Partnerships for Innovation — U.S. National Science Foundation funding opportunity
U.S. National Science Foundation · Federal agency

Partnerships for Innovation

One of the general goals of the Partnerships for Innovation Program (PFI) is to stimulate the transformation of knowledge created by the research and education enterprise into innovations that create new wealth; build st...

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Award Up to $600k Deadline Fixed Location Alabama Type grant Level Federal Open posted Jul 1, 2010
✦ AI Summary
  • Who can apply: Federal-level applicants (see eligibility for details).
  • Funding amount: up to $600,000 (total pool ~$7,000,000).
  • Issued by: U.S. National Science Foundation.
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The “key facts” mode pulls structured fields directly from the official source posting (amount, deadline, eligibility tags). The AI mode adds a short plain-English narrative on top, generated from the same source. Always verify with the agency before applying.

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Award amount
Up to $600k
Deadline
Fixed
Total pool
$7M

About this opportunity

One of the general goals of the Partnerships for Innovation Program (PFI) is to stimulate the transformation of knowledge created by the research and education enterprise into innovations that create new wealth; build strong national economies; and improve the national well-being. Aligned with this goal, the PFI competition for FY 2011 funds will provide support for innovation capacity building to sustained, dynamic interactive knowledge-enhancing partnership groups composed of academic researchers and small business (as defined by the Small Business Administration (SBA)) practitioners focused on intense creation of novel platforms for translating research and moving it towards impact. The basic organizational core of each proposed knowledge-enhancing partnership group must be composed of an academic lead institution and, at a minimum, two small businesses. These newly created partnership groups will provide small group process models for innovation, their hallmark being a collaboration in which research and its translation paths are shaped and expanded from both the research and the business perspectives. While the center-piece of this group is academe and small business, large businesses and non-profits may participate in this core knowledge-enhancement partnership unit, which in turn may be embedded in the broader network of a PFI partnership.The purpose of these knowledge-enhancing partnership groups is to develop researchers more agile in adapting their research for use in new applications and to increase the potential viability of existing small businesses to leverage this capacity. In particular, these interactive relationships will increase the researchers' effectiveness to respond to and anticipate the constraints imposed by the operational limitations on translation of the research. They will improve the business practitioners' capability to develop products that will have potentially strong market demand in the future. The ideal project would consist of creation of a novel platform, that is, one that can be applied to many markets and problems/opportunities (multi-product or process platforms). Some examples of platforms include the following: laser-based technologies that have multiple applications in product verticals; software algorithms that can be customized in different applications to provide multiple functionalities; nano-structured materials that may have multiple applications, environmental remediation technologies; re-manufacturing technologies more sustainable approach than conventional manufacturing involving a process of returning used products to at least original performance can be applied to diverse industries; energy conservation or storage technologies; innovation through design or education in innovation with widespread impact; and personalized medicine/genetic testing. Partnerships that support areas pertaining to education of next generation entrepreneurs are particularly desirable. Some examples of the kinds of activities that could be engaged in by the knowledge-enhancing partner companies working with academe are feasibility research, alpha-prototype product conceptualization.This competition will support 9 to 11 promising partnerships between academic researchers and small business practitioners that engage in the important process of dynamic knowledge enhancement to build capacity to generate and sustain innovation. Partnerships may also include other academic institutions, other private sector organizations (such as large businesses and not-for-profit organizations) and state/local/federal government.

Funding agency

U.S. National Science Foundation
Federal agency

Tags

Manufacturing Nonprofit & Community Small Business Technology & Software Energy & Utilities Education & Research Construction & Housing Climate & Environment Transportation & Logistics Science, Tech & Engineering (STEM)
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Who can apply

Eligibility details aren't on file yet — check the agency source link in the Documents tab for the latest rules.

Geographic eligibility

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming
  • District of Columbia

How to apply

We don't have application instructions on file yet — head straight to the official source.

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Source documents

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Canonical NOFO, application packet, and forms
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Direct downloads (NOFO PDFs, application forms, FAQs) will appear here once our team attaches them. For now, the agency site has the canonical packet.

Citation details

Source systemgrants.gov
Source ID55577
PostedJul 1, 2010

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