Administrative Supplements for Participation in the Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) Program (Admin Supp) | PA 17 286

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 286

The Administrative Supplements for Participation in the Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) Program (Admin Supp), Funding Opportunity Number PA 17-286, is an NIH grant opportunity that provides administrative supplement funding to support NIH-funded investigators who want to participate in the C3i entrepreneurship training program. The central aim is not to fund a brand-new standalone research project, but to add targeted support onto an existing, active NIH award so the funded team can obtain commercialization and business-development training tailored to early-stage biomedical technology, with a particular emphasis on medical devices. In practical terms, NIH is using this supplement mechanism to help researchers move beyond proof-of-concept science and better understand how (and whether) their innovation can make the leap from a laboratory idea to a product that can realistically reach patients and clinical settings.

The C3i Program itself is structured as a commercialization-focused curriculum combined with customized mentoring. It is designed to give “medical device innovators” the kinds of frameworks and tools that are often missing from traditional academic training, such as identifying a credible unmet clinical need, evaluating market demand, clarifying the value proposition, understanding stakeholders and adoption pathways, and assessing the broader business opportunity. The program is meant to help investigators test the real-world assumptions around their technology and develop a more disciplined view of commercial viability, rather than relying only on scientific merit or technical novelty. NIH’s stated intent is to foster earlier and more effective translation of biomedical technologies by equipping investigators to make smarter go/no-go decisions and to position promising technologies for downstream commercialization.

A key feature of the announcement is the strong encouragement for prospective applicants to contact NIH Scientific/Research staff before applying. That detail signals that NIH expects applicants to confirm fit with the C3i program, eligibility, and supplement expectations in advance, and likely to align on how participation would integrate with the scope and status of the parent award. Since this is an administrative supplement, applicants should generally expect the request to be linked to the goals of the existing NIH-funded project and justified as an added activity that accelerates translation and commercialization readiness rather than changing the core scientific aims.

Eligibility is broad and spans many common applicant types, including state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other organizations. The announcement also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), faith-based or community-based organizations, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, there are clear restrictions on foreign involvement: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities are not eligible to apply; non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply; and foreign components (as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. Those rules effectively limit participation to domestic applicants and domestic project components.

From an administrative perspective, the opportunity is listed as a discretionary grant under NIH, with activity areas connected to health (and categorized in the source data under “Food and Nutrition, Health”). It is associated with multiple CFDA numbers, including 93.233, 93.286, 93.350, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.847, and 93.853, reflecting that supplements may be relevant across several NIH institutes and funding programs. The original closing date in the source data is June 30, 2017, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of May 12, 2017; award ceiling and expected award counts are not specified in the provided dataset. Overall, the grant is best understood as a pathway for existing NIH awardees to obtain structured commercialization training and mentorship through C3i to strengthen the translational and market-facing trajectory of promising early-stage biomedical and medical device innovations.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Administrative Supplements for Participation in the Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) Program (Admin Supp)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.233, 93.286, 93.350, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.847, 93.853.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-05-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-06-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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