Applications Open for Big if True Science Accelerator x SPRIND Second Cohort
Renaissance Philanthropy has opened applications for the Big if True Science (BiTS) Accelerator, in partnership with Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND). The program is looking for science and innovators asking themselves if the most valuable thing they could do with their technical expertise isn't to run one more experiment, but to design the conditions under which the best teams work toward a breakthrough that otherwise wouldn't happen.
This question sits at the heart of BiTS, as well as the Challenge model pioneered by SPRIND. And it's what last year's inaugural BiTS x SPRIND cohort set out to answer, mentored by luminaries including Renee Wegrzyn, inaugural director of ARPA-H and Cheryl Martin, former acting director of ARPA-E.
The results speak for themselves. Two alumni from that cohort are now leading eight-figure SPRIND Challenges: one building the infrastructure for continuous monitoring of female hormones, another architecting a program to deploy microbial consortia as a platform for sustainable biomanufacturing. Both moved from fellow to Challenge designer within months of demo day.
The program
The next BiTS cohort will run from July to November 2026. The program runs for four months, built around 1:1 mentorship from experienced ARPA program managers and SPRIND's Challenge team, who collectively bring experience from approximately 20 SPRIND Challenges launched to date.
The program moves from early technical intuition to a fully specified, fundable Challenge design. It covers how to identify bottlenecks, how to structure a multi-stage competition, how to set measurable goals, and how to build the case for eight-figure investment. At the end of the program, fellows present their designs at ExhiBiTS, our demo day in early November, in front of SPRIND, Vinnova, leading foundations, and other funders and partners.
Who we're looking for
This is not a program for incremental progress within a single discipline. We're looking for scientists and technologists who have reached the point in their careers where the limiting factor is no longer their own technical output. It's the absence of a well-coordinated program around a problem they can see clearly and others can't yet, constrained by available funding and supporting organizations.
Strong candidates typically combine deep technical expertise with experience across multiple contexts: academia, startups, industry, or investment. They think in systems. They understand that the most important bottlenecks are often not scientific but structural: a missing funding instrument, an uncoordinated field, a technology that exists in pieces but has never been assembled into a Challenge with real teeth.
Applications are welcome from anywhere in the world. The program will operate in Central European Time.
Up to 10 fellows will be selected.
Key dates
26 May: Informational webinar
7 June: Applications close
Week of 15 June: Interviews for shortlisted applicants
26 June: Offers sent
13-15 July: In-person kick-off, Germany
5 November: ExhiBiTS demo day, Berlin
For questions related to the program, please contact bits@renphil.org
