NSF-Funded Biotech Projects Advancing Forward to Commercialization With Additional Investments

Eleven biotechnology research projects receiving funding from the National Science Foundation will get additional investments under the NSF’s $5 million pilot partnership program with the nonprofit NobleReach Emerge. 

The program, which was launched in January 2023, aims to position the research projects toward commercial applications through additional support. The projects were selected based on grant analysis and market-readiness evaluations that NobleReach Emerge conducted with the projects’ researchers, the NSF said Wednesday.

Following their selection, the researchers will work with NobleReach Emerge advisers to assess the potential paths of their projects to product development, as well as build their teams’ entrepreneurial and business capabilities.

The selected projects include the University of Arizona’s research on cyberinfrastructure for the life sciences, with a $15 million NSF funding.

Another biotechnology research project chosen for market-readiness investment is a study by the St. Louis, Missouri-based Donald Danforth Plant Science Center on the targeted integration of user-defined DNA in plants, which has a $2.3 million NSF funding.

Biotechnology is also among the three fields that the NSF is soliciting proposals for in fiscal year 2024 under its Responsible Design, Development and Deployment of Technologies program. Between 10 and 12 awards are set for the program, with up to $300,000 for each grant.