A year in review: Reflecting on 2024 and renewing our commitment to innovation nationwide

It's been a busy and rewarding year for us in the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP). During this season of reflection, on behalf of our NSF TIP colleagues, we want to take a few minutes to review what we have accomplished over the past year and preview what's to come in the year ahead. 

In 2024, our work expanded to communities, small businesses and regions nationwide. We announced nearly 1,000 new awards and launched the NSF TIP investments pilot, where you can explore a map of our investments and search data using various filters, including technology focus areas and organizations and researchers funded by NSF TIP. As NSF works to open up opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for all Americans, we are proud that about a quarter of these awards were made to organizations in U.S. states and territories where NSF is particularly focused on enhancing research competitiveness and strengthening capacity and capability.

A big part of our work to foster regional innovation and economic impact happens through the NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program. In January, NSF established 10 inaugural NSF Engines, constituting the single largest federal investment in place-based innovation and workforce development in the past century. And then, in April, we released a new funding opportunity for the second round of NSF Engines. In response, we received nearly 300 letters of intent spanning every U.S. state and territory, demonstrating broad, deep and persistent interest in the program. In November, NSF announced that 71 teams are advancing to the next round of competition, with more than 1,600 distinct organizations engaging in the coalitions that will work to submit full proposals by February 2025. 

Marking another first-ever milestone, the NSF Engines gathered at the "ROADMAP Summit" in Washington, D.C., in early December, joining with other teams leading the various historic place-based innovation investments supported by the federal government in recent years. Over 600 attendees, including 250 leaders from more than 120 emerging and growing technology clusters and innovation ecosystems, participated in 22 workshops and networking sessions during the two-day event. Participants discussed bolstering U.S. competitiveness in science and technology by catalyzing breakthroughs in key technologies and creating new pathways for all Americans to access good-quality, high-wage jobs. 

NSF TIP also announced new investments in several tracks of the NSF Convergence Accelerator and expanded the Convergence Accelerator program to 10 regions to more fully engage all Americans in the important work of innovation. Soon, Regional Anchors will invest in key technologies that address the needs of each region.

Regarding our focused investments in technology development and translation, this summer, we also published the inaugural TIP Roadmap to outline an investment strategy to ensure U.S. competitiveness for decades. This report is a strategic vision that will guide TIP's initial investment decisions in key technology areas, harness the nation's full geography of innovation and ensure federally funded science and technology appropriately benefits the U.S. TIP also initiated new investments in key technologies: the $24 million investment in the Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Practice emphasizes the role for privacy-enhancing technologies in a responsible and safe artificial intelligence future; two $40 million investments in Use-Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design and Advancing Cell-Free Systems Toward Increased Range of Use-Inspired Applications will advance the nation's leadership and security in biotechnology; and the $12 million Breaking the Low Latency Barrier for Verticals in Next-G Wireless Networks investment will identify and address critical architectural, technical and technological issues to provide the necessary low-latency performance that is required for the success of key emerging vertical industries. 

TIP also made 391 awards this past year to small businesses through America's Seed Fund, powered by NSF. Our funding is often the first money into these fledgling companies, giving them the seed capital to build prototypes or proofs of concept that will change entire industries or otherwise have huge impacts on people's lives. For instance, startups like Drone Amplified (NSF-2025871) make intelligence systems that enable multiple drones to operate in tandem, helping firefighters to control wildfires safely and efficiently during prescribed burn operations; Ecolectro (NSF-1951215) develops membrane technology that uses an alkaline exchange materials process to eliminate the need for rare earth materials like iridium or platinum; Reefgen (NSF-2111718) develops robotic "underwater tractors" that can be deployed to plant and maintain seagrass and corals; and Airloom Energy (NSF-1738495) develops low-cost and reliable next-generation wind turbines. But those are just a few of the many great stories. To see more updates about NSF-funded companies in the news, check out the news section of the website. If you are an entrepreneur with an early-stage startup with NSF research funding, be sure to check out the NSF SBIR/STTR Fast-Track Pilot funding opportunity that we launched this year to reduce the burden and accelerate our funding to companies.

We also expanded the reach of the NSF Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps™) program with the addition of three new NSF I-Corps Hubs. Altogether, 13 NSF I-Corps Hubs span 48 states and nearly 130 universities, providing experiential entrepreneurial training to researchers across all fields of science and engineering and working collaboratively to build and sustain an innovation ecosystem that engages all Americans throughout the U.S.

Finally, we have doubled down on our focused workforce development initiatives this past year. In collaboration with our colleagues in the NSF STEM Education Directorate, we made nearly 40 new awards to reskill and upskill the American workforce through the NSF Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies program, furthering our commitment to preparing Americans for high-quality, well-paying jobs. 

But these are just a few of the highlights of 2024. Over the past year, we have issued nearly 60 announcements about work across our three primary focus areas — accelerating technology development and translation, fostering regional innovation and economic growth, and preparing the American workforce for better-quality, higher-wage jobs. We described our new funding opportunities and investments, the new and continuing partnerships that TIP fostered over the year and new staff whom we recruited to the directorate. 

And we were grateful to have your participation and engagement in our investments, demonstrating the continued interest and excitement for use-inspired and translational research. Over 23,000 of you registered for over 130 informational webinars and question-and-answer sessions hosted by TIP staff throughout the year. 

As we look to the near future, we anticipate announcing new funding opportunities, including the successor to the Partnerships for Innovation program, an updated NSF Accelerating Research Translation funding opportunity, and new initiatives in support of test beds and translation accelerators. 

Before we close, we want to call out our TIP colleagues. The directorate's success has been — and continues to be — made possible by the sustained and dedicated work of each member of the TIP team. We extend our deep gratitude to our colleagues who have worked tirelessly to advance the mission of TIP and wish them some much-deserved time off over the next few weeks. 

The groundwork that we have laid together is helping accelerate key technologies and growing the workforce to advance U.S. competitiveness and security for decades to come. Thank you for your continued partnership in support of our mission and vision.

We wish you a safe, happy and restful holiday season — and we very much look forward to coming back recharged and ready to reengage in the new year.

Erwin Gianchandani
NSF assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships

Gracie Narcho
NSF deputy assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships