techMATCH General FAQs

With techMATCH on opnMe, we invite solutions with a focus on technology to propel drug discovery and development forward. We unite your brilliance with our expertise through focused calls on engineering and technology as part of this program. We welcome game-changing ideas from academia, startups, biotech, and larger corporations. Winners will benefit from a long-term, collaborative partnership, that provides open access to our expertise and the prospect of research funding. For biological or pharmacological topics, please consult our opn2EXPERTS program.

We welcome proposals from scientists around the world with very different backgrounds from either academia, startups, biotechs, or even larger enterprises such as device or pharmaceutical companies. As part of these calls, we invite you as an expert to propose concepts that clearly go beyond currently available as well as emerging solutions and envision a breakthrough.

Your proposed idea should cover at least a conceptional outline or prototype that you plan to move forward towards clinical readiness.

• Benefit from a close interaction and direct support from our scientific and technological experts
• Have a chance for tailored benefit packages that will help you as a winner of this call to reach the next step towards clinical readiness of your proposed technological approach
• Access appropriate funding whereby we assume that increasing complexity and maturity of the proposed solution may require different budget terms that would be negotiated with the selected partners in good faith
• Benefit from an additional range of possibilities to support you besides funding. Examples are engineering capabilities for design reviews, including a strong connection to patient insights, prototyping or pharmacokinetics studies with a range of relevant molecules
• Have full transparency on mutually agreeable partner rights & obligations (including intellectual property rights)
• You may find it beneficial to announce your partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim. Depending on the conditions of the agreement and mutual needs, we would be open for such an arrangement.
• You would be encouraged to publish according to the collaboration agreement (to be negotiated in good faith).

We highly recommend using our answer submission template to provide a short non-confidential proposal plus potential references. The document consists of a “general” part that requires the contact details of the submitting scientists and their organizations. In addition, an “answer part” which allows the structured entry of your suggested approach to address our question.

Submissions must only contain non-confidential data and should ideally be short, addressing the following areas to allow rapid evaluation of your idea:

• Rephrasing of the question to be solved and outline of the answer including addressed hurdles and innovative aspects
• Assessment on maturity of the proposed solution
• Proposed collaboration project plan with key decision points by focusing on reaching the next decision point or milestone towards clinical readiness
• Initial funding request covering a timeframe of 1-2 years
• Information on potential conflicting intellectual property rights of third parties and freedom to operate
• References (optional)

A template provided by us will help you to compile the information required.

• The proposed solution should demonstrate a high level of innovation and originality, offering a novel approach. It should aim to be implemented clinically and address the in-scope and out-of-scope criteria of the call.
• The successful solutions will focus on a clear hypothesis and how anticipated hurdles in conjunction with the proposed novel approach will be overcome.
•  A successful proposal will have a clear outline of the required funding budget and a time plan where it should be assumed that Boehringer Ingelheim would fund the next step towards proof-of-concept of the proposed novel technological solution for drug delivery.
• If required, the successful proposal will be well structured in milestones and planned with key decision points (clear go/no-go criteria).
• A mitigation plan is included to overcome the anticipated hurdles that also includes a contingency plan in case one approach may not lead to the desired outcome.
• An ideal solution will discuss how the acceptance of the proposed sustainable drug delivery solution and potentially required behavior changes can be increased for relevant stakeholders including physicians, regulatory bodies, payers, and in particular patients.
• An assessment of the expected net environmental impact is included.
• Indication on cost-of-goods, including projected cost-breakdown, scalability and manufacturability to high production volumes is a plus.
• Information regarding intellectual property / third party infringement used in the context of the submission.
• Successful proposals will be supported by scientific teams who bring in a proven track record in the required field of expertise.
• The access to relevant infrastructure to implement the proposed solution is a prerequisite of a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.

If confidential data exists that would strengthen the proposal, you may indicate that confidential information is available to share under a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA). If we find the non-confidential concept proposal sufficiently interesting, we will execute a CDA for confidential discussions.

Winning proposals should expect appropriate funding that will help them to bring their conceptual idea to the next level whereby we assume that increasing complexity and maturity of the proposed solution may require different budget terms that would be negotiated with the selected partners in good faith.

Our scientific jury that comprises of technology experts of Boehringer Ingelheim will provide you with an evaluation of your collaboration proposal after the review process is completed approximately six to eight weeks after the final submission date as outlined on our individual calls. Should there be mutual interest in proceeding with the proposed answer, you would be contacted by us to discuss your proposal in more detail and to understand how we can best support your idea.

No. Applications will be shared inside Boehringer Ingelheim amongst a team of scientists designated to evaluate proposals for potential partnerships. They will not be visible to, or shared with, scientists from other institutions.

Mutually agreeable partner rights & obligations (including intellectual property rights) will be negotiated in our collaboration agreement and provide full transparency. As part of the agreement, you will be encouraged to publish following the collaboration agreement (to be negotiated in good faith).

If you would like to modify and re-upload your proposal, the easiest way would be to start a new submission process and submit your updated proposal that way. Please let us know of the initial proposal ID that you would like to retract, so we can delete it accordingly from our system and only consider your updated proposal for the evaluation process.