frequently stall because the right team is not yet in place, particularly a leader who understands both the science and the requirements of building a product in a business environment. The second is the early funding problem: even strong inventions may be too early for private investment, and standard academic grants may not be structured to support the product-focused development steps needed to make a technology commercially viable. This announcement tries to address both at the same time by treating entrepreneurial mentoring and early-stage product development as equally important goals, rather than treating business training as a minor add-on.

The intended applicants are U.S. small businesses, aligning with NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) pathways, and the mechanism listed is an R42, which is typically associated with STTR-style projects. The emphasis is on moving a technology out of an academic laboratory and into a small business context, while actively supporting an early-career scientist who is stepping into an entrepreneurial role. In other words, it is not only about advancing a piece of technology; it is also about developing the scientist into someone who can lead or meaningfully contribute to commercialization efforts.

This opportunity is explicitly not for clinical trials, as indicated by the "Clinical Trial Not Allowed" designation. That generally means the supported work should focus on preclinical development, prototyping, validation, engineering, feasibility studies, or other product development activities that do not involve assigning human participants to interventions to evaluate health-related outcomes. Applicants would be expected to shape their aims accordingly, keeping the project on the technology development and commercialization preparation side rather than human clinical testing.

Eligibility restrictions are also clear and fairly strict regarding foreign participation. Non-U.S. entities (foreign institutions) cannot apply, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, the FOA notes that "foreign components" as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement may be allowed, which typically refers to limited, well-justified parts of the project being performed outside the U.S. under specific NIH rules and approvals. In practice, that means the main applicant organization must be a U.S. small business, and most of the work should remain domestically based unless there is a strong justification that meets NIH policy definitions.

The opportunity sits within NIH's broader mission to support health-related innovation, and it is categorized under education and health-related funding activities with CFDA numbers 93.279, 93.286, and 93.394. The listing shows the original closing date as 2022-08-22, with a creation date of 2022-03-21, indicating it was a time-bound announcement. Even if the window has passed, the structure is still useful as a model for how NIH designs programs that blend commercialization training with technical development funding.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a bridge: it helps an early-career academic scientist move toward entrepreneurship while pushing an academic invention toward a product pathway inside a U.S. small business. It is meant to strengthen the leadership pipeline for scientist-entrepreneurs and to reduce the early technical and organizational friction that so often prevents good laboratory innovations from becoming practical tools, diagnostics, devices, or other technologies that can benefit the public.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Small Business Transition Grant For Early Career Scientists (R42 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): 93.279, 93.286, 93.394.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-03-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-08-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA CA 22 017

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