The mission of the New Therapy - Commercialization Grants Program is to drive the development of new therapies for epilepsy, accelerating the advancement of research from the laboratory to the patient.

Objective: Program seeks to advance the development of new therapies including but not limited to medicines, biologics or devices. Areas of interest include:

- Novel approaches to treatment.

- Platform technology to advance screening techniques that can be utilized by multiple laboratories, including utility of techniques for early proof-of-concept trials.

- Adaptation of treatment in development for another therapeutic area to assess utility for epilepsy (while maintaining patent protection).

Proposals requirements:

- These grants are awarded only to programs that have progressed beyond the basic science discovery stage. Investigators are strongly advised to have their compounds screened, as appropriate, by the NINDS ASP Program.

- All proposals must demonstrate a clear path from the lab to the patient. Preference will be given to proposals that already have a commercial partner engaged to assist with development, and to proposals that have committed or matched funding from a sponsoring institution, commercial partner or other third party source.

- The Program also encourages 1:1 matching grants to academic and commercial entities worldwide to support the commercialization of novel approaches to the treatment of epilepsy.

Evaluation criteria: All proposals will be evaluated from the Business and Scientific points of view - along with a overall impression - with consideration for:

- Their potential value/impact to patients, likelihood of successful development including regulatory approval and the timeframe of development.

- Quality of Science, probability of successful completion of milestones / outlined program and the timeframe of success.

Deadline for Letter of Intent submission at VHIR: February 28th, 2014.

Official deadline (LoI): March 07th, 2014.

Full proposal submission (if LoI accepted): April 21st, 2014.

Further information: HERE