Webinar Summary for ART Network Portal
Apr 30, 2026 11:16 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Quick recap
This was an inaugural webinar for the ART Network Portal, featuring Stacey Patterson, Vice President for Research at Florida State University, and Valerie McDevitt, Associate Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Innovation, who presented their NSF ART award story called “IGNITING FSU.” They shared how the program transformed Florida State’s research translation efforts around three key areas: rebuilding infrastructure, fueling high impact partnerships, and making strategic investments when opportunities arise. The presentation highlighted significant achievements including the establishment of IGNITE Tallahassee incubator currently with 5 resident and 12 affiliate member tenants, $3.8 million in funding raised by incubator companies, and over $100,000 awarded yearly in pitch competition prizes to FSU startups. The webinar also included a Q&A session where participants discussed challenges around promotion and tenure processes, faculty engagement, and the importance of mentorship from institutions like the University of Florida.
Summary
NSF ART Program Webinar
The meeting began with Atam welcoming everyone. The webinar featured Florida State University’s IGNITE FSU program as a success story from the NSF ART (Accelerating Research Translation) program. Atam Dhawan, Pradeep Fulay, and other participants discussed the webinar format, including Q&A options and participant visibility. Stacey Patterson, FSU’s Vice President for Research, began her introduction to share the process for identifying gaps and development of the IGNITE FSU Art grant roadmap that is having an impact on transforming research culture and processes at Florida State University.
FSU Research Translation Initiatives
Stacey discussed her background as an applied scientist and researcher who transitioned into administration, highlighting her experience with technology transfer and co-founding a startup company. She explained how she joined Florida State University as Vice President for Research after learning about President McCullough’s background in entrepreneurship and goals for translational research. Stacey described the challenges she found at FSU regarding research translation, noting that despite the success of Taxol development, there were lacking foundational processes and awareness of the importance of translation in academia. She outlined the development of FSU’s first research strategic plan called ASPIRE, which identified five strategy areas including partnerships and innovation. Stacey then introduced the NSF-funded Ignite FSU project, which aims to transform FSU’s research community through four primary pathways: building infrastructure, education and training, investments and connections, and creating a network of champions.
Ignite FSU Building a Strong Foundation
Valerie presented on the implementation of IGNITE FSU, focusing first on the need to build a strong foundation. The IGNITE FSU team brings together the areas of research supporting research translation under one leadership to remove silos and foster cross collaboration. She emphasized the importance of reorganizing the office around clear goals and aligning people and skills with roles. Another significant foundational element FSU focused on was establishing strong business operations, contracting, and data processes. The team selected University of Florida as a mentor due to their similar structure as a public institution in the same state, similar region, similar research foundation structure, and existing relationships. They also worked on implementing a new database and cleaning up data.
FSU Fueling High Impact Partnerships
Valerie presented on efforts to support internal stakeholders including faculty and students highlighting increasing faculty engagement through initiatives like the ART grant’s seed translational research grants and the streamlined Fast Start licensing program. She also highlighted several key achievements including the completion of the first regional I-CORPs cohort and the selection of a faculty fellow who is working on launching a National Academy of Inventors chapter and creating curriculum around research translation. FSU holds a weeklong celebration of research creativity and innovation called Discovery Days which included 28 events and over 2400 attendees. Discovery Challenge is a pitch event for FSU startups to win monetary prizes and engages all stakeholders including community, angel and venture capital funders and alumni. Valerie talked about being prepared for the unexpected and talked about the opening of a new incubator building IGNITE Tallahassee that was not originally contemplated under the grant but an important resource to support technology based startups. The technology transfer program at FSU has shown steady progress with a significant increase in disclosures which they consider a leading indicator of building faculty trust and 18 licenses and options executed. There is also a significant pipeline of agreements in negotiation which Valerie believes will yield the highest year of licenses and options in four years.
University Mentoring Program Success
The post presentation discussion included discussion about the successful mentoring relationship between the University of Florida and Florida State University. Atam congratulated the team on their achievements and highlighted the importance of strong mentoring institution relationships. Pradeep emphasized the value of peer-to-peer institution-to-institution engagement, particularly noting how having a mentoring institution in the same state and system can be beneficial due to shared governance and cultural similarities. Stacey agreed, adding that the proximity and shared challenges between the two universities have facilitated effective collaboration despite their competitive sports rivalry.
Faculty Commercialization Support Initiatives
A question was asked about the efforts to include innovation in promotion and tenure. Valerie discussed Commercialization’s efforts, including bringing in Rich Carter to meet with deans and faculty across campuses. Stacey and Valerie talked about how this process requires culture change and will not happen overnight. .
Entrepreneurial Mentorship and Grant Impact
Stacey and Valerie discussed the importance of supporting entrepreneurial spirits among graduate students and postdocs through mentorship networks and programs like I-Corps. They highlighted the impact of the ART grant on expanding initiatives such as Discovery Days and increasing engagement in areas like education and social work, though some impacts are harder to measure in traditional metrics. Valerie noted challenges in gathering data on outcomes due to lack of reporting obligations in previous agreements, and they are working to improve this. Atam thanked the presenters and audience, encouraging other ART-funded institutions to share their success stories on the ART Network Portal and participate in future webinars.
Translational Research Program Progress Review
Hina thanked Atam, Stacey, and Valerie for their progress and presentation, which will help current and future ART awardees. Stacey and Atam discussed challenges with promotion and tenure processes, noting that while top leadership supports translational research, change needs to start at the department level and involve graduate and undergraduate students. Pradeep highlighted the role of Lily Mass, an undergraduate student who originated the idea for the ART program, and emphasized that translational research should complement rather than replace basic research.