NINDS Specific Program/Budget Information

Limited Amount of Award

For the Omnibus and Program Announcements released after August 6, 2012:

For budgetary, administrative, or programmatic reasons, NINDS may decrease the length of an award and/or the budget recommended by a review committee, or not fund an application. According to statutory guidelines, total funding support (direct costs, indirect costs, fee) normally may not exceed $150,000 for Phase I awards and $1,000,000 for Phase II awards.  With appropriate justification from the applicant, Congress will allow awards to exceed these amounts by up to 50% ($225,000 for Phase I and $1,500,000 for Phase II). Applicants considering a requested budget greater than these limits are strongly encouraged to contact program staff before submitting an application.

NIH has received an SBA waiver to exceed the cap for specific topics that can be found here and NINDS will make a limited number of awards that exceed the cap. Generally, the NINDS does not fund Phase I applications greater than $700,000 total costs ($350,000 per year) or project periods greater than 2 years. In addition, the NINDS does not generally fund Phase II applications greater than $3,000,000 total costs ($1,000,000 per year) or project periods greater than 3 years. Again, applicants considering a requested budget greater than these limits are strongly encouraged to contact program staff before submitting an application. For details see PHS 2013-1.

For Program Announcements released prior to August 6, 2012:

For budgetary, administrative, or programmatic reasons, NINDS may decrease the length of an award and/or the budget, or not fund an application. Generally, NINDS does not fund Phase I applications greater than $350,000 total cost per year for up to 2 years or Phase II applications greater than $1,000,000 total cost per year for up to 3 years. Applicants considering a requested budget greater than these limits are strongly encouraged to contact program staff before submitting an application. For details see PHS 2012-2.

Phase IIB Competing Renewal Awards

In addition to the traditional Phase I and II applications, NINDS accepts Phase IIB SBIR/STTR Competing Renewal applications through specific opportunities that focus on the commercialization of SBIR and STTR developed technologies. These opportunities can be found on the NIH SBIR webpage.

Clinical Trials

The NINDS is committed to identifying effective treatments for neurological disorders by supporting well-executed clinical trials. NINDS will not accept unsolicited SBIR/STTR applications that include clinical trials under the Omnibus solicitation. A clinical trial is a prospective biomedical or behavioral research study of human subjects designed to answer specific questions about the safety, tolerability, efficacy and/or effectiveness of pharmacologic, behavioral, biologic, surgical, or device interventions. This policy does not apply to (1) exploratory IND studies as defined by the FDA or (2) early feasibility studies of devices as defined by the FDA.

NINDS accepts and supports SBIR and STTR clinical trial applications through specific funding opportunities, which can be found on the NINDS SBIR webpage.  Other human subjects research can also be submitted through the Omnibus solicitation. NINDS may decline funding of any application that includes human subjects for programmatic or administrative reasons. SBIR applicants considering projects involving human subjects research are strongly encouraged to contact Stephanie Fertig or Joanne Odenkirchen (contact information provided below) within the NINDS Office of Clinical Research.

Program Contact

Stephanie Fertig, M.B.A.
Small Business Program
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health
NSC, Room 2228
6001 Executive Blvd.
Bethesda, MD 20892-9521
(Courier:  Rockville, MD 20852)
Tel: (301) 496-1779
Fax: (301) 480-1080