Scientific curiosity has long fueled discovery, propelled by persistent questions and unresolved challenges. Today, the pace of science and technology is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. This has reshaped the research landscape and opened discussions on how the funding models that support this work may also evolve.
On December 12, 2025, the National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) announced the Tech Labs Initiative. This proposed program represents a departure, albeit not a replacement, from the long-established practice of giving grants to individual researchers. Instead, it focuses on funding multidisciplinary teams outside of traditional academic institutions.
According to Erwin Gianchandani, the assistant director of NSF TIP, the goal behind Tech Labs is to fill in the gaps within the proverbial “valley of death,” a critical phase between a proof-of-concept in a lab and realizing its successful commercialization. The initiative will support teams by providing them with the structure, resources, and flexibility to overcome barriers to the commercialization of emerging technologies and fueling breakthroughs. Possible topic areas include quantum technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and biotechnology.
This initiative also joins parallel concepts such as focused research organizations, which undertake large research efforts with coordinated teams to create fundamental technologies and accelerate discovery, and organizations like the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which focuses on supporting research teams.
“It’s something that inspired this program,” said Joda Thongnopnua, the special advisor for the NSF TIP Directorate. He added that, “NSF has been [at] the forefront of really encouraging younger researchers to take pretty big swings at difficult problems…I think that this program is another tool in the toolkit to really focus on in a similar way as betting on teams.”
With this approach, Gianchandani and Thongnopnua also acknowledged that there is an opportunity to take on multidisciplinary research questions in a way that may be disincentivized in a more traditional academic environment. In addition, the initiative plans to move beyond traditional research outputs, such as publications, and instead place more emphasis on developing prototypes.
Since its announcement, Inna Vishik, a physicist at the University of California, Davis who studies quantum materials, said her initial reaction to the news was one of optimism. She added, “The initiative states that it wants to kind of bridge academia, industry, and national labs, which I think is very admirable.” Vishik added that the NSF is unique within the funding landscape for several reasons, particularly its openness to all scientific disciplines and its flexibility. She explained that if her research on one set of materials led her to discover something unexpected, the NSF would typically allow her to pursue that new direction—an approach she said is not always shared by other funding agencies. Vishik expressed hope that “this initiative kind of stays true to the unique niches that NSF occupies” and does not “cannibalize” the broad basic science funding that makes NSF unique.
Echoing those sentiments, Freddy Nguyen, a physician-scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that the NSF’s announcement was timely. Nguyen, who works at the intersection of translational research and healthcare startups, co-founded Nine Diagnostics, which uses AI-enabled carbon nanosensor technology. He had recent conversations with other academic leaders about the different aspects within the carbon nanotube technology space—whether in its use as a material or signal interpretation. “If [we] really want to push this to commercialization, there has to be a much more concerted effort within the basic science [side].”
He also emphasized the importance of engaging the broader community and stakeholders across academia, startups, and industry to advance promising technologies. “We can certainly use more of those types of resources,” said Nguyen. “It's an opportunity to provide and leverage new resources beyond funding…[and hopefully] attract a new pool of researchers and scientists.”
Along with the announcement, NSF TIP posted an accompanying request for information (RFI), which is open until January 20, 2026, seeking input from the broader community to further shape the program. This includes interested parties from the realm of academia, industry, nonprofit organizations, and more. Gianchandani remarked, “There seems to be a lot of excitement out there around what this model is trying to [achieve], the viability of this model, and thinking about how different types of organizations could potentially engage with the model.”
Both Gianchandani and Thongnopnua emphasized their excitement for the RFI responses and that it is a priority to be able to take that input and see how that can be transformed into a meaningful funding opportunity. They hope that this will also spur excitement among students and early career scientists. Likewise, researchers and entrepreneurs like Vishik and Nguyen are eager to see how this idea comes to fruition within the next year.
