NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs, managed by the Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Office, aim to support research and development in small businesses. These programs seek to drive technological innovation and translate scientific discoveries into health improvements.

Omnibus Solicitations for SBIR and STTR: ORWH is participating in the Fiscal Year 2025 Omnibus Solicitation for SBIR and STTR grant applications. ORWH’s participation in this solicitation reflects its understanding of the key role that small businesses will play in advancing innovation in women’s health.

ORWH encourages applications from small businesses that have a central focus on the health of women, as demonstrated through specific aims that either explicitly address a particular condition in women or focus on one of the high-priority topics identified in NOT-OD-24-079. A complete list of program descriptions is available here.  

ORWH is participating in the following small business funding opportunities: 

Acronym definitions: CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; FDA: Federal Drug Administration; NIH: National Institutes of Health

Please note that applicants may link their SBIR and STTR applications to the Notice of Special Interest on Women’s Health Research. The submission dates are January 5, 2025 and April 5, 2025. 

In FY25, NIH committed to boosting investments in small business innovations focused on women’s health research by increasing funding through the SBIR and STTR programs. This effort included the integration of women’s health into the agency-wide SBIR/STTR Omnibus solicitation. As a result, NIH expanded visibility and access to funding opportunities by hosting a webinar series in 2024 that connected over 1,100 participants from both the women’s health research and small business communities.

DiscoverWHR is a novel centralized resource developed by ORWH and NLM to enhance access to women’s health research and information to close research gaps. This comprehensive resource includes the latest data and information on NIH-supported research, clinical trials, literature from PubMed, and patient-friendly summaries on topics such as menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome, and autoimmune diseases.

NIH and NSF have collaborated on the Smart Health funding opportunity (NOT-OD-23-165) to support high-impact, transformative, interdisciplinary research leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data science to address key biomedical and public health challenges. Since FY 2023, ORWH has supported applications that apply innovative AI and data science approaches to improve health outcomes, address health disparities, and meet the unmet health needs of women across the life course. An example of a Smart Health project supported by ORWH seeks to enhance early detection and diagnostic precision in breast cancer screening by developing advanced AI-Computer-aided Detection (CAD) systems using deep learning, longitudinal imaging comparisons, and clinical risk factors.

In 2022, NIH launched the Connecting the Community for Maternal Health (CCMH) Challenge through its Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative, co-chaired by the ORWH director. This innovative, multi-phase funding mechanism was designed to recognize the unique expertise of community-based organizations (CBOs), equipping them with the tools and support needed to conduct impactful maternal health research and enhance their competitiveness for federal funding. By the conclusion of the challenge, eight CBOs presented their significant research projects and were well-positioned to advance meaningful change within their communities and beyond.

The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health hosts the annual Vivian W. Pinn Symposium to honor its inaugural director, Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, and to highlight emerging issues and innovations in women’s health research. Held each year during National Women’s Health Week, the 2025 symposium, "Advancing Data-Driven Innovation for the Health of Women," focused on building capacity for interdisciplinary, community-centered research through data science—highlighting federal data resources, promoting data literacy, showcasing real-world applications, and addressing data privacy and accessibility.

On October 1, 2024, Dr. Vivian Ota Wang, former Deputy Director of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, championed a transformative "whole person health" model during her keynote at the National Academies’ workshop on regenerative medicine and women’s health. She emphasized the integration of biological, social, and psychological determinants across a woman’s lifespan—from pre-conception through menopause—to address persistent gaps in women’s health research. This innovative framework aims to reduce diagnostic delays—often up to a decade—for chronic conditions that disproportionately affect women. By advancing sex-based and life course research, Dr. Ota Wang’s efforts support the development of more personalized regenerative therapies, ultimately improving women’s health outcomes.