ART: Fostering an entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem through training and university-led private-public partnerships

This project aims to accelerate the capacity for translational research at The University of Alabama (UA), while strengthening its role in innovation in a flourishing regional ecosystem. A main objective is to foster innovation and entrepreneurial culture on campus to increase technology commercialization that is supported by training and university led private-public partnerships. The activities of the project will result in increasing the number of inventions, patents, licenses, startups, and other forms of technology commercialization, generating high-quality jobs, fostering U.S. global competitiveness, and strengthening the U.S. economy. Training programs will foster growth of a globally competitive and diverse research workforce and advance the scientific and innovation skills. Specific efforts will be made to encourage recruitment of students and staff from underrepresented and minority groups. Evidence-based training and education curriculum will be developed to continually train postdoctoral researchers and graduate students to be experts in translational research activities. It will inform how to create new and accessible educational pathways into emerging technology careers for persons interested in participating in the research and innovation enterprise. Selected translation projects that have established high probability of commercialization potential based on market needs will be supported to mature the technologies and develop proof-of-concept prototypes while simultaneously being used as training vehicles to train postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. The project will amalgamate diverse academia, government, and industry stakeholders to drive technological advancements and address systemic/societal challenges through use-inspired research to unleash new ideas, talent, pathways, and resources to create a vibrant innovation ecosystem. It will cultivate targeted early partnerships between researchers and industry, broaden institutional capacity for translational research, enhance entrepreneurial knowledge of the research community through training programs that prepare participants for non-academic careers, and eliminate typical institutional barriers that hinder effective and inclusive research translation via policy advocacy. 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.