The Takeda and Cincinnati Children’s Research Collaboration is a milestone-driven funding program focused on designing and translating early research to therapeutics. Started in 2015 as a broad research collaboration for rare diseases between Shire and Cincinnati Children’s, the program builds upon Takeda’s patient-centric approach and world-class translational capabilities in therapeutics. Takeda acquired Shire plc in January 2019.

The goal of this collaboration is to accelerate therapies, by combining Takeda’s development and commercialization capabilities with Cincinnati Children’s research expertise. The research collaboration will provide funding and laboratory research support to advance translational research toward the commercial market. Funding will be commensurate with each project's research design and scope of work, as approved by Takeda. Following completion of the funded research, Takeda will have an exclusive option to enter into a license agreement, including intellectual property.

BridgeBio Pharma LLC and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center entered into a research collaboration in 2018 with the purpose of identifying and developing genetic disease therapies. This partnership combines BridgeBio's strengths in therapeutic development for diseases of high unmet need with Cincinnati Children's world-class researchers and clinicians. Under the terms of the agreement, BridgeBio will have the opportunity to sponsor and collaboratively develop selected research programs. The agreement represents a flexible model that facilitates accelerated genetic disease research.

Launched in 2012, the Innovation Fund supports an innovator, or innovation team, as they advance the development of their technologies that have commercial potential and viability. Awards must focus on activities that will increase the commercialization potential and/or demonstrate the commercial viability of a technology, resulting in a go/no-go decision. As an internal funding mechanism, the Fund supports projects needing proof-of-concept/early stage bridge funding, with a goal of attracting outside investment.

Letters of Intent will be reviewed twice a year, in March and September. Applications must fit into one of the following categories: Biologic, Cell & Tissue Therapies; Diagnostics; Medical Devices; Digital Health & Care Delivery; or Small Molecule Therapies.

Award amount, length of award, and type of validation work funded will vary contingent upon the technology and the appropriate next step for commercialization. Prior to applying, innovators are encouraged to schedule a conversation with a Cincinnati Children’s Innovation Ventures team member.

Cincinnati Children's has two pediatric medical device funds and collaborations. Each effort is designed to develop commercially viable, pediatric specific, medical devices.

• The Ben-Gurion Cincinnati Children’s Collaborative (BG3C) is a collaborative between Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Cincinnati Children's. The collaboration addresses the lack of medical devices designed specifically for children, identifying projects that need to be funded beyond design and development and combining the medical expertise of physicians at Cincinnati Children's with the extensive technical and engineering capabilities of faculty at BGU. The goal is to improve health outcomes by ensuring device design is customized to meet the unique physiological differences and medical needs of children. The collaboration identifies and funds up to three projects each year that meet a medical need and have a strong pathway to commercialization. Each project receives up to $100,000 in funds.
• University of Dayton – Cincinnati Children's has partnered with the University of Dayton School of Engineering Innovation Center to develop a pathway for creating pediatric medical devices that meet an unmet medical need. Each project is assigned a team of students and a lead faculty member to move the project through a development pipeline. Since 2013, we have worked on one to two projects per year.