Notice Number: NOT-OD-08-113

Key Dates
Release Date: September 5, 2008

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov)

The purpose of this Notice is to announce the availability of a Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP) for NIH SBIR Phase II awardees. Now in its fifth year, this program is designed to help some of the nation’s most promising life science small companies develop their commercial businesses and transition their SBIR-developed products into the marketplace. Through a contract with Larta Institute of Los Angeles, CA, the CAP will provide participants with individualized assistance toward accomplishing their commercialization goals.

The 2008-2009 CAP will begin in September 2008 and will span ten months ending in June 2009. New with this year’s program are two distinctive tracks that offer customized assistance to meet the specific needs of both early stage and seasoned companies: Commercialization Training Track (CTT), and Accelerator Commercialization Track (ACT), respectively. Each is different in their objectives and outcomes.

CTT focuses on training and mentoring by key industry and investment professionals and the development of a clear and focused strategy toward commercialization. ACT is geared toward the participant achieving clearly identified, very specific objectives and plans, using domain experts with current market experience, provided by the program.

All NIH SBIR awardees (grantees and contractors) that have a Phase II award that is active or was active in the past five years are eligible to participate. Participants must, however, meet the SBIR small business eligibility criteria as described in the current SBIR Parent Funding Opportunity Announcement available from the NIH Small Business Funding Opportunities website http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/sbir.htm. Please note that this program is not available to STTR awardees.

CAP participation is free of charge for selected companies; however, participants are responsible for travel and lodging expenses associated with attending workshops and partnering investment events.

Detailed program information and application instructions are available at http://nihcap.larta.org/about/ProgramDescription.aspx . The deadline for submitting an application is September 26, 2008. Seventy-five (75) companies will be selected to participate in this year’s NIH CAP (60 for CTT and 15 for ACT).

Inquiries

General inquiries about the CAP may be addressed to:

Ms. Kay Etzler
NIH SBIR/STTR Program
Office of Extramural Programs
National Institutes of Health
6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 360
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: (301) 435-2713
FAX: (301) 480-0146
Email: [email protected]
Or
Ms. Judy Hsieh
Programs Manager
Larta Institute
606 Olive Street Suite 650
Los Angeles, California 90014
Telephone: 213-538-1444 Ext: 144
E-mail: [email protected]