NSF invests over $20M in Translation to Practice projects to advance emerging technology breakthroughs toward practice
The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) announced its inaugural NSF Translation to Practice (NSF TTP) award portfolio, investing more than $20 million across 22 projects. This launch marks a significant expansion of NSF's support for researchers seeking to extend their foundational discoveries toward real-world applications.
The NSF TTP program helps researchers and students take the first steps in the journey from the lab to practice through expanded entrepreneurial training, use-inspired research to provably demonstrate their basic research innovations in practical contexts, and partnerships to further mature technology outputs and position them for market uptake. The awards span a range of emerging technologies, including human-super intelligence collaboration, semiconductor design and manufacturing, critical minerals, and agriculture and food production. These projects reflect the breadth of translation pathways the TTP program supports. Browse the full list of TTP awards.
The funded projects feature strong cross-sector collaborations among academic researchers and municipal, state, and federal government partners; national laboratories; large and small businesses; and other NSF initiatives. These partnerships will provide researchers with early insight into translational pathways and operational constraints, directly aligning with a key recommendation in Science: A New Golden Age to embed closer public-private partnerships into federal awards.
"A key pillar of the NSF TTP program is the development of strategic partnerships and collaborations between our researchers and stakeholders outside of U.S. institutions of higher education," said Erwin Gianchandani, Assistant Director for NSF TIP. "These partnerships will help our researchers bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and their applications in real-world settings."
The TTP program has three tracks — Explore, Translate, and Partner — that represent different starting points in the translation of discoveries and innovations from the laboratory to practice. Awards range from $600,000 to $2 million to support early-stage translation by de-risking scientific and technical challenges and fostering partnerships needed for successful translational pathways. Outcomes of the program may include solutions to foundational research barriers that limit translational potential, new or improved open-source ecosystems or standards, execution of licensing agreements, and/or startup formation.
The TTP program leverages ongoing NSF investments in basic research to drive use-inspired research and innovation. By equipping researchers with the resources needed to translate their foundational work, the TTP program directly supports the objectives of the TIP Directorate and NSF and accelerates the realization of national and economic benefits from these investments. Visit the TTP program webpage to learn more.