Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (BPI)

Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (BPI)

Funds academia-industry partnerships for biomedical engineering development with sustained milestones and shared commercialization planning.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) Bioengineering Partnerships with Industry (BPI) program funds milestone-driven, targeted technological development projects that address unmet biomedical needs through strategic alliances between academic institutions and commercial partners. The active funding opportunity is PAR-24-325 (Bioengineering Partnership with Industry, U01 Clinical Trial Optional), which accepts applications on a rolling basis with multi-year receipt dates spanning 2025 through 2027. The program is structured as a U01 cooperative agreement, meaning NIH actively participates in project direction and budgets, scope, and milestones may be renegotiated with agency staff.

NIBIB awards up to $600,000 in annual direct costs for up to five years, yielding a maximum of approximately $3 million in total direct costs per award. Applications requesting more than $500,000 in annual direct costs must submit a white paper to NIBIB staff and receive written approval at least six weeks before the application deadline. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations — including universities and research institutions — are eligible, but every application must demonstrate joint leadership between an academic entity and an industrial partner; solo-institution submissions are not accepted. Participating institutes NCI, NEI, and NIA may impose different award caps on co-funded solicitations, so applicants must verify limits in each specific NOFO.

Successful BPI applications demonstrate specific, quantifiable, time-bound milestones with defined deliverables achievable within a five-to-ten-year implementation horizon. Reviewers assess the clarity of each partner's role, the joint governance structure, and the realism of the development timeline relative to the target biomedical need. Applicants are advised to contact NIBIB program staff before submitting to confirm topical alignment, and to begin white-paper preparation well in advance of the six-week pre-submission window for larger budgets.