Harvard Office of Technology Development Physical Sciences and Engineering Accelerator: Pre-Proposal Deadline

Date: 

Monday, November 1, 2021, 6:00pm


Harvard Office of Technology Development Physical Sciences and Engineering Accelerator
Pre-Proposal Deadline: November 1, 2021 by 6 PM
Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): December 17, 2021 by 6 PM
Award Amount: $50,000-$100,000

The Office of Technology Development (OTD) is now accepting pre-proposals for the Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Accelerator. The PSE Accelerator is designed to support Harvard's innovative physical science research by extending preliminary observations, establishing a solid proof of concept, scaling up a product or process, and generating (or enhancing) intellectual property positions. This program provides critical financial support, guidance, and resources to enable focused development of early-stage technologies with commercial potential. Proposals need to be directed towards one or more aspects of the applied sciences, physical sciences, computer software or engineering.

The intent of the PSE Accelerator is to advance research projects towards one of the following value-creating inflection points:

  • Formation of a startup company
  • Licensing the technology to an established company
  • Securing follow-on industrial funding to support continued research and development

In this RFP, the OTD is especially seeking projects with strong potential to launch a start-up company. Such projects, while faculty-led, will benefit from having a postdoc or final-year PhD student working on the project who is interested in being a founding member of the startup team. Consideration will also be given to projects with other development goals such as licensing the technology to an existing company, or securing follow-on industrial funding for continued R&D. Questions may be directed to Alan Gordon in the Office of Technology Development at alan_gordon@harvard.edu.