Dear Colleague Letter Supplemental Opportunity for Translational Research in the Academic Community (TRAC) (NSF 10 044) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Dear Colleague Letter Supplemental Opportunity for Translational Research in the Academic Community (TRAC) (NSF 10 044) was a National Science Foundation supplemental funding opportunity designed to help academic researchers move promising NSF-supported discoveries closer to real-world use. The core idea behind the program was that fundamental research often produces breakthroughs with potential commercial or practical value, but those breakthroughs frequently stall before they become products, processes, or deployable solutions. TRAC aimed to bridge that gap by providing targeted resources so researchers could build a clearer, more credible development path from lab concept to feasible application scenarios that external sponsors, industry partners, or government practitioners could understand and support.

A central theme of the opportunity is that translation is not automatic. Even strong scientific results can be difficult to “hand off” to commercial or operational communities unless the research team can explain what the technology is, what problem it solves, how it could realistically be implemented, and what steps are needed to de-risk it. TRAC recognized that this usually requires additional, application-facing work that is not always covered by typical fundamental research grants. Specifically, the supplement was meant to support activities like prototyping, proof-of-concept testing, early-stage scale-up, implementation planning, and other development tasks that demonstrate feasibility beyond theory or small-scale experiments.

Eligibility was tied to existing NSF GOALI awards. Rather than being a standalone, open competition for entirely new projects, TRAC functioned as a way for current NSF GOALI grantees whose results showed commercial potential to compete for supplemental support. In practical terms, this means the program targeted teams that already had an academic-industry collaboration framework (as GOALI emphasizes industry relevance and partnerships) and were in a position to take the next steps toward translation. The supplement funds were intended to help “position” the technology for downstream adoption, investment, or sponsorship by non-academic stakeholders.

The kinds of work TRAC proposed to fund were framed in product and process development terms: product or process definition, design, and testing. This focus reflects a shift from discovery-driven research questions toward tasks that clarify requirements, validate performance, and demonstrate repeatability and usability in realistic conditions. The supplement’s purpose was to make the technology more legible and compelling to practitioners by producing evidence and artifacts (such as prototypes and test results) that lower the perceived risk of further investment.

Administratively, the opportunity was issued by NSF as a discretionary grant mechanism within the broader “Science and Technology and other Research and Development” activity category, associated with CFDA 47.041 (Engineering Grants). It did not require cost sharing or matching. The Dear Colleague Letter was originally posted on April 8, 2010, with a supplement due date of May 31, 2010 (by 5 p.m. local time). The listing is now archived (archive date August 4, 2014), meaning it is no longer accepting submissions. For access or technical issues at the time, NSF directed applicants to Grants.gov support (grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov), and the full details were provided through the referenced NSF Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 10 044).

In short, TRAC (NSF 10 044) was NSF’s targeted push to help existing GOALI-funded research teams take concrete, development-oriented steps that connect fundamental results to plausible, testable application pathways, making those innovations more likely to attract follow-on support and eventually reach the marketplace or operational use.

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