NIH Public-Private Partnership Program

Skip to Main Content

Steps to Developing a Public-Private Partnership with NIH

  1. Identify a scientific or clinical problem better answered in partnership than alone!

  2. Consider partnership options. Partnerships can:
    • Be established directly between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - as a whole or through one or more Institutes and Centers (ICs) - and one or more outside entities.
    • Be developed via the Foundation for NIH (FNIH). The FNIH is an independent public charitable foundation established by Congress to support the activities of the NIH. The FNIH can be an important ally in building effective partnerships.
    • Involve one or more other charitable foundations. Each partnership is based on agreements between or among the partners regarding the aims and goals of the partnership, roles of the partners, and governance. Other issues such as the management of intellectual property, data access and data sharing, and human subjects concerns require careful consideration and planning. The NIH Manual Chapter 1167 provides further guidance regarding when and how to consider PPPs.
  3. Discuss how to structure the relationships to optimize the science.

  4. Memorialize the public private partnership (PPP) goals and structure in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and clear it appropriately.

NIH PPP Program staff can help you:

NIH PPP Program staff can help at every step in this process. Please contact us!

Up to Top

This page last updated: October 6, 2010