Scientific Collaboration in North America

Our Mission

The SRI NA team engages in flexible partnering models that include early-stage seed-funding, sponsored research agreements and larger strategic partnerships across the drug discovery and development value chain. We are proud to help partners quickly advance novel discoveries into transformative medicines that benefit patients.

Bring Sanofi R&D and external experts together

Deliver a high-quality, unique experience to our partners

Accelerate our pipeline through cutting edge innovations

Promote continuous knowledge sharing

Nurture talent

Our Initiatives

We are committed to building value-generating partnerships across North America through two core initiatives to accelerate the R&D pipeline: Innovation Awards and larger Strategic Partnerships.

Innovation Awards

SRI leads two seed-funding initiatives that facilitate collaborations and new ways of thinking to develop the latest groundbreaking science and technologies that can both enrich and accelerate the R&D pipeline: The Innovation Awards (iAwards) and Innovations in Data Exploration, Analytics & Technology (iDEA-TECH) awards. Award recipients benefit from access to R&D expertise and drug development capabilities to help advance their ideas over one year while also forging long-lasting partnerships.

iNext Awards North America - The Call for Projects is Open!

Welcome to Sanofi’s iNext Awards, a groundbreaking initiative designed to bridge the innovation gap in immunoscience. This pitching competition aims to identify and incubate breakthrough ideas that push the boundaries of traditional R&D and venture investment frameworks. Selected “Moonshot” ideas will receive up to $500,000 per project (inclusive of all costs) to fund an 18-month journey of groundbreaking research, supported by Sanofi’s R&D expertise.

Pre-proposals are open until January 30, 2025. Please use the iNext application form below and attach the filled in form while submitting your pre-proposal.

Download the iNext application form

Submit my pre-proposal

iAwards North America

A partnering mechanism to transform breakthrough innovations developed by partners into new therapeutic solutions.

iDEA-TECH Awards North America

Delivers new AI tools, data and breakthrough technologies to help advance the R&D portfolio.

Strategic Partnerships

SRI works hand in hand with the North American ecosystem to build strategic partnerships and accelerate innovation in R&D.

Stanford Immunology Research Partnership

In May 2021, Sanofi and Stanford University School of Medicine started a 3-year open innovation partnership to gain deeper insights into mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases and advance innovative, translational concepts through the drug discovery pipeline.

Mass General Cancer Center Collaboration

In December 2023, Sanofi and the Mass General Cancer Center started a collaboration to advance cutting-edge science and technologies in oncology research together with Dr’s. Daniel Haber, David Ting, Leif Ellisen and Keith Flaherty. The collaboration includes two scientific programs and the launch of a new seed-funding Award, iOnc. We are excited to push the boundaries of Oncology research to make meaningful contributions to the field of oncology, driving innovative solutions and ultimately improving the lives of those affected by cancer.

Open Innovation Lab Partnership

Sanofi R&D invites external partners to spend time in our labs working side-by-side with our scientists on innovative, collaborative projects that strengthen cross-training opportunities and accelerate new solutions for patients. This new partnering model, the Open Innovation Lab, is being piloted at the Cambridge Crossing research building.