Accelerating Technology, Innovation and Partnerships
Alright, good afternoon everybody. Good morning. Depending on where you might be located, we'll give folks a little bit more time to come into the Zoom Webinar this afternoon and then we will get started. So just bear with us for maybe another minute or so. All right, good afternoon. Once again, everybody. Good morning. If you're a super out west, thanks very much for taking the time to join this webinar for the director for technology, innovation and partnerships at the National Science Foundation. My name's, and I have the honor and the pleasure of serving as the assistant director of NSF. And the pleasure of serving as the assistant director of NSF for TIP, as we call it, the new directory here. And it's our assistant director of NSF for TIP, as we call it, the new directory here.
And it's our pleasure this afternoon to present to you the new directory here. And it's our pleasure this afternoon to present to you this webinar providing you with an update on where things stand with TIP and And it's our pleasure this afternoon to present to you this webinar providing you with an update on where things stand with Tip and And it's our pleasure this afternoon to present to you this webinar providing you with an update on where things stand with tip and specifically I'm gonna invite you to please feel free to take part in this webinar by putting in questions in the Q&A feature. We will try to answer some of those, especially at the end. But along the way as well to the extent that we can. And I would also encourage you to really try to think about ways in which you can engage with the various programs and activities. And updates that we're providing this afternoon. We really believe that for tip to be successful, it's not just those of us who are in tip, but it's all of us working together across the broader ecosystem. And so we really will look forward to continuing a dialogue that we've started with some of you previously and initiating a new dialogue that we're starting with some of you for the first time today.
Some of you have a familiarity with TIP and some of our key programs that we'll be talking about and even some of the announcements that we moved out over the course of the last few. Months, but some of you may be less familiar with the directorate. And so for that reason, we're gonna provide a little bit of context setting as we step through the directorate, the mission of the directorate as well as some of our programmatics, but then also along the way, try to hit on some of the highlights for those of you who have been with us. For this journey going back over the course of the last several years, almost several years now as we progress.
So with that, we'll dive in. We'll start with a little bit of context about why a new director and NSF who we are, what our mission is, how it aligns with the mission of the National Science Foundation. We'll then talk a little bit about the 3 pillars that we have concentrated our activities around and some of the specific programs in those pillars. And then we will identify ways in which we hope you can engage regardless of sector regardless of background in the work that is tip and we'll wrap up with Q&A.
I also want to acknowledge that I'm joined today by a few colleagues of mine. Specifically Dmitry Perkins is a program director for the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program. He's actually been with us since day one as we were conceptualizing that program. So he's going to provide the engines update when we get to that. Also joined by Predite Foolai. Pere Deep is the program director for is a program director for the accelerating research translation or art program another of our new investment frameworks that we have in this one specifically aligned with the chips and science act legislation like the engines program. And then finally, last but certainly not least, Kelly Montaroso is our communication specialist for the tip directorate and she is joining us this afternoon. Set a huge hand in some of the messaging around this directorate and she will also help us moderate Q&A toward the end of the session as well.
So with that, we'll dive in. Let me first start with a little bit of a reminder of the mission for the tip directorate, which we believe directly aligns with the mission of the National Science Foundation that we've had for more than 70 years as an agency advancing research advancing the nation's security and so forth. The mission of the tip directorate is really about trying to be able to leverage the vast and diverse talent pool that exists across all corners of our nation, really harnessing that geography of innovation, that demography of innovation. If you will, to be able to accelerate progress in key technology areas accelerate progress in those technology areas that at the same time addresses some of our pressing societal and economic and geostricic challenges. Really moving research results from the lab to the market and to society. And every bit as important along the way, really being able to also train the workforce of today and tomorrow. For good quality, good-paying jobs in STEM fields and in the stem-driven economy of the mid 20 first century as well.
When we think about the tip directorate, we think about our role as part of the existing innovation. Research and innovation ecosystem that exists across the United States today. The National Science Foundation historically for the better part of many decades and, and even longer in some cases has been structured into directions or units here at NSF. And those units tap into the fields of scientific inquiry and engineering that NSF has long supported from the biological sciences to computer and information science and engineering to the social behavioral economic sciences and so on. You'll note that we cover pretty much every area of science and engineering through NSF with the exception of medical research since that tends to be the purview of our colleagues. Up the road at the National Institutes of Health. We also engage with international counterparts when appropriate.
So we have an office of International Science and Engineering. And we have an office of integrative activities that helps lead investments that are cross-cutting like the EpsCOR program, which supports jurisdiction specific jurisdictions across the United States. When we think about the tip directorate, we think about it as being supportive of that mission of advancing fundamental science and engineering as well as translational science and engineering. Both of those have been every bit a part of Nsf's DNA for many, many years. In fact, on the translational side, for example, NSF was the first agency with a small business innovation research or SBI program back in the 19 seventys and 19 eightys we piloted that program for the rest of the federal government, which has since adopted it.
But we really have supported that entire frontier of fundamental and translational research uniquely across all fields of science and engineering. We think of TIP as a new horizontal. Really helping to strengthen and scale a part of the NSF DNA as our director, Dr. Punch Nathan likes to say, but specifically that part that focuses in on use inspired fundamental research as well as translational research. Something that the directorates of NSF prior to tips formation have been doing to varying degrees. But here's an opportunity for us to really be able to lift up and elevate some of that work.
Again, while at the same time ensuring that we continue to support the foundational science and engineering fundamental research that NSF has long supported and is long known for as well. So over the course of the last, almost, 2 years, it'll be 2 years in March of this year. NSF has, through the tip directory, rolled out a number of new investments, a number of new activities that have landed themselves to align with the mission that I spoke of for TIP and for NSF. We've launched efforts that have focused on innovation and entrepreneurship. We've launched efforts that have built out partnerships with other companies, other agencies, nonprofits and foundations as well. We've launched efforts to really think about the workforce and how do we bring talent to the table in a meaningful way.
While at the same time all ensuring that we are advancing that use inspired and translational work that is so core to the DNA of tip and in turn the DNA of NSF. So you see on this slide and the next couple of slides some of the key milestones that we've had. For example, as we'll talk about in a bit, throughout almost this entire time period, we've been on the trajectory of a series of efforts around the regional innovation engines program announcing semi-finalists announcing finalists announcing a partnership with the economic development administration or EDA to coordinate between our investments in the engines and their investments in the engines and their investments in their regional in the engines and their investments in their regional technology and innovation hubs or tech hubs program as well. So a whole slew of efforts and announcements that span our portfolio of programs from the Conversions Accelerator to engines from Icore to SPR and so forth.
We're excited about this entire portfolio. I'm personally excited about this entire portfolio because we believe that it touches so much of this nation but it also is the thought leadership and the efforts of folks like Dmitri and Purdue and Kelly and others in this directorate whom over the course of these webinars you hopefully have an opportunity to meet but also you get to meet as part of your engagement with TIP as we proceed and you'll see here some of the things that I'm gonna highlight through the course of this webinar in the last few months. Efforts to launch our first round of, confidential learning, opportunities, efforts to launch, the accelerating research translation or art awardees, a new program focusing in on responsible design development and deployment of technologies. And then of course the 10 inaugural NSF engines that we just announced. So these are a little bit of eye candy, these 3 slides, but hopefully they give you a sense of the breadth and depth of the portfolio that we have been trying to unlock. The course of these last couple of years. So let me touch a little bit on what we see as our core message, sort of our brand within the tip directorate within the tip directorate within the tip directorate within the National Science Foundation. We're really seeking to try to advance US competitiveness and societal impact by being able to nurture partnerships that are going to drive and accelerate 3 key pillars for us.
One focuses in on diverse innovation ecosystems at a regional and at a national scale. And we'll talk a little bit about that. Another is trying to accelerate technology, development, and translation from lab to the market and to society. And I want to stress that it's lab to market and society and I'll come back to that in a bit. And then finally it's about workforce development. And as I talked about earlier, how do we train folks at all levels? K through 12, community colleges, technical schools, four-year universities, graduate schools, folks who are in the workforce today looking to maybe do a pivot. How do we provide them with the competencies and the experiences to maximize on their chances to succeed in the stem-driven economy of today.
And so we're gonna step through each one of these 3 pillars in a little bit more detail providing you with some examples just a few examples of some of the programs some of the activities that we currently have underway in these areas. And I'm gonna start first with diverse innovation ecosystems. And we'll highlight a couple of key investments in this particular pillar. The first is the NSF convergence accelerator. Some of you are probably familiar with the convergence accelerator. This actually is an example of a program that predates the establishment of TIP. NSF stood up the convergence accelerator back in 2019. Specifically to try to be able to bring together multidisciplinary trans-disciplinary research teams.
Focused on specific societal economic challenges and at the same time in some cases technological approaches and innovations that could help address mitigate resolve some of those challenges through sustainable solutions that we could pursue going forward. As you think about the mission space of the convergence accelerator in terms of what I just described. Hopefully you can see the alignment with the mission of the tip directorate within NSF, which is why when we established the directorate, we brought the convergence accelerator into the fold within within TIP and within within this construct.
Now one of the things about the convergence accelerator, like many of our programs that you will hear about through the course of this webinar, this funding opportunity is available to folks across sectors. So whereas NSF has historically been known for and we do more than this but we're historically known for our engagement with the academic community and institutions of higher education. A key focus of the convergence accelerator like other programs is to also engage private industry to engage governments at all levels to engage nonprofits as well because This is about trying to really bring the users and the beneficiaries of research to the table. To help inspire the research directions and help work collaboratively on potential solutions to some of those challenges and pilot prototype in real-world settings those solutions as well. In the convergence accelerator typically runs with 2 phases. Phase one is trying to support projects that are, at a smaller scale.
Many projects at a smaller scale that are sort of in a planning phase. Phase 2, we do a little bit of a downselect going down to a larger number of projects. But I'm sorry, a smaller number of projects, but at a larger scale on a per project basis and really thinking about the implementation of some of the concepts that were matured during the planning. So over the course of the life cycle of the convergence accelerator to date since 2,019, we have run what we call tracks more than a dozen tracks in fact. That span the waterfront in topic areas from open knowledge networks that drive the next generation of artificial intelligence technologies to novel quantum technologies to approaches that allow us to secure fiveg and wireless communications to thinking about technologies that allow for persons with disabilities to become equal parts of society. And really be able to engage through those technological innovations as well. And you can see that some of these tracks involve collaborations with other agencies. For example, DOD, the Department of Defense, helped fund the fiveg, track G infrastructure track.
And we also have partnerships with Australia and governments in the EU as well to be able to support some of the other tracks here too. I'll note that the conversions accelerator just ran its PI meeting, principal investigators meeting bringing together more than 500 folks from across. A variety of different backgrounds who are part of the Ca ecosystem to really bring them together and create the sort of community that we're trying to create with these use inspired solutions to real world pressing challenges from a research standpoint.
So the convergence accelerator is on one end of the spectrum in terms of our innovation ecosystem building. And I'm going to hand it off to Dmitri to begin the conversation about the regional innovation engines. Program which is on the other end of that spectrum and specifically authorized by the Chips and Science Act of 2,022. So Dmitri, over to you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, everyone. So hello everyone. So the net NSF engines program, really represents, the full vision of, tip and touches on every aspect.
And so when we think of an engine, what we're actually funding the program is funding is a coalition of stakeholders within a region. And so we can think of the engines program as a place-based innovation, effort. And so we launched the program just over one year ago. And, we recently announced, the first, cohort of 10 awardees.
And unlike many other NSF programs where we're funding a specific entity organization to carry out a dedicated. Willie, when we think about the engine's program, we are attempting to fund an entire region. And the funding is intended to grow and catalyze an innovation ecosystem within that region. And as I said, we funded this we just recently announced the first cohort of 10. Awardees. Each of which can receive up to 160 million dollars over a 10 year period and we also announced a round of development awardees.
These are analogous to planning grants and these are 1 million dollar awards for up to 2 2 years. Also, you, the benefit of this program is just open to, any number of, all types of awardees, academic institutions. For profit not for profit organizations. But generally for a single award all of these entities will come together and work as a team to build out the engine. And so this lot here shows the, all 10 awardees. And you can see, from this lot that we have.
A range of awardees around the country focus on different technology areas so for example in upstate New York we have an engine focused on energy storage we have 2 engines funded in North Carolina. One focus on regenerative medicine, another on textile innovation and sustainability. Semi conductors and central florida energy in Louisiana aerospace in El Paso. The sustainability engine in the southwest which is is headquartered in in temporary Arizona with focuses on energy and water sustainability as well as some climate related issues.
The Colorado engine will focus on the climate resilience. And then we have North Dakota that focuses on at And also we have a water innovation engine. That's headquartered in Illinois. And so this represents the first round of engines. And or when you can go to the next lot. And so really when we look at these engines, NSF is making history and that this is the largest. Investment and to a single awardee over a 10 year period over a decade this would be up to 1.6 billion dollars.
For all 10 awardees the total number of partners involved across all 10 projects exceeds 450 partners. And those partners range from. Large industry to entrepreneurs and startups, to government agencies. Community organizations. And so every engine really represents a regional focus and not just the the interest of a single entity. And so while we made 10 awards. Those 10 oars actually span 18 states. Across the, 10 engine awardees.
And we have 69 regions represented across the entire US. Another, key factor and distinguish that distinguish these engines from, from, the batch of proposals we received. Is the amount of investment That's being made by other entities including their state and local governments private capital are all investing within these regions to achieve the goals laid out by the proposing teams. Ultimately, we believe at NSF that, that these 10 engines, you know, really have the ability to change the face. Oh, of innovation within the US. Currently, I'm sure we can all think of, a few, innovation ecosystems that are nationally warring now within the US, mostly located on the coast. And so part of the goal for the engines program is, can we increase the level and quality of innovation throughout the US and take advantage of the talent and grow new talent throughout the US, which in turn would improve the competitiveness of the US, improve the local economy for all of these funded regions.
Next lot over. And so here. I wanna share just. Oh, few details about some of the engines that we funded that just to give you a sense of. Of this scale and the partnerships that are taking place at each of these funded engines. And so here this represents one example of the Florida semiconductor engine located near Orlando. And so fundamentally this, engine will focus on semiconductor and in particular advanced packaging and manufacturing.
The engine already has several, commitments. Capital commitments from their local government as a state government. They also competed and was an awardee and the, EVA, back better challenge. In a particularly, strong component of this engine is that they already, the, county was the owner of a semiconductor manufacturing facility they have several strong partners that occupy that facility.
There are a number of partners that are engaged and committed to the project from academic institutions, government agencies. As I said, they have an industry partner, Scott Water, technology, that has occupied the facility and is operating the facility and is operating the facility and is operating the facility and is operating the facility in partnership with the facility and is operating the facility in partnership with the universities there. And then there are several, nonprofit organizations that are also engaged, in building out all of the necessary facilities and infrastructure. To operate and grow the regional innovation ecosystem. Within central Florida. Next slide, Owen. And here. Then. Just to show you kind of the various scales of the various engines that we have funded the previous engine focused on a single counting in the state of Florida in this case we have the North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine which in their region of service spans the entire state of North Dakota.
And typically this would you know the choice of the region of service may depend on the population size and a number of other factors and so here this center will focus primarily own advanced act technology involving crop genomics climate modeling data capture sensors drones so they have a number of advanced technology areas that this center that this engine would touch. And as you can see, given this, the, size of the region of service. They have a significant number of partners and to be qualified as a partner means that you're, contributing, to the engine in cash or any kind or you'll participating as part of the governance structure. So here we see that we have 14 academic institutions, 32 partners. Also significant to this, engine is there 5, tribal organizations that are also part of the engine and that would make contributions and benefit from the from the outcomes of this engine. Thanks a lot over. So again, we have another engine that, the region of service spans the entire state. The Louisiana energy transition engine.
We'll focus on the transition to carbon energy as, many of you know, Louisiana, Texas, the Guff Coast is, well known for, for oil and gas and energy related. Sectors, industry sectors. And so, this particular engine will focus on those regions in Louisiana, both North and South, Louisiana that will focus on the kind of, they transition. Technology And so this is very important to this region of the country. Their 49 partners, spanning academic, industry partnerships. Very significant that Exxon and Shale and partners such as this as well as a number of mid-size, oil and gas companies, our partners, all partners within. This engine. And one of the key components of the engine leadership. And most all of these engines, in particular, this engine is bringing together industry partners that are.
The competitors. But, helping the entire region. Recognize the, advantage of working together. And identify what the common interests are and and growing the innovation ecosystem beyond the interests of just individual companies. And so this engine represents, one of those engines that will work hard to, satisfy that as a goal. So, this lot, reflects the The partnership network, that have form and continues to form across.
All of the engines, as I mentioned previously, there are, across all 10 engines. They are well over 450 partners. And this, this is quite significant and, and seeing how the engines. Even in this early stage. I have already began to, develop. That cross sector, network of stakeholders, that will serve as, infrastructure support, provide capital investments.
Will provide workforce development initiatives to actually grow and continue to see the efforts of the engine itself. And so this you you can access all of this information. At the engine's website. I'm sure Kelly can probably drop the link to the website in the chat but all of this information is available via the web. The engine's website and you can view the actual partners associated with, each engine. And the roles within the engine and all of this information is available via the web. So one other thing that we think is very important to point out all of the engines will focus on various key technology areas as highlighted for example in the Chips and Size Act.
Here we have 10 that are listed And as you read this table, what this means is of the 10, the dark blue means of the 10, of the 10 engines that we funded. 7, will, focus on artificial intelligence. 4 will focus on advanced computer and semiconductors. One, we'll have a focus on quantum. Information size and technology. And so you can see that that we have the engines cover all of the technology areas, the light blue. Represents the technology areas that are covered by our current development awardees of which there are 59.
Development awardees who will likely be competing in the next round of the engines program. But the key, how like to take away here is you know all of these engines funded across the US. Will to some degree be advancing key technology areas across all the key technology areas associated with the Chips Assigns Act. An important component to the agent's program. As I mentioned, the, the objective here is not just to focus on a single research project.
But really to advance the entire region. Innovation ecosystem and which is a very challenging task. And so part of the engines program, we're launching what we call the engines builder platform. And this platform. Is being led by, the engine accelerator, which is a originated out of, MIT.
And, just to summarize, I mean, the platform will provide technical assistance. And support to all of the engines. The technical assistant could range from, recruiting. The necessary talent. Recruiting CEOs for the engine. Providing access, to networks where you'd have access to. capital investments to develop the efforts and initiatives around diversity and inclusion so their range of services that will be provided to each of the engine awardees to further help and assist those, Oh, organizations to be to be successful in carrying out their mission.
And I think that's it. I mean, thank you. Thanks so much, Dmitri. Hopefully folks can see the excitement that we have for what Dmitri and the rest of the engines team have been able to do over the course of the last couple of years working on this program. I'm gonna touch on a couple more pieces of our innovation ecosystem portfolio. Particularly the enhancing partnerships to increase innovation capacity or epic program as we like to call it. This actually dovetails with the engines program that you just heard Dmitri talk about. Really about trying to be able to engage diverse institutions and diverse institution types that are maybe up and coming in terms of their research portfolios. In their local innovation ecosystems including potentially in NSF regional innovation engines or the development awards that we're funding.
This is predicated on the fact that we had a number of conversations with, MSIs, community colleges and technical schools primarily undergraduate institutions even before the launch of the engines program to try to better understand how we could create opportunities for all different types of institutions to engage in in the program. And through those conversations, we took away some. Some lessons learned if you will or some potential opportunities or steps that we could take. And this particular program is one of those to really work closely with potential proposers to help shape their proposals in some way provide mentoring and guidance and coaching as they're shaping their proposals so that they can be more competitive. In terms of being able to acquire the resourcing that they could benefit from to grow capacity and in turn become a part of an innovation engine.
Really building that partnership to being a part of the innovation engine. We recently awarded almost 20 million dollars worth of investment to nearly 50 teams. You can see the deadline for the next competition coming up later this spring as a matter of fact for another round of epic awards. I'll highlight just taking a quick look at the map of the projects that we have funded under the epic program, community colleges, masters colleges, baccalaureate colleges, and so forth. And you can see sort of their, the geographic location of the lead institutions as well as the collaborative or partnering institutions that have been engaging as well. Again, the goal here to try to get more institutions to become a part of their local and regional innovation ecosystems and economies, including potentially the NSF engines program as well. Let me now transition to talking a bit about technology translation and development, our second pillar. And here I think it's really important.
To emphasize that we are very interested in the full spectrum of opportunity from lab to market and society. So oftentimes when one thinks about technology translation, one tends to think about lab to market and particularly new startups and small businesses and so forth. And in fact, as I mentioned earlier, we're really proud of the fact that at NSF we have a long history of supporting startups and small businesses that have led to. New companies that today are well-known commodities like Qualcomm for example. But that being said, there are other pathways to translational impact as well. And it's also important for us to build capacity for those pathways too. So for instance, we've seen that in certain trade spaces. Open source ecosystems can offer a competitive advantage visa-vis some close-box approaches that folks might take. And so there's an opportunity for us, we believe, to really think about what are those additional pathways and what types of resources and what types of training can we provide to talent, to researchers, to students, to others.
For instance, to be able to scale research coming out of the education space education research to really be able to start to translate. That into classrooms into formal and informal settings and really scale that across the country as well. So what are those various pathways and how can we provide resourcing to be able to support that. So I'm gonna highlight a couple of these pathways. One is the proverbial lab to market pathway.
So starting about a decade ago, actually a little over a decade ago now, NSF launched a program called I core or innovation core which is really about trying to be able to provide experiential entrepreneurial education to folks interested in trying to go down that particular pathway. That education is really centered around customer discovery. How can I find that niche for the concept that I have? Is there a market for the concept that I have that I'm thinking about potentially translating into practice.
So over the course of the last several years, NSF has funded, 10, innovation core hubs, I core hubs distributed across the country. You see the states that they cover in the gold coloring on the right-hand side of the chart, primarily led by academic institutions and involving nearly a hundred universities all together. We have a new funding opportunity for I core that we have just issued. With a deadline that's coming up later this spring. And our goal with that particular funding opportunity is to really fill in some of the blank spaces if you will that you see on that map really trying to hone in on specific communities and regions and states, particularly jurisdictions that we have not yet covered by virtue of the I core hubs that we have funded to date.
We are also always seeking out teams, I core teams, to come into the I core ecosystem. These are folks who are thinking about taking that technology to market. We provide $50,000 of funding on a per team basis for the seven-week. Curriculum that folks step through as part of the high core program. Relatedly, but kind of taking it to the next step in is a program that we call America's seed fund powered by NSF or the combination of the small business innovation research and small business technology transfer SBI RSTR programs. This is really about allowing for folks to pursue that deep tech startup. Really do that feasibility.
Assessment, if you will, of taking that scientific or engineering discovery and turning it into a product or service. With commercial and societal impact. You can see that we support projects in 3 phases, phase one, phase 2, phase 2 B at varying levels and durations of support. You can engage with the SPRSTR program today by submitting a project pitch through our website. We will aim to get back to you with feedback on that project pitch to see if. It aligns with the NSF instantiation of the SPRSTTR program, our goals for this program within a matter of weeks to try to get you feedback and then to get you down the path of being able to submit a proposal or recognizing that the alignment isn't there for the NSF SPI or SDTR programs. One thing that I'll emphasize are SPI or STR programs are really focused in specifically on the earliest stage startups and deep tech startups at that. We tend to fund teams that are quite small and really try to kickstart them and catapult them onto the path to success, whether it be an acquisition or growing into a much larger enterprise into the future.
So that's the lab to market trajectory, if you will, I core, SBI RSTTR and some other programs that we have as well to help try to fill in that gap between the lab and and societal impact. Another translational pathway that I referenced earlier is about open source ecosystems. And the program here that I emphasizes pathways to enable open source ecosystems or pose. This is an effort that we actually launched even prior to the establishment of tip just prior to the establishment of TIP, where the goal is to be able to try to provide the resourcing and the training that allows for teams to really turn their research result into an open source ecosystem and a sustainable and potentially high impact one at that that allows for continued contributions from a community. Of developers or practitioners that really allows for that technology base to continue to mature going forward. You could imagine coming out of these open source ecosystems, spin-offs that could turn into their own startups and small businesses, for example.
So a lot of potential cultivation of competitiveness and growth through these efforts as well. Like the SBRSTTR program, in fact, maybe slightly modeled off of that even, we provide support through 2 phases phase one and phase 2. And this opportunity is open to folks in academia, to industry, as well as to nonprofits too. With that, I'm gonna transition to, talking about some of the capacity building efforts that we have. So you've heard of 2 translational pathways. And, and there are others that we are seeking to build out as well.
But we're also very keenly interested in Congress has asked us to be so in capacity building. And so here I'm going to transition to Predeep to talk a little bit about a new program that we're also excited about the arch program. So pretty deep over to you. Thank you. So it's my pleasure. Welcome everybody. Erin, thank you for the leadership you provide for the leadership you provide for tip directorate so people who may not be familiar with the leadership you provide for tip directorate.
So people who may not be familiar art is a brand new program. So, people who may not be familiar art is a brand new program. It stands for accelerating research translation. And in the big picture, what we're really trying to do with this program is really support institutes of higher education that have had the amount or volume of research that has been very high. However, the outcomes in terms of translation or activities. There are multiple ways to measure it. Those have been on the low side. And very recently in December we announced 18 teams that got funded. We have invested more than a hundred 1 million dollars into these teams to really boost. Our They're capacity, their ability to. Elevate the level of translational research on campuses.
Let's go to the next slide, please. So in a nutshell, right, if you look at this chart on the x-axis, you have overall research of at that is happening at an academic institution and then on the y-axis you have the translational activities. And if you look at the bottom left corner, there's a blue ellipse. Those are institutions where both of those parameters, meaning the overall research as well as transitional activities are on the smaller side. So those might be smaller universities. Smaller colleges. Community colleges, etc. And then the green ellipse that you see on the right top corner, those are institutions that already have high level of research accompanied by high level of translational activities. And again, translational activities could be measured by number of startups, invention disclosures, industry partnerships, number of research centers on campus, industry university type settings.
So there are multiple ways to measure that. So those institutions are not the target of art. Instead, if you look at the golden ellipse, those are the institutes of higher education. Wherein, if you look at their research funding, the volume of research, number of publications, graduate students, etc. That has been pretty high. So the X-axis is high, but on the y-axis for whatever reasons, if you look at their translational output that is pretty low. So those are the institutions that are the target of this art program and and we are working to see how these institutions with the help of our program how can they move in the direction of the green ellipse? That means how can they increase substantially their translational activities. So our program is very unique in that we recently as I mentioned before we awarded 18 institutions.
In December, they are all across the nation out of 18. As you can see, as this chart shows, we have 9 institutions that are in in EpsCOR jurisdictions. We have 7 institutions in which we have a woman that is the principal investigator for these projects. And again, there is a range of partnerships here. And one of the unique features of art is really that we have, institutes of higher educations that already have a robust translational ecosystem. Those institutions are really part of partnership or their partner institutions we call them mentoring institutions. Let's go to the next view graph. So this is about art and I'm handing over back to you. I'll hand it over back to yourvin for describing the newest programs that we have. Thank you.
Oh, thanks very much, Purdue. Thanks for doing that. And as I think you heard in Purdue's, voice and excitement there. I think this is a, this is something that Congress encouraged us to do with art, but it's also something that we take great pride and excitement in trying to be able to work with the universities directly to grow that capacity and help accelerate translational research more generally throughout the US. I'm going to transition to one last highlight within the technology translation development portfolio and that is a new initiative that we launched as Purdue mentioned. Just a few weeks ago called responsible design development and deployment of technologies or red dot for short. We're excited to be collaborating here with 5 philanthropic partners. The single family endowment, the Siegel family, endowment, the Mcgovern Foundation, the Siegel Family Endowment, the McGvern Foundation, the Siegel Family Endowment, the McGvern Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Pivotal Ventures and also Schmidt
Futures contemplate the ethical, legal, community, and societal considerations that are associated with essentially the entire life cycle of a technology's creation and use. You see this in every one of the key technology areas that was called out in the chips and science legislation. By the way, this particular program has its roots in the section that's also called out and the chips and science legislation under the tip umbrella. But if you look at each of those key technology areas, really an emphasis in those areas around from AI to quantum to biotech and so forth around really thinking through what are the guardrails that we should be conceptualizing from even the initial design point, even the conceptualization phase, let alone once we have designed and developed a technology and once we're trying to think about contemplating its broader use and consumption. So this is an effort where we have a deadline coming up later this spring. 16 million dollar investment that leverages NSF tip resources.
And other directorates too together with that of other foundations. In the private sector. So with that as the first 2 pillars, I'm gonna transition to a third and final pillar that we emphasize in tip which is around workforce development. And as I alluded to earlier, our key focus here within tip is is less about research on education which tends to be the purview of our colleagues in this STEM education directorate at NSF and it has been for quite some time but really learning from that research to understand what are the innovations that we can then pursue and try to scale. Regionally and nationally to be able to grow talent at every level from K through 12 to today's workforce and and across that entire spectrum.
And so one of our flagship efforts here is the experiences or learning for emerging and novel technologies are excellent program. That we launched about a year plus ago now, really trying to be able to coalesce partnerships within a particular region focusing in on a key technology area. That allows for us to be able to bring academia but also industry and governments and non-profits together in such a way that we can identify and make available to talent today, whether enrolled in a degree or certificate program or not. But make available to talent, internships, apprenticeships, and other practical experiences for that talent. We see those experiential opportunities as a springboard that allows for that talent. Again, whether in a degree or certificate program or not, to potentially be able to pivot into a key technology space and pursue that key technology space in terms of a future job, a future career prospect could become so excited that they then do pursue a degree or certificate program for instance and be able to leverage all of that to to get a higher wage, better quality job going forward. We invested in the first round of the excellent program, in the last few months, about a 19 million dollar investment to 27 projects.
You can see the locations of these projects. On this map you can see the topic areas that they that they encompass from quantum to biotech to advanced manufacturing and robotics and so forth. And you can also see the diverse institution types that have come together as part of these coalitions to, to work collaboratively to drive forward the progress in these various regions. I'll also emphasize another dimension of our workforce development really concentrating in on entrepreneurship and trying to be able to provide folks with entrepreneurial experiences as well.
So the activate organization activate org has been around for a few years, has supported cohorts of entrepreneurial fellows in specific locations across the country. A few about a year ago or so we announced a partnership with them through a cooperative agreement where we're gonna expand their reach and really think about activate anywhere. So trying to be able to harness that talent from all different corners of the country and get folks regardless of geographic location, the ability to have that practical experience of being able to move technologies from lab to market. You can think of this a little bit like post I core. With us providing a couple of years of support stipends plus access to research facilities and equipment plus access to the business and capital networks that allow folks to. Take part in that effort to go from lab to market. And hopefully have that experience and learnings to be able to then repeat that down the road in the future with other endeavors that they might pursue, as well. And finally, I'll highlight this effort that we launched just in the last little while here, collaboration with the Council of Graduate Schools.
CGS. Some of you may be familiar with the Council of Graduate Schools, a coalition that's been around for quite some time and has done a lot of data collection work to help inform decision-making, to help inform, decision making that takes place when it comes to higher education work, to help inform, decision making that takes place when it comes to higher education. While we are investing in them to help inform, decision making that takes place when it comes to higher education. While we are investing in them to be able to collect more data from an additional set of universities while we are investing in them to be able to collect more data from an additional set of universities to be able to leverage that data-driven decision-making to address some of the perennial challenges that we've seen in recruiting and retaining domestic graduate students who have traditionally been under represented in STEM fields so trying to better understand that trying to better understand So I hope across these 3 pillars, you can see our keen interest in trying to really be able to accelerate research to impact. We will make these slides and we will make this webinar available on the web afterwards but want to highlight on this particular slide for the different sectors that intersect with the tip directorate at NSF from academia to industry to government nonprofits. The variety of programs and program offerings that are available to each of these sectors. In some cases, the program available across multiple sectors really encourage you to sort of dig in and better understand the opportunity that aligns with. Where you're coming from and your interests and where you are in terms of trying to be able to accelerate research to impact and further use inspired and translational research going forward as well.
And then finally, I invite all of you to just as some of you have done to get to this webinar today, please sign up for our newsletter. Please check out our website new dot nsf. Gov slash. We, welcome the ability to engage with you through our web platform to hear from you and to communicate with you about some of our latest news and some of our latest exciting announcements. So with that, we'll pause here. And I invite folks to chime in with any additional questions in the Q&A.
I'll hand things over to Kelly for the last few minutes that we have to help us moderate Q&A and answer any remaining questions that we didn't. I saw we had lots of questions. Coming in through the course of this webinar. Thank you for the course of this webinar. Thank you for those. I hope some of you got your questions answered. Thank you for those. I hope some of you got your questions answered through the Q&A, but we look forward to engaging answered through the Q&A, but we look forward to engaging with you in a dialogue here with the Q&A, but we look forward to engaging with you in a dialogue here as well. So Kelly, I'll kick Everyone and thanks everyone. I think I've gotten to most of the questions. Just trying to been furiously writing. But I guess here's one. I don't wanna go too far into the leads.
Hey, here's one from John Cohen. Where might I find more contact information for the SPRS TTR program directors to learn how to make my proposal more competitive. Yeah, thanks for that question, John. So, I'd encourage folks to go to NSF, new dot nascept. Go slash tip slash latest. You can from there click into our SPIR STTR website. We have a dedicated Web page, I believe it's seedfund out in a sub. Com. And you can through that web page connecting with program officers. And and and get their input. Again, I strongly encourage folks to go through the pitch process.
You can submit multiple pitches. You do have to wait a little bit from one pitch and feedback on that until the next opportunity opens up on a quarterly basis effectively. But, we do encourage you to go through the pitch process because it's our means of trying to be able to get you. Relatively rapid response in terms of feedback as to the alignment between your pitch and the NSF SPRS TTR program. We implemented that a few years ago. Mostly to have to minimize folks having to write full detailed proposals only to find that the alignment may not have been as strong as they or we would have liked to see.
Can I can I quickly or when can I quickly add something which I think what is also helpful is. If you, SB, are programmed directors are always looking for panelists. And if you can find a way to be on the panel, that I think can be very educational, that can be very informative. And that's a great way to learn how to make your own proposal competitive whenever you are ready to submit it. So both what Urban said, I think that is very helpful. And you can also. Right, to see if you could be on one of the review panels for any of our programs, not just SBI or SDDR. Yeah, thanks for Deep. Actually, that last point I think is really important for any of our programs. Underscore that point, absolutely.
Okay, here's a question from Cedric. Philip, can you apply to the NSFSPR phase one and excellent and maybe talk about applying to multiple Yeah, so I'll try to take that one and for Deep and Dmitri and Kelly, feel free to add in as well. So you can apply to multiple programs concurrently. If you look at an individual funding opportunity, for example, you will see some specific eligibility criteria that are in effect for that particular funding opportunity. So for instance, many of our programs indicate that you can only apply to a given deadline as Pi Ko Pi or senior personnel on some number of applications to that program. So maybe it's one, maybe it's 2, etc. But applying across multiple programs is perfectly acceptable.
I think the key point here that I would emphasize, which I'm sure Cedric you can appreciate and others can appreciate but I still To do my job, I have to emphasize it. You wanna apply with distinct goals, distinct activities that you would undertake pursuant to those multiple proposals. So obviously your proposal and excellent would focus on confidential learning opportunities and making those available. Your proposal on SPIR would correspond to standing up a new startup small business in the R&D that at that entails. So you just want to make sure that your swim lanes are distinct between what you're proposing to do. Across multiple proposals, but you can't apply concurrently across multiple programs. Thank you, Arwen. There have been a few questions about upcoming deadlines for engines.
Do you have any information to share? Yeah, that's, I was expecting that to be the first question out of the gate actually. So, I'll say that. Dmitri and team and Dmitri you should feel free to weigh in are actively working on the next round of the engines program subject to appropriations and so forth as always. But we are anticipating we are hopeful to be able to move in the direction of getting another funding opportunity for the next round out. Sometime later this spring.
Later the spring, early summer time frame and you can anticipate that we would try to provide time for folks to prepare their proposals, etc. So we would set deadlines accordingly to give folks and community enough time to respond and react to that. Dimitri, is that fair? Anything you wanna add or correct? Nope, that's correct. I see some more, I guess, specific questions about is it will it be FY 24 but I think you answered that so all of those will get asked. But yes. Thank you. And then I, I think we only have time for one last question, maybe 2.
But can you, from David, Neil, what are you envisioning for, for you since inspired research funding opportunities in the future? So can you give us a little teaser about what might be coming? Yeah, so thanks, K. Thanks, David, for that question. So I'd encourage folks to really in some sense take a look at the chips and science act legislation and the law that is has now passed and is law of the land. The Chips and Science Act specifically has a section focused on the tip directorate and within that. Within that section, it calls out sub sections that correspond to investments. So for example, the regional innovation engines is called out there. Section 1391. I don't know why I know that, but section 1391 corresponds to the text that. Led us to establish the art program. I think 1398 corresponds to what is now the red dot program.
So I'd encourage you to take a look at that because that gives you a flavor. For some of the specific investment types that we are contemplating. Okay. Some of it now is of course subject to appropriations. The other thing that I'll say is that we are, we are trying to build out a portfolio of use inspired and translational work that is in a alignment with each of the key technology areas that are called out in the chips and science legislation.
We have over the course of the last several months pulled together, brought in a team of folks looking at AI, looking at quantum, looking at biotech, and then also Having conversations with other directories and in some cases other agencies and private sector partners to really understand what might be a sweet spot of investment. For tip to be able to accelerate progress from the foundational sciences into translation and into practice. And so we'll have much more to say about some of those investments. In fact, you might hear or see some of those in the not too distant future as starting points, but we'll have more to say about that over the course of the next several months.
I think we're at time. If you do have some pending questions in the chat, feel free to send them to tip that NSF deck of and we'll do our best to answer them Alright, thank you, Kelly. And let me again, thank everybody for your time today. I really appreciate your interest in tip and your engagement in TIP. And we look forward to hearing from you and working with you as we continue to build out this directory at our programs and really aspire to have the impact that we hope to have with the mission that is tipped. So thanks very much, everybody. Thank you.
2024-02-22 03:56
