Partnerships for Innovation Accelerating Innovation Research | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity titled Partnerships for Innovation Accelerating Innovation Research (PFI AIR), Funding Opportunity Number 12 571, is designed to strengthen the U.S. innovation ecosystem by helping move NSF-supported research discoveries closer to real-world use and commercialization. The program sits in NSF's broader Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) effort and focuses on accelerating the kinds of research-to-market transitions that can lead to new products, new companies, and broader economic impacts at the local, regional, and national levels. In practical terms, PFI AIR is aimed at bridging the common gap between promising laboratory results and the applied development steps needed to attract partners, investors, and end users.

This solicitation offers two distinct proposal options (referred to as "choices"), each serving a different translation pathway. The first choice, Technology Translation, supports NSF-funded investigators who have a technologically promising discovery and want to take concrete steps toward commercialization. The emphasis is on advancing research outcomes along a credible path to market, which often includes activities such as defining use cases, validating performance in more realistic settings, strengthening prototypes, addressing technical risks, and clarifying the commercialization route and partner needs. The second choice, Research Alliance, is built for situations where translation is best achieved through coordinated collaboration. It supports synergistic partnerships between an existing NSF-funded research alliance (for example, consortia and centers like Engineering Research Centers, Industry University Cooperative Research Centers, Science and Technology Centers, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers, Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, Centers for Chemical Innovation, and Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grantees) and other public or private entities. The aim here is to motivate and organize technology transfer and translation at a scale that benefits from the alliance's existing structure, networks, and shared research agenda.

The funding is offered as a discretionary grant within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category, associated with CFDA 47.041 (Engineering Grants). NSF anticipated making about 47 awards under this opportunity, with an estimated total program funding level of $14,250,000 and an award ceiling of $800,000 per award. There is no stated cost sharing or matching requirement, which reduces barriers for academic applicants and allows project scope to be driven more by technical and translational need than by the ability to raise non-federal matching funds.

Eligibility is limited to U.S. universities and accredited four-year colleges with a campus located in the United States, and the submitting (lead) organization must be an academic institution acting on behalf of its faculty. For the Research Alliance choice in particular, only one institution within an NSF-funded research alliance may serve as the lead/submitting institution for a given Research Alliance proposal, reinforcing the expectation that the submission represents a coordinated alliance-level effort rather than multiple parallel submissions from the same alliance. The solicitation also sets clear limits on investigator roles: a principal investigator (PI) may submit to either the Technology Translation choice or the Research Alliance choice, but not both. Additionally, each choice allows only one co-PI. Applicants are instructed to indicate the selected choice directly in the proposal title (for example, "PFI AIR Technology Translation" or "PFI AIR Research Alliance"), which helps NSF route proposals to the correct review track.

Key dates in the publicly provided listing include an original posted date of June 18, 2012, an original closing date of November 13, 2012, and a current closing date shown as May 15, 2013, with an archive date of June 15, 2013. The full solicitation is referenced as NSF Publication 12 571, which would contain the detailed proposal requirements, review criteria, allowable costs, and any special compliance or reporting expectations.

NSF also planned an informational webinar to be held within six weeks of the solicitation release to address questions from prospective applicants, with details to be posted on the Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) website. For access or technical issues related to the full announcement, the listing directs applicants to NSF's grants.gov support (grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov), and it notes that additional contact information is provided for linking or announcement access problems. Overall, the opportunity is structured to help academic-led teams turn NSF-supported research into innovations with clear commercial potential, either through focused translation of specific technologies or through broader alliance-based partnerships that can move multiple discoveries toward market impact.

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