The Omnibus is the general solicitation for NIH related to the SBIR and STTR program.
There are 24 Institutes and Centers (IC) that participate in this solicitation and together they offer thousands of areas of interest. Awards made as a result of submissions to the Omnibus are grants, not contracts. Grants typically provide broad topics and areas of interest. Specific topics or solutions to problems in these areas of interest are investigator-initiated. That means YOU get to determine what your project focuses on as long as it fallswithin an IC’s general areas of interest.
Further, topics for consideration in the Omnibus tend to stay generally the same from year to year. Generally speaking, NIH says if what you are working on will potentially impact human health, there is an area of interest to match it in the Omnibus. The Omnibus follows standard due dates, with proposals due three times per year: April 5, September 5 and January 5. If one of those dates falls on a holiday or weekend, proposals are due on the next business day.
New this year, NIH has issued separate Omnibus solicitations for projects that involve clinical trials. It is important to note that not all ICs are participating in the clinical trial Omnibus. It’s important to check the list of participating ICs for each Omnibus solicitation (located on the first page of each solicitation).
NIH uses activity codes to help organize their funding opportunities. The activity codes for SBIR/STTR are R41 (STTR Phase I)/R42 (STTR Phase II) and R43 (SBIR Phase I)/R44 (SBIR Phase II). So, if you are searching funding opportunities within NIH, be sure to look for opportunities with the correct activity code(s). Use the links below to review the newly released Omnibus Solicitations
PA-18-573: SBIR Omnibus Solicitation (clinical trials required)
PA-18-574: SBIR Omnibus Solicitation (clinical trials not allowed)
PA-18-575 STTR Omnibus Solicitation (clinical trials not allowed)
PA-18-576: STTR Omnibus Solicitation (clinical trials required)
Finally, if you are wondering if your project involves a clinical trial or not, read this article to learn more.