Please see the following message for information about the new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate of the National Science Foundation. Please share this announcement with any interested colleagues.
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to share that the U.S. National Science Foundation has established the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, or TIP. This new directorate — NSF's first in more than 30 years — builds upon the agency's commitment over seven decades to serve as a beacon of U.S. innovation, advancing the frontiers of research and education across all fields of science and engineering. TIP will be a critical first step to accelerate the development of new technologies and products that improve Americans' way of life, grow the economy and create new jobs, and strengthen and sustain U.S. competitiveness for decades to come. We look forward to Congress passing the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which will be key to reaching the goals of this new directorate.
Through TIP, NSF plans to launch a set of new and tightly integrated initiatives. Together, these initiatives will advance critical and emerging technologies; accelerate the translation of research results from the lab to market and society; and cultivate new education pathways leading to a diverse and skilled future technical workforce comprising researchers, practitioners, technicians and entrepreneurs. This will no doubt expand the geography of innovation and help deliver on our Missing Millions goals.
In addition, NSF is repositioning much of its extensive portfolio of innovation and translation programs within the TIP Directorate. For example, the NSF Lab-to-Market Platform comprising the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), Partnerships for Innovation (PFI), and Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR and STTR) programs, along with the NSF Convergence Accelerator, are now in TIP. You should not see any operational changes to your existing NSF award or to these programs.
NSF has selected Dr. Erwin Gianchandani to be the inaugural Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, leading the TIP Directorate. Dr. Gianchandani previously served as the Deputy Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering for six years, and has been my Senior Advisor for Translation, Innovation and Partnerships for the last year.
More information about TIP can be found at https://beta.nsf.gov/tip/latest.
This is an exciting time for NSF, and your ingenuity, hard work and contributions to science, technology and innovation have paved the way for this new directorate. We look forward to working with you on this new endeavor, catalyzing new discoveries and innovations, and advancing our nation into the future.
Sincerely,
Sethuraman Panchanathan
Director