Reflecting on four years of the NSF Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate
Dear friends,
In March, we celebrated the fourth anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP), marking another year of investments in U.S. innovation that are accelerating breakthrough technologies, transitioning technologies from the lab to the market and equipping the American workforce for high-quality jobs. Our collaborations across NSF and the federal government, as well as with partners in industry, philanthropy and venture capital, galvanize our work to cultivate innovation that benefits all Americans and strengthens U.S. technological leadership, national security and economic growth.
Our founding mission guides our work today just as much as it did four years ago, through a focus on accelerating advancements in critical and emerging technology and building a competition-ready workforce, all while expanding the geography of American innovation, and launching and deepening partnerships. Just as importantly, TIP is exploring and rigorously assessing new funding mechanisms that can speed and scale innovation. Over the past four-plus years, TIP has invested billions of dollars through thousands of awards, igniting partnerships, elevating innovation and uplifting communities through advancements in science, engineering and technology.
See TIP investments: To visualize the scale of TIP's investments across America, you can use the TIP Investment Explorer to view TIP funding by program, geography and technology area. You can also view investment data dashboards for three specific TIP's initiatives: NSF Accelerating Research Translation, NSF Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies and NSF Innovation Corps (NSF I-CorpsTM).
We invite you to read on to learn about our most recent activities, which include several ambitious new funding opportunities designed to strengthen America's innovation ecosystem and competitive edge in science and technology. As we have said from day one, TIP is in the business of not only advancing frontier science and technology to the market (the "what") but also advancing new ways of pursuing that work (the "how"). We hope you see both the “what” and the “how” in the examples below.
Accelerating critical and emerging technology
Underscoring TIP's commitment to advancing new models for funding science, TIP announced the NSF X-Labs initiative in May, which aims to invest up to $1.5 billion over the next decade in "platform technologies" critical to U.S. competitiveness. NSF X-Labs will support high-risk, high-impact research that requires substantial resources beyond traditional funding mechanisms, with a key goal of reducing the time it takes to go from "insight to impact." This new investment framework was designed to be flexible, creating eligibility pathways for a wide range of institutions and organizations to apply. The first round of NSF X-Labs funding opportunities invites proposals on two topics: Scientific Instrumentation for Sensing and Imaging and Quantum Systems: Interconnects and Integrated Photonics. Visit the NSF X-Labs webpage to learn more about submission deadlines, the program model and announced topics.
To further our mission to speed key technologies to the market, TIP also launched NSF Tech Accelerators in May. A parallel effort to the NSF X-Labs, the NSF Tech Accelerators initiative provides a flexible, technology-first framework that supports teams in building and scaling deep-tech ventures for market adoption. NSF Tech Accelerators focus on technology areas currently underinvested at the pre-seed, seed and Series A stages, helping demonstrate their viability and "crowd in" investment from ventures and other funders over time. As a first step, NSF published a request for information (RFI) to gather feedback from the community about the program model and began identifying prospective organizations to lead the initiative across four initial topics: agricultural technology, materials technology, ocean technology and scientific instrumentation. To learn more, visit the NSF Tech Accelerators webpage.
TIP has also piloted new models to rapidly fund high-impact research and development. NSF partnered with the Start2 Group to launch STRIDE Ventures, which recently announced the eight winners of the STRIDE Tech Metal Transformation Challenge. The critical minerals program was designed to swiftly identify solutions to tackle the hardest technical gaps in critical materials recovery. STRIDE Ventures also announced a second challenge, inviting proposals that accelerate the commercial adoption of translation-ready solutions to dramatically improve the efficiency of artificial intelligence/machine learning systems and data centers at scale.
NSF relaunched its Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer programs with upwards of $250 million for the nation's startups and small businesses, including a new $40 million pilot emphasis area targeting the next generation of scientific instrumentation. For information about the program and attending an upcoming webinar, visit seedfund.nsf.gov.
TIP is also speeding the development of essential, critical and emerging technologies to ensure that the U.S. maintains its leadership in sectors tied to our economic and national security. In January, through the new NSF Translation to Practice program, TIP launched funding opportunities with the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center to strengthen national security and national defense and with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center to advance cutting-edge technologies that secure the national defense.
NSF is undertaking efforts to enable all Americans to understand, apply and create with AI. In support of this work, TIP led the launch of the NSF TechAccess: AI-Ready America (NSF AI-Ready America) initiative, which will expand access to AI knowledge, tools, training and capacity building so that all Americans can participate in and benefit from the AI economy. To learn more about these funding opportunities and upcoming webinars, visit the NSF AI-Ready America webpage.
TIP is also continuing the work of establishing partnerships nationally and internationally, recognizing the collective value of working collaboratively to advance research on emerging technologies. In March, TIP announced a trilateral partnership with Ireland and Northern Ireland to move research discoveries from the lab to the marketplace on an international scale.
Build a competition-ready U.S. workforce
In June, the SEMI Foundation, funded by NSF to operate a National Hub, announced the launch of the first four Regional Nodes of the National Network for Microelectronics Education (NNME). Under the NNME structure, the SEMI Foundation and NSF expect to support the four Regional Nodes at up to $20 million per node over five years to accelerate scalable talent solutions aligned to industry demand and establish the gold standard for microelectronics education and workforce training across America. This investment marks a major step toward building America's microelectronics and semiconductor workforce at scale.
In April, TIP launched an initiative to support educational technology innovation that springs from educator needs. The new NSF Fostering Interdisciplinary Network Driven Educationally Responsive Solutions Foundry (NSF FINDERS FOUNDRY) program will help accelerate technology solutions to learning challenges by strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration to design relevant, evidence-based learning innovations that address persistent educational challenges, enhance learning outcomes and prepare students for future careers in a globally competitive STEM workforce. To learn more, visit the NSF FINDERS FOUNDRY page.
Additionally, to strengthen the U.S workforce in manufacturing, energy and related emerging technology industries and revitalize America's leadership in these fields, TIP and the NSF Directorate for STEM Education released an RFI seeking input on expanding workforce development activities for American workers. NSF is currently reviewing feedback and compiling responses.
Expanding the geography of American innovation
We continue to see broad and lasting interest in TIP's work to build regional ecosystems that tap into solutions that increase the nation's domestic research, development and innovation capacity.
The inaugural cohort of NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) continues to advance place-based research and development work, demonstrating the power of regional ecosystems to strengthen economic development and create jobs. In the last 2.5 years, the nine NSF Engines have grown to more than 900 unique partner organizations; matched $135 million in investment from NSF with more than $2 billion in commitments from state and local governments, private industry, venture capital and others; touched more than 50,000 Americans through training and professional development, allowing them to pursue better-quality, higher-wage jobs in key technologies.
Since we announced the 15 finalists for the second round of the NSF Engines competition in September 2025, the NSF Engines team has conducted in-depth, in-person interviews and due diligence with the finalist teams to further assess risks, resources and each team's ability to adapt to changing circumstances. The finalist teams span critical technologies and applications, from enhancing energy grid security to maximizing the yield of critical minerals mining extraction to advancing quantum computing. We announced the winners of the competition this week.
Reflections on four years of TIP
The past four years of achievements represent the collective dedication and expertise of our colleagues in TIP. From the beginning, the TIP team has brought passion, insight and excellence to the work we undertake every day. We thank our friends and colleagues for their partnership and persistence in advancing the mission of the directorate and the agency. The advancement of the programs and outcomes described above rests on the great work and collaboration of colleagues across all of NSF, whose commitment, vision and leadership make this work possible.
To our partners, awardees and the broader community: we are deeply grateful for you. You are the driving force behind all we do. Collectively, you have helped shape TIP’s progress over the past four years, and you strengthen our optimism about the work ahead. Your enthusiasm for and interaction with TIP's programs and activities has been vital to our success. Thank you for sharing your input, ideas and expertise to help ensure that the U.S. remains a leader in technology, innovation and talent.
As we look ahead, we remain optimistic about the state of the U.S. scientific enterprise and its capacity to tangibly improve lives all across the world. Later this year, we expect to announce additional program awards and activities across our three focus areas and a range of technology domains, all of which reflect the spirit and ambition of the American people.
With gratitude,
Erwin Gianchandani
Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships
U.S. National Science Foundation