New SPARC Cooperative Agreement (U18) Funding Opportunity Announcement!

Dear Colleague,

The NIH Common Fund Program on Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) has released a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA). This is the first FOA released under the Use of Existing Market-Approved Technology for New Market Indications research component of SPARC. It solicits proposals for pre-clinical testing of existing neuromodulation devices, from SPARC’s industry partners, in support of new market indications. These pre-clinical studies are expected to generate the necessary safety and efficacy evidence to enable an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) submission for a future pilot clinical study. Information about the device(s) and support provided by SPARC’s industry partners is available on SPARC’s Device Portal website.

Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC): Pre-clinical Development of Existing Market-approved Devices to Support New Market Indications (U18)
(RFA-RM-16-009)

Application Receipt Dates(s): May 02, 2016

SPARC is uniquely positioned to serve as a community resource that provides the broader public and private research communities with the scientific foundation necessary to pilot new and/or improved closed-loop neuromodulation devices and stimulation protocols to treat diseases and conditions through precise neural control of peripheral end-organ system function. The Use of Existing Market-Approved Technology for New Market Indicationsresearch component of SPARC encourages development of partnerships between device manufacturers and NIH-supported investigators to explore the feasibility of utilizing existing neuromodulation devices for new therapeutic applications. Template agreement documents have been prepared to facilitate partnerships between companies and clinical investigators. These partnerships will allow investigators to have access to existing neuromodulation technology to perform pre-clinical development (focus of the current FOA) towards conducting pilot clinical studies (the focus of the next phase of this component of SPARC). The long-term expectation of this component of SPARC is that proof-of-principle demonstrations in humans will lead to the larger clinical trials required for taking these ideas to market.

Please contact SPARC_New-Market@mail.nih.gov if you have any questions regarding these funding opportunities. In addition, please feel free to share this announcement with your colleagues.

Sincerely,
NIH Common Fund SPARC Program staff
Email: NIH-CF_SPARC@mail.nih.gov