Miromatrix Medical Inc’s unique technology allows scientists to create human organs, offsetting shortages of transplantable organs.
Technology topic
Biological Technologies (BT)
The Biological Technologies topic covers a wide range of technology areas to advance engineering and science innovation across the biological spectrum. Biological technologies have disrupted decades-old chemical, agricultural and medical products and services, producing a new bioeconomy. Potential breakthroughs in this space are on course to make major socioeconomic contributions by boosting productivity in industrial and agricultural processes, improving human health, and making advances toward environmental sustainability.
Proposed projects should be focused on using or modifying living organisms, systems or biological processes to develop new technologies to produce biochemicals and medical and agricultural products. They may involve bioengineering to improve function in molecules, cells and tissues in humans, plants, animals and microbes. NSF also encourages proposals for enabling new technologies, such as new tools for genomics, proteomics and drug discovery; instruments for biological applications; computational and bioinformatic tools; and new manufacturing technologies for cells, tissues, organs and biologics (with the exception of clinical trials and schedule I substances).
Subtopics are not aimed at supporting or conducting clinical trials, clinical efficacy or safety studies, the development pre-clinical or clinical-stage drug candidates or medical devices, or work performed primarily for regulatory purposes. Limited studies with human subjects may be acceptable to the extent that they are performed in support of feasibility, such as proof-of-concept studies of early-stage technologies. Proposals that request support for clinical studies will be deemed noncompliant with the SBIR/STTR solicitations and returned without review.
Sub-Topics
BT1. Animal Biotechnology
BT2. Aquaculture
BT3. Bio-Inspired Technologies
BT4. Bioinstruments and Biosensors
BT5. Cell and Tissue Engineering
BT6. Fermentation
BT7. Life Science Research Tools
BT8. Microbiome and Microbial Diversity
BT9. Plant Biotechnology
BT10. Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering
BT11. Other Biological Technologies
Application process for Biological Technologies (BT) funding
Eligibility for Biological Technologies (BT) funding +
- Your company must be a small business (fewer than 500 employees) located in the United States.
- At least 50% of your company’s equity must be owned by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. NSF does not fund companies that are majority-owned by multiple venture capital firms, private equity firms, or hedge funds, to participate in SBIR and STTR.
- All funded work, including work done by consultants and contractors, needs to take place in the United States.
- The project’s principal investigator (tech lead) must be legally employed at least 20 hours a week by the company seeking funding. The principal investigator doesn’t need any advanced degrees.
- The principal investigator needs to commit to at least one month (173 hours) of work on a funded project per six months of project duration.
Evaluation Criteria: What We Look for When Evaluating Biological Technologies (BT) proposals +
- Technological Innovation
- Broader Impacts
- Commercial Potential
- Read more about our criteria
Take our project assessment to see if your work might be a good fit for NSF funding.
Featured Companies
Sustainable ink from algae
Living Ink Technologies, a small business funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is developing ink from algae cells. The Colorado-based biomaterials company is “changing the way pigments are made” to use algae as a colorant. Its sustainable algae products could replace ink made from petroleum.
To learn more visit: https://livingink.co/
Technology helps create bio-engineered organs for human transplant
More than 120,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list, and the list continues to grow. To meet this need, Miromatrix Medical, a small business funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is developing a technology to create bio-engineered organs for human transplant.
To learn more visit: www.miromatrix.com/