NC State to Serve as Clemson’s Mentor Institution for New NSF ART Program

NC State University has been chosen as Clemson University’s mentor for a brand-new program launched by the National Science Foundation to address “a long-standing gap between academic research and the products, services and solutions Americans need,” the NSF announced.

NC State will provide Clemson with research-translation training and support and help foster a campuswide culture for research translation.

“We look forward to working closely with Clemson to help bolster research commercialization across the Carolinas,” said Kultaran Chohan, acting assistant vice chancellor for research commercialization and executive director of the Office of Research Commercialization at NC State. “As a fellow land-grant university, we know how crucial commercialization — moving innovations and discoveries from the lab to the marketplace for the benefit of the public — is to our common goals and mission.” 

Clemson was one of only 18 academic institutions nationwide to secure part of the more than $100 million that the NSF granted as part of its first-ever Accelerating Research Translation (ART) investment. 

Each ART grantee, according to an NSF news release, was partnered with a “mentoring institution of higher education that already has a robust ecosystem for translational research” — or, in other words, institutions like NC State, where we have proven mechanisms in place to turn academic discoveries into tangible, real-world benefits.

Consistently ranked among the top five U.S. universities without medical schools for licensing and startup activity, NC State is currently second in the nation for active licenses and options. To date, over 200 startup companies have been launched based on NC State intellectual property.

“We’ve earned a reputation as one of the top universities in the country for research commercialization, and being chosen as an ART program mentoring institution clearly shows that,” Chohan said.

Clemson is slated to receive $6 million over four years to anchor an ambitious suite of programs collectively termed STRIDE — which stands for Stimulating Translation of Research via Intentional Development and Ecosystem.

“We are excited to join forces with NC State as they serve as mentors, providing invaluable research-translation training and support,” STRIDE Executive Director K.C. Wang said in Clemson’s news release about the ART funding.

Launched by NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate, the ART program seeks to build capacity and infrastructure for translational research at U.S. institutions of higher education. The program is authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act.