Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs

Overview

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program supports research and development by small businesses of innovative technologies that have the potential to succeed commercially or provide significant societal benefit. The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program has the same objectives but requires academic research involvement.

In this division, the SBIR and STTR programs support research and the development of tools related to basic brain and behavioral science, genetics, and drug discovery and development relevant to the mission of NIMH. Such tools include:

• Software (such as informatics tools and resources and tools for analyzing data)
• Hardware (such as the development of instrumentation or devices); wetware (such as the use of iRNAs or other bioactive agents as research tools or molecular imaging agents or genetic approaches to label neural circuits or modify circuit functions)
• Drug discovery related technologies such as high throughput screening (HTS) or computational pharmacology approaches

Areas of Emphasis

• Novel imaging probes to study brain structure and function at all levels, from the molecular to the whole organ, using any imaging modality (PET, fMRI, optical, etc.)
• Novel pharmacologic agents for brain research related to mental disorders, including research aimed at discovering new drugs or molecular research probes for these disorders
• Novel screening assays for high throughput acquisition and analysis of data about behavior and the brain, from the level of genes to the level of behavior
• High throughput software technologies for analysis and data visualization
• Informatics tools and approaches for making better sense and use of data about behavior and the brain

Additional Information

• NIH/NIMH Therapeutics Discovery Research
• Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx)  
• FNIH Biomarkers Consortium 
• NIH BRAIN Initiative  
• NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research  
• NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network for Small Molecules  
• NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network for Biologics  
• SSPsyGene Consortium – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)