PORTENT is now accepting applications for 2026-27 Innovation Award Opportunity!

PORTENT is focused on supporting development, clinical validation, commercialization, and deployment of point-of-care technologies for nutrition, infection, and cancer. Part of the POCTRN+ network, PORTENT is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Specific criteria for awards:

1. Proposals must show direct responsiveness to our Annual Needs Assessment Consensus.
2. Projects must identify an intended “setting of use” where their technology could have the greatest impact.
3. Projects must be at least at the TRL stage 3-5.
4. Proposals must identify specific milestones and describe how a successful outcome could advance the technology towards translational outcome. 
5. Projects must identify the key challenge(s) to advancement and implementation of their technology.
6. Include details on how the PORTENT Clinical Network, PORTENT Knowledge Transfer workshops and Lab-to-Market Accelerator can help address some of the key challenges.
7. PORTENT is the primary award from the NIH and projects funded under this award are considered new subawards and therefore must be compliant with the NIH Updated NIH Policy on Foreign Subawards NOT-OD-25-104. As such only domestic US institutions are eligible to apply.

Award Opportunity details:

• Total funds available: Approximately $500,000 USD
• Project budget: Between $50,000 and $100,000 USD
• Project duration: 12-months
• Application deadline: May 1, 2026

2026 Award priorities:

Chronic disease, infectious disease, and disease prevention, specifically including, but not limited to:

• Nutrition: Technologies that support screening, prevention, and diagnosis of nutritional problems, including biomarkers of nutritional status, dietary assessment, metabolic health, and response to nutrition interventions.

• Infection: Multiplexed screening and diagnostic assays for infectious diseases such as HIV and co-infections, tuberculosis, malaria, acute febrile illness, neglected tropical diseases, and mosquito-borne illnesses, with interest in technologies that assess antimicrobial resistance.

• Cancer: Technologies that expand cancer screening and diagnosis at the community and clinic level to enable earlier detection and decentralized testing, including for gastric, colorectal, lung, cervical, liver, and breast cancers.

Within these focus areas, proposals aligned with inflammation and host response, preventive health and wellness, women’s and children’s health, and Digital Health, AI & connectivity are also encouraged.

Find out more!

About us

PORTENT, a Center for Point-of-Care Technologies for Nutrition, Infection, and Cancer at Cornell University is a one-of-a-kind international network of clinical, training, and device development facilities with worldwide expertise in point-of-care diagnostics, their application and commercialization. A member of the POCTRN network, the PORTENT Center is focused on supporting development, clinical validation, commercialization, and deployment of point-of-care technologies in locations where access to better diagnostics can have the largest impact.