Five hubs have received $20 million in funds from the National Institutes of Health to accelerate the development of commercial devices, therapeutics, diagnostics and tools that will optimize health and patient care capacities. The awardees have partnered with various organizations and landed non-federal funds to help NIH grow its investment through the Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs program, the agency said Tuesday.
The REACH initiative seeks to help academic teams offer their technologies to small businesses and determine their potential effects. The selected hubs will pick biomedical projects for product development experts’ consideration. Once validated, the projects will receive management support and funding.
“These awards increase engagement with private sector technology development experts and investors,†said Jodi Black, deputy director of the Office of Extramural Research at NIH. “They also build entrepreneurial research and development capacity to improve and accelerate the transfer of biomedical technologies from the lab to the market, which is critical for turning NIH discoveries into health.â€