ART Track 5: CART: Coordinating ART Tracks and Learning to Yield Sustained Transformation (CATALYST)

Research discoveries generated at U.S. institutions of higher education have tremendous potential to improve health, strengthen national security, and enhance economic competitiveness. Yet many promising discoveries never reach the people, communities, and industries that could benefit from them. Institutions across the country often face barriers in translating research into practical applications, including limited access to expertise, fragmented support networks, uneven availability of training and resources, and insufficient connections to innovation ecosystems. This project will help address these challenges by helping creation of a national coordination and knowledge-sharing network that expands access to proven practices, educational resources, collaborative opportunities, and peer networks. By strengthening connections among institutions, researchers, students, translational practitioners, and ecosystem partners, the project will accelerate research translation, support workforce development, broaden participation in innovation, and contribute to a more connected and sustainable national innovation ecosystem. This coordination project led by AUTM addresses research translation challenges that are particularly acute for institutions that are building translational research capacity. Strengthening the nation's ability to move discoveries from the laboratory into use is essential to maintaining U.S. leadership in science and technology and ensuring that the benefits of federally funded research are realized broadly across society. The ART Program, supported by the NSF TIP Directorate, seeks to advance the 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.