The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a $30 million investment in its new Translation to Practice (NSF TTP) program. This initiative offers pathways for researchers to translate cutting-edge discoveries into societal and market impact, with a strong emphasis on cross-sector partnerships and entrepreneurial education.

Those interested in learning more can view the full NSF TTP solicitation or register for an upcoming webinar on August 12 to learn more about how to apply and align work with this new opportunity.

Register for the webinar here.

The TTP program builds on lessons from NSF’s Partnerships for Innovation program but expands eligibility and flexibility. TTP supports a broader range of translational goals, beyond commercialization, including startup formation, open-source ecosystems, licensing, and more. This is a key opportunity for researchers to deepen university-industry-government collaboration and accelerate innovation adoption.

Three tracks are available:

• Explore (NSF TTP-E): invests in adventurous, “high-risk” use-inspired activities, bridging the gap between fundamental scientific curiosity and a practical desire to address real-world problems. Proposers must have a current NSF award and be interested in transitioning the foundational research to “use-inspired” activities.
• Translate (NSF TTP-T): invests in translating prior research results into technological innovations with promising commercial, economic and/or societal impacts. This track starts with use-inspired research and further matures the ideas, iterates and improves the solutions, ensures scalability and accessibility and lowers the barriers to effective translation.
• Partner (NSF TTP-P): invests in complex, multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational teams pursuing translational development projects. Here, strategic partnerships with stakeholders beyond their universities and research organizations are essential for success and may include industry, government entities at all levels, philanthropies or other groups associated with large-scale productization and distribution.