Purpose: The
National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program
offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF
the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development,
catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the
laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit.
Applications
to the Technology
Translation (PFI-TT) track are not limited and do not require participation
in an internal competition. PFI-TT offers
the opportunity to translate prior NSF-funded research results in any field of
science or engineering into technological innovations with promising commercial
potential and societal impact.
The Research Partnerships
(PFI-RP) track seeks
to achieve the same goals as the PFI-TT track by supporting instead complex,
multi-faceted technology development projects that are typically beyond the
scope of a single researcher or institution and require a multi-organizational,
interdisciplinary, synergistic collaboration. A PFI-RP project requires the
creation of partnerships between academic researchers and third-party
organizations such as industry, non-academic research organizations, federal
laboratories, public or non-profit technology transfer organizations or other
universities. Such partnerships are needed to conduct applied research on a
stand-alone larger project toward commercialization and societal
impact.
The
intended outcomes of both PFI-TT and PFI-RP tracks are: a) the commercialization
of new intellectual property derived from NSF-funded research outputs; b) the
creation of new or broader collaborations with industry (including increased
corporate sponsored research); c) the licensing of NSF-funded research outputs
to third party corporations or to start-up companies funded by a PFI team; and
d) the training of future innovation and entrepreneurship
leaders.
Eligibility:
NSF Lineage Requirement: All proposals submitted to the PFI program must meet a
lineage requirement under one of the following two paths:
1)
NSF-supported research results in all fields of science
and engineering:
PI or a
co-PI must have had an NSF award that ended no more than seven years prior to
the full proposal deadline date or be a current NSF award recipient. The
proposed technology development project must be derived from the research
results and/or discoveries from this underlying NSF award.
OR
2)
NSF-supported customer discovery results through
the NSF
I-Corps Teams
Program. The
PI or a co-PI must have been a member of an award
under the NSF I-Corps Teams Program (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/teams.jsp).
Funding Amount/ Project
Period: PFI-RP
proposals: $550,000 for 36 months
Link
to Funding Opportunity Announcement
Institutional Limit:
1 PFI-RP submission. No limit on the
number of PFI-TT proposals an organization may submit per deadline of this
solicitation.
Internal
Competition: To
participate in the university’s selection process,please upload the
following,assembled
into a single PDF file, to the Office of the Vice President for Research via
this
portal
with a copy to your Associate Dean for Research by October 6,
2020:
·
Names
and departments or affiliations of the Project Director and other key personnel
or partners;
·
Title
of program and/or funding opportunity announcement number;
·
Indication
of the category of AISL project proposed;
·
Brief
project description (2 pages maximum)
·
Brief
biographical sketch
A committee will be
convened to review the material and make a recommendation.
For questions or issues
with submission through the portal, email the limited submission mailbox
(limitedsubmissions@uky.edu), or call 257-2861.
Agency Deadline: January
13, 2021