Types of Blavatnik Awards
Development Awards: up to $300,000 for 1-2 Years
Pilot Awards: up to $100,000 for 1 Year
Accelerator Awards: $30,000 for 6 months (mid cycle award)
Criteria
Successful Projects
- Startup formation
- Licenses to biotech and pharma
- Major industry-sponsored research agreements
- External non-dilutive funding (e.g., SBIR/STTR)
Selection Criteria
- Strongly prefer applicants are Yale faculty.*
- Research addresses major unmet medical need
- Strong indications of commercial interest
- Technology is near a “value inflection point”
- Technology is patentable with freedom to operate
- Engaged, committed principal investigator
Eligibility and Additional Terms and Conditions
- Innovative Yale technology with the potential to address major unmet medical need and deliver life-changing healthcare solutions.
- The technology must have the potential to be commercialized (Yale IP or the potential to generate Yale IP, copyright, or licensable know-how).
- Each project should have a clear plan, budget, and milestone(s) to deliver the next value inflection point.
- The award is to the PI and not to any associated company.
- If an associated company has been formed, it should have raised no more than $500K in dilutive funding.
- If a company has a license to the technology, the company will not have access to the Blavatnik-funded data until it is incorporated into the license.
Rubric Criteria for Presentations
Pitches will be scored on the following criteria:
- Problem - Have they Identified a compelling problem that needs solving with a viable market opportunity?
- Solution - Is there a clear path forward to the next value inflection point?
- Commercial Potential - Is there a clear customer/patient population with competitive advantage over existing standard of care?
- Barrier to Replication - Is there Yale IP/potential for IP or the ability to protect technology to prevent others replicating?
FAQs
PI (and co-PI, if applicable) must have a full-time, ladder-track faculty appointment* at Yale with salary support from other sources for the duration of the award (6, 12, and 24 months for accelerator, pilot, and development awards, respectively). *Exceptions for non-ladder-track faculty may be made on a case-by-case basis.
Blavatnik awarded technologies span the range of therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, and healthcare IT. Project topics can include, but are not limited to:
- Novel therapeutics of any modality
- Platform technology addressing unmet challenges in life sciences
- Clinical Innovations (digital or devices)
- Digital health, Analytics, and AI
The application is an iterative process with multiple points of feedback. Award applicants will receive personal feedback, training and expert project guidance. Those who pitch will get unparalleled exposure to industry and potential partners. This is a process with many benefits beyond financial support. Any investigator with a solid idea is encouraged to apply.
Most funding should be used to pay for work at contract research organizations (CROs) or Yale CORE facilities. Cannot be used for capital equipment, travel, PI salary, salary for collaborators at other institutions, or indirect expense charges. Additionally, cannot be used for tuition fees, commercialization activities (including incorporation and legal fees), maintenance fees, and publication fees.
- October 31st – Application Deadline
- November – Application review - eligible applicants notified for further pitch refinement and coaching
- November 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th – presentations will be scored by external industry reviewers using our rubric below (virtual)
- December 5th - Semifinalists pitch at Yale Lifesciences PitchFest (in person)
- Jan 2025 – Blavatnik Advisory Board selects finalists to refine pitches
- February 2025 – Finalists pitch (in person) to the Blavatnik Advisory Board, Blavatnik Awardees Announced
Accelerator applications open in the Spring of 2025.
- May 29th, 2025 – Accelerator Awardees announced at Innovation Summit
All you need to apply is a 5-minute slide pitch! Just get together 6-8 power point slides that you can present in 5 minutes that answer these basic questions. Please note a final slide deck does not need to be submitted with the application – our team welcomes proposals in draft form and will work with you towards a final deck for the quarterfinals. The earlier you apply, the more support we can give. Please book office hours to discuss your technology with Morag Grassie:
- What’s the product/service?
- What’s the market?
- What’s the competition?
- What are your differentiating unique benefits?
- How would this product make money?
- What’s your current team and status?
- What exactly would you accomplish with Blavatnik funding?
FAQ: Booster Awards
Booster awards are designed to assist Development Award recipients who are close to securing external funding but require additional derisking. Partially funded Development Awards are also eligible for additional funding after delivering their milestones.
Booster Awards are reviewed on a rolling basis by the Blavatnik Board.
- Successful applicants will include:
- Review of milestones achieved from primary award
- Budget addressing milestone(s) to derisk technology
- Overview of commercial interest/landscape and feedback regarding what is needed to derisk technology
- All Blavatnik award money from the prior award needs to be spent or fully committed
- No more than $500K* (total) can be awarded to any one technology
- Technologies with >$500K non-dilutive funding are ineligible
- Development award recipients must have demonstrable strong commercial interest
*Partially funded projects may apply for additional funding once milestones are met.
Office Hours
Connect with our team through 1-on-1 office hour sessions to learn more.