BIH Technology Transfer Fund –Medical Devices

Objective – Funding purpose

The aim of the Technology Transfer Fund is to fund projects which have commercial/clinical innovation potential but still lack documents in support of their economic exploitation and require the appropriate validation.
The Technology Transfer Fund is characterized by a straightforward application process with a high degree of flexibility in the allocation of funds. The funds are limited to a short period of use. They are to be used explicitly for the validation of the commercial potential. The fund therefore includes the possibility of awarding contracts for industrial-standard services to third parties whereas personnel costs shall be funded in exceptional cases only. In addition to financial support, the Technology Transfer Fund offers the possibility of professional advice as part of the expert assessment process. The external experts will contact all the applicants in person to discuss the project application in any given case and to comment on the submitted project plan. The applicants will therefore have the opportunity to discuss their projects in detail with the experts. This individual contact between applicants and assessors is a special and important element of the BIH Technology Transfer Fund. The fund offers the applicants in-depth professional advice regardless of whether the applications were selected for funding. Applicants who are not granted funding are specifically asked to submit their revised project proposals when the next call for applications is published.

REQUIREMENTS AND SELECTION CRITERIA

All BIH, MDC and Charité employees are invited to hand in a project application. The application must be co-signed by the research group leader respectively. Proposals can be submitted for projects aimed at the development of new Medical Devices (Medical Devices, Health-IT, medical Services). The main criteria influencing the decision when selecting the projects for funding include the medical need, the level of innovation of the project, the market potential, the improvement of the commercial viability through BIH technology transfer funding and the scientific quality. The quality of a proposal is judged by the expected progress in the validation of the commercial viability based on the requested funds and the intended project work. This explicitly values the generation of a basis to access public validation tools or industrial cooperation in the future.

TYPE, SCOPE AND AMOUNT OF FUNDING

• The selected projects will be allocated up to € 50.000 of funding (incl. tax).
• As a general rule, the project term should not exceed 9 months.
• Follow-up applications can be submitted. They will be competing for funding with newly submitted applications.
• Costs directly related to the project are eligible for funding: material costs, costs for third-party contracts and, in exceptional cases only, personnel costs.

PROCEDURE

The applications must be addressed to the BIH administrative directorate of the BIH and submitted via the BIH website (Application Portal) by EOB (3 pm CET) on 10 January 2017. The project description (in German or English) should not exceed five pages and should include the following points:

• Summary of subject and aim of project

• Description of planned product or service
• Medical demand and commercial potential
• State of research and state of own preliminary work (bibliography may be attached)
• Explanation of superiority and advantages over current medical science standards
• Brief outline of IP situation
• Description of the advance in development to be attained with the help of the funding and the resulting conclusions as to potential usage
• Outlook on potential follow up funding and development upon project closure
• Work schedule and milestone plan (In case of awarding of contracts to third parties this has to comply with the effective procurement directives. The designation of specific favored firms in the request is excluded and may lead to disqualification of the project proposal.)
• Financial plan
• Name of a contact person for the assessors and their contact details

Applicants will be notified of the receipt of their application and the name of their assessor. 

Assessment level 1:

The applications will be distributed to several external assessors who will get in contact with the relevant applicants by telephone. The name of the assessor assigned to your project will be communicated to you upon the application deadline. The external assessors will suggest a shortlist in a joint selection process.

The assessment level 1 period will last approximately two months.  

Assessment level 2:

The applicants shortlisted at level 1 will be invited to present their projects to an evaluation board. They will have 10 minutes for the presentation followed by discussion. The board will be composed of independent external experts. Attending as guest will be representatives from the Technology Transfer Teams of BIH, Charité and from MDC, representatives from the Stiftung Charité and Ascenion. The evaluation meeting is led by the administrative director BIH or his appointed delegate. The assessment level 2 period will last approximately one month. The project presentations and evaluation are  expected to be held on 26. April 2017.  The decision on funding will be made after the symposium and the successful applicants will be notified. Projects can be started subsequently. The technology transfer offices at BIH, Charité and MDC are coordinating the application process and can help scientists with the application procedure. It is therefore highly advisable to contact the relevant technology transfer office before submitting an application. All awarded projects will be posted on the BIH website. A legal claim for funding does not exist. In the course of the project, applicants are supported by the technology transfer offices. It is intended to invite the funded applicants after the completion of the projects and evaluation of the results, in order to present their results in the context of a BIH seminar.

The call for the BIH Technology Transfer Fund regarding “Pharma“ is open for applications in parallel to the BIH Technology Transfer Fund Medical Devices 2017. Regarding the funding of your translational projects, please also note calls by SPARK Berlin.

CONFIDENTIALITY

All the parties involved in the application and selection process are required to sign a written declaration of confidentiality. The relevant technology transfer offices at MDC and Charité would like to be contacted in advance about any projects where the protection of intellectual property is a particular priority.