new ART solicitation 25-548
Synopsis
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries resulting from academic research into tangible solutions that benefit the public. The overarching goal for the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program is to advance the U.S. scientific and economic leadership by building capacity and increasing the number of robust translational research ecosystems in Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) that span across the full geography of our nation. Innovations can occur anywhere and can be opportunities for creating sustained impacts in every single region of the United States. Achieving translational outcomes as a mechanism to drive sustained economic impacts is the primary aim of the “Accelerating Research Translation” (ART) program.
Led by NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) and in collaboration with other NSF directorates and the Office of Integrative Activities, the ART program seeks proposals involving institutional leadership; research translation programs, institutes or centers; technology transfer offices; units responsible for managing research intellectual property (IP); entrepreneurial training teams; and researchers from all scientific, technological and engineering fields in collaboration with one or more of the other target categories mentioned below. This updated ART solicitation expands and builds upon its previous version, NSF 23-558, by implementing Tracks that address varying stages of capacity to accelerate research translation.
The ART program is aimed at providing resources that will ultimately facilitate a wide range of IHEs to achieve research translation, accelerate technology transfer, and create sustained economic and collective impacts across the U.S. It is understood that, like technology readiness levels (TRLs), there is no one measure or a combination of measures that can be used to describe the capacity of or measure the research translation readiness level (RTRL) for an IHE. Some indicators that reflect on RTRL include volume of sustained basic and applied research as measured by research expenditures, robust technology transfer and entrepreneurship related activities (e.g. invention disclosures, patents, licenses, royalties, partnerships with industry, non-profits etc.). Number of start-ups, resources for entrepreneurial and innovation education and training, the presence of a dedicated technology transfer office are also some of the other indicators that reflect on the RTRL.
Some of the criteria that may help identify the RTRL for an IHE are shown in Figure 1. Typically, an IHE with low RTRL is likely to have very few patent, licensing, or start-ups related activities, while as these activities will be at a higher level for an IHE with a medium RTRL, whereas an IHE with high RTRL would likely have established tech transfer office with an an extensive record of technology transfer activities including patenting, licensing and creation of startups, as well as extensive education, training, networking opportunities related to tech transfer and entrepreneurship. For the purpose of this solicitation, the illustration below provides some descriptors that may be useful in deciding which Track may be the best fit for a proposing organization. It is ultimately up to a proposing organization to determine which Track may present the best alignment for their submission.