Eligibility
For further information on eligibility criteria, please refer to the Round 2 Funding Guidelines.
For any queries about your application, email: venturer@biointelect.com.
EOIs for Round 2 are now open – Apply here
The Biointelect Venturer program focuses on innovations for the prevention of infectious diseases, that address high unmet clinical needs and/or have clear global or regional health-security benefit and show strong commercialisation potential.
Areas of Focus
- The technology’s lead indication must directly address the prevention of a defined infectious disease in humans.
- Technologies for the management or treatment of another condition that directly or indirectly affects infection risk are not in scope.
- Projects aimed at the treatment or management, i.e. preventing progression of established disease, without a preventative component, are ineligible.
- Technologies targeting zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, or cancers caused by infectious agents, are considered eligible only where the proposed technology is intended for direct use in humans.
Modalities
Modalities eligible for Round 2 of Biointelect Venturer include:
- Prophylactic vaccines
- Prophylactic therapeutics, direct and indirect
- Direct: therapeutics that directly target, bind to, or neutralise the pathogen itself (e.g. preventative monoclonal antibodies)
- Indirect: host-directed therapeutics that target human host cells or the immune system, rather than the pathogen itself, to prevent establishment of infection (e.g. biologics or small molecules that block human cell entry receptors or prime the human immune system)
- Vaccine platform and enabling technologies
- Technology platforms that support the development of multiple preventative vaccines or therapeutics products targeting different pathogens
- Technologies that could meaningfully enable or enhance vaccine or prophylactic therapeutic efficacy or delivery, and can be applied across a range of pathogens with a direct translation product pathway (e.g. adjuvants, liquid nanoparticle technologies, molecular or structural stabilising factors engineered directly into the antigen construct)
The following modalities will not be eligible for this funding round:
- Diagnostics
- Devices (e.g. delivery systems)
- Therapeutic interventions intended primarily to treat existing infections, progression of infection or diseases
- Host-directed therapies that reduce symptoms after infection onset
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital health tools
- Software as a medical device (SaMD)
- Interventions which act as an anti-infective e.g. topical antiseptics or surface disinfectants.
Stage of development
- Technologies must be at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3–6 at the time of application.
- Projects at TRL 2 may be considered in exceptional cases, if they are about to progress to TRL 3 or have a credible plan to achieve TRL 4 within the Biointelect Venturer funded project period. Projects more advanced than TRL 6 are out of scope.
Applicant
To be eligible for the Biointelect Venturer Program, applicants must:
- Be an Australian SME (registered Australian corporate entity with an ABN and fewer than 200 employees), or
- Be a researcher at an Australian university or medical research institute that will commit to incorporating a new company meeting the SME requirements prior to funding.
Important note: Biointelect Venturer funding will not cover company formation costs.
Intellectual Property
- Applicants must hold or secure transferable rights to any required background IP, with access on commercial terms for market entry.
- Applicants applying prior to incorporation must demonstrate a credible plan to secure and transfer required IP to the new entity before execution of the funding agreement.
