Tech Accelerators Program Model

Transforming research into market-ready technologies

U.S. National Science Foundation Tech Accelerators is built on a dynamic and flexible program model designed to support the full lab-to-market life cycle. NSF Tech Accelerators will assess the maturity of a topic and appropriately align investments toward funding teams well-positioned to accelerate deep technology ideas from the lab to market faster than ever before. This flexible approach enables teams to assess the maturity of their research or technology before applying for funding and support.

The program model includes three stages: Design, build and scale

The design stage provides an up to 12-month planning effort supported by up to $500,000 in non-dilutive funding per team. Funded teams are guided to create strong multidisciplinary collaborations with deep expertise in a technical topic area, form partnerships and develop their initial ideas into low-fidelity prototypes. Each NSF Tech Accelerator is anticipated to award up to 10 teams per design topic.

At the conclusion of the design stage, teams must have a low-fidelity prototype, a strong team and partners and basic marketing products and tools (e.g., product name, branding and logo, pitch deck).

The build stage offers an up to 24-month growth phase supported by up to $5 million in non-dilutive funding per team. Funded teams advance from early proofs-of-concept to a minimum viable product (MVP) and the development of market-ready commercialization strategies. Individual teams refine prototypes, validate market opportunities and develop the elements needed for successful technology transition. Each NSF Tech Accelerator is anticipated to award up to five teams per build topic.

At the conclusion of the build stage, teams must have established initial business and operational infrastructure centered on a validated MVP, along with a well-developed marketing plan, a clear path to commercialization and scale, an advanced intellectual property management plan and a comprehensive sustainability strategy.

The scale stage provides an up to 36-month effort supported by up to $10 million in non-dilutive funding per team. Funded teams work to accelerate operational scalability by strengthening long-term commercialization strategies, expanding strategic partnerships and building the operational capacity necessary for broad market adoption. This stage requires NSF Tech Accelerators to secure significant amounts of cost-share investment from non-federal entities for funded teams.

At the conclusion of the scale stage, teams will have overcome technology and commercialization barriers, as demonstrated by a marketable product/service with a scalable business model to engage other investment opportunities.

Research topic selection

Research topics are based on the NSF Tech Accelerators' landscape analysis, including market need and saturation, projected technological growth, current industry investment and NSF Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnership, NSF and administration priorities. Each topic's maturity will align to the program model stages that are most appropriate to ensure market demand and commercialization potential. To maximize flexibility, an earlier-stage topic may begin in the design stage, while a more mature topic may only be offered in the scale stage.

Funded teams are expected to deliver technologies that address U.S. needs and are viable for market adoption, uptake and further investment. Teams must achieve required milestones and actionable outcomes and impacts to remain in the NSF Tech Accelerator.

Examples of actionable outcomes and impacts are establishing patents, licensing, pilots and demos, entity formation, forming industry partnerships and customer growth. Expected deliverables align with technology translation and actionable outcomes, replacing traditional outputs, such as publications and reports.