Development of Highly Innovative Tools and Technology for Analysis of Single Cells (STTR) (R41/R42) | PA 17 148

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 148

The NIH funding opportunity titled "Development of Highly Innovative Tools and Technology for Analysis of Single Cells (STTR) (R41/R42)" (PA-17-148) is a discretionary grant program designed to push forward the next wave of single-cell analysis technologies by supporting projects led by U.S. small businesses under the Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) mechanism. The central aim is not only to invent new tools, but to develop and validate them in a way that positions the technology for real-world commercialization and broad adoption across biomedical research. In practice, the FOA is looking for technology development efforts that can move beyond incremental upgrades and instead provide clearly measurable advances that would make single-cell experiments more informative, more reliable, more scalable, or more feasible in settings where current approaches still fall short.

This opportunity is grounded in the idea that many important biological questions are limited by the fact that cells are not uniform, even within the same tissue or disease state. Traditional "bulk" assays average signals across many cells and often hide rare cell populations, transient cell states, and key cell-to-cell interactions. By enabling researchers to observe biology at the resolution of individual cells, these technologies can reveal a more detailed and dynamic picture of how heterogeneous cellular states evolve, how cells communicate with one another, and how these processes differ between health and disease. The FOA explicitly frames single-cell technology as a route to new mechanistic insight, meaning applicants should make a strong case that their tool will unlock measurements or observations that are difficult or impossible with the current state of the art.

A key expectation in applications is that the proposed technology is benchmarked against existing tools and methods. The FOA asks applicants to define the current technological landscape as a reference point, then explain how the new approach will be measured against it. This signals that reviewers will be looking for clear performance metrics and validation plans rather than only conceptual novelty. The technology should provide "substantially improved performance" in one or more concrete areas. Those areas include sensitivity (detecting lower abundance signals), selectivity (distinguishing the correct target signals from background or closely related signals), spatiotemporal resolution (capturing where signals occur in cells or tissues and how they change over time), scalability (throughput, cost, workflow robustness, or ability to handle larger studies), multiplexing capability (measuring many analytes at once, such as many genes, proteins, metabolites, or functional readouts), and non-destructive analysis (obtaining molecular or functional measurements while keeping cells viable or preserving them for downstream assays). The emphasis on non-destructive or functional readouts is particularly important because many current single-cell methods require cell lysis or otherwise destroy the sample, limiting the ability to track the same cell over time or connect measurements to later phenotypes.

The grant uses the STTR R41/R42 structure, which generally supports early-stage feasibility and prototype development (Phase I, R41) followed by more advanced development and validation (Phase II, R42), with the overall intent of de-risking technology so it can be commercialized. Because this is an STTR program, the underlying model is collaboration between a small business concern (the applicant and primary awardee) and a nonprofit research institution, leveraging strengths from both product-focused development and academic or institutional research expertise. While the FOA text provided does not list award ceilings or expected award counts, it does specify that it is an NIH opportunity and includes multiple CFDA numbers associated with NIH programs, indicating broad relevance across many biomedical domains.

Eligibility is limited to small businesses, and the FOA clearly restricts foreign participation in certain forms. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, may be allowed in some cases, which typically means a U.S.-based applicant could potentially include a foreign element if it meets NIH policy requirements and is well-justified, but the applicant organization itself must be U.S.-eligible. The issuing agency is the National Institutes of Health, and the FOA also notes a companion opportunity for applicants pursuing the SBIR mechanism (PA-17-147), which serves similar goals but follows the SBIR framework rather than STTR.

In short, this FOA is aimed at small businesses that want to create commercially viable, next-generation single-cell analysis tools that go beyond what is currently available, with a strong emphasis on rigorous benchmarking and validation. The technologies supported under this program are expected to enable deeper insight into complex biology by improving how researchers measure, compare, and interpret the molecular and functional states of individual cells and their interactions, at scales and levels of detail that existing tools cannot reliably deliver.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Development of Highly Innovative Tools and Technology for Analysis of Single Cells (STTR) (R41/R42)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.121, 93.213, 93.242, 93.350, 93.393, 93.394, 93.395, 93.396, 93.399, 93.846, 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-02-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-01-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for PA 17 148

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