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InformAI has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant for $225,000 to conduct research and development (R&D) work on building an artificial intelligence application to assist organ transplant surgeons in the matching of donor organs with patient recipients.
Every 12minutes, a new person is added to the organ transplant waiting list, and everyday, 21 people die waiting for an organ match. No significant clinical or technological advancements have been made within the last two decades to actively improve matching success.
"I founded InformAI in 2017 because I firmly believe that Al will provide a paradigm shift for predictive models within clinical medicine. Our team has worked diligently to poise Inform Al to be a leader in this area,” said Jim Havelka, founder and CEO of InformAI. “We are confident this approach can lead to an optimized transplant process with enhanced organ allocation and improved patient outcomes.”
“NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering,” said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. “With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”
Once a small business is awarded a Phase I SBIR/STTR grant (up to $256,000), it becomes eligible to apply for a Phase II grant (up to $1,000,000). Small businesses with Phase II grants are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales.
Startups or entrepreneurs who submit a three-page Project Pitch will know within three weeks if they meet the program’s objectives to support innovative technologies that show promise of commercial and/or societal impact and involve a level of technical risk. Small businesses with innovative science and technology solutions, and commercial potential are encouraged to apply. All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program, also known as America’s SeedFund powered by NSF, undergo a rigorous merit-based review process. To learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/
InformAI is a technology partner with Nvidia’s Inception Program, Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS. The company is well positioned with several strategic relationships within Houston’s Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center with 10 million patient encounters every year. With this funding, InformAI is continuing its mission to focus on patient outcomes by building AI/deep learning and business analytics solutions for hospital groups, medical device companies and payer organizations.
For more information about InformAI, contact info@informai.com or contact our communications team for more information.
Jackie Coleman InformAI jcoleman@informai.com
About the National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs: America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.75 million to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.