ART Track 2: GROW: Innovation and Commercialization Ecosystem Acceleration at Portland State University

Award ID: 2612353

The United States depends on its research universities to convert scientific discovery into economic growth, workforce development, and solutions to pressing societal challenges. However, many public universities with high research output translate comparatively little of that research into real-world impact, leaving substantial potential economic value unrealized. This project will address that gap by building the institutional culture, infrastructure, and human capacity needed to systematically connect faculty-led discoveries to industry partners, startup ventures, and community applications. By reducing institutional barriers to research translation, including promotion and tenure processes that have historically undervalued applied and translational work, the project will demonstrate a scalable model for these research universities to increase the societal, economic, and workforce impacts of federally funded research. The project will strengthen U.S. innovation capacity by expanding participation in research translation across disciplines and by preparing a new generation of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers for careers in entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and industry collaboration. The project will pursue three integrated strategies to cultivate, elevate, and accelerate research translation at a public research institution with low translational output relative to research output. First, the project will cultivate a culture of research translation by establishing an institution-wide Ambassador Network of faculty champions, revising promotion and tenure guidelines to recognize translational contributions, and expanding technology transfer office capacity for innovation harvesting and faculty engagement. Second, the project will elevate commercially relevant projects and a translation-capable workforce by implementing a structured invention disclosure review processes, launching an internal Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) grant program, and developing a graduate and postdoctoral training curriculum in intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and industry collaboration. Third, the project will accelerate commercialization by expanding coaching and navigation capacity to support startups and innovation projects in reaching concrete milestones in customer discovery, revenue, external funding, and industry partnerships. Formalized partnership pathways will connect faculty innovators to regional industry and community partners. Outcomes will be assessed through a mixed-methods evaluation framework tracking culture change indicators, pipeline development metrics, and translational milestones across the project period. If successful, the project will provide a validated, adaptable model for increasing research translation at institutions with similar profiles of high research volume and nascent translation infrastructure. The ART Program, supported by the NSF TIP Directorate, seeks to advance U.S. scientific and economic leadership by building capacity and increasing the number of robust translational research ecosystems in Institutions of Higher Education that span across the full geography of our nation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Hina Mehta