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.
The
solicitation offers two broad tracks for proposal in pursuit of PFI goals.
The Technology
Translation (PFI-TT) track is not limited submission and does 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. This
demonstration is achieved through proof-of-concept, prototyping, technology
development and/or scale-up work. Concurrently, students and postdoctoral
researchers who participate in PFI-TT projects receive education and leadership
training in innovation and entrepreneurship. Successful PFI-TT projects generate
technology-driven commercialization outcomes that address societal
needs.
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 the 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:
Principal
Investigator (PI) or a co-PI must have had an NSF award that ended no more than
seven (7) 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
Principal Investigator (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 Partnerships for Innovation – Research
Partnership Track for this deadline
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 May 11,
2021:
·
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
that the project proposed is for the PFI-RP Track;
·
Brief
project description (2 pages maximum);
·
Brief
biographical sketch(es)
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.