NSF and Germany's Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation join forces to accelerate innovations

The transatlantic partnership aims to propel innovative technology translation, lay the foundation for new industries and positively impact people's lives in the U.S. and Europe

The U.S. National Science Foundation, through its Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP), announced a partnership with the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) to accelerate breakthrough innovations in key technology areas.

Leaders from NSF TIP and SPRIND signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during the fifth-anniversary event of SPRIND's establishment in Leipzig, Germany. The MOU unlocks possibilities for TIP and SPRIND to work together to accelerate timelines for selecting and conducting translational research on an international scale. Utilizing the SPRIND Challenge model, NSF and SPRIND jointly plan to bring the U.S. and European innovation ecosystems closer to enable unconventional approaches to solving substantial societal problems and translate discoveries into tangible applications and products.

This partnership adds an important new dimension to NSF's longstanding relationship with Germany while exemplifying the role that TIP plays in strengthening NSF's mission to advance research and workforce development. NSF has offered co-funding opportunities with Germanyfor many years and invested in bottom-up U.S.-Germany collaboration on foundational and use-inspired research.

"Our historic partnership with SPRIND offers a transformative new approach to accelerating the development and translation of breakthrough technologies for maximum national, societal and geostrategic impacts," said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for TIP. "The U.S. and Germany hold shared science and engineering values like academic freedom, openness, transparency and accountability. By working together, the U.S. and Germany can tap into talent and facilities on both sides of the Atlantic and benefit from different and complementary markets, policy environments and ways of thinking. Specifically, by sharing best practices in funding disruptive science and working together in predefined topic areas, our partnership with SPRIND will help us find new ways to advance TIP's mission as codified in the 'CHIPS and Science Act of 2022' and ultimately contribute to the U.S. economy."

"SPRIND's mission is to bridge the 'Valley of Death' of basic research to commercial viability. Inspired by DARPA and adapted to our mission to help innovators until the project can stand on its own, we developed comprehensive tools to finance new technologies at a stage when private investors are not yet ready to take on the financial risk," said Rafael Laguna, founding director of SPRIND. "We are looking forward to joining forces with NSF to propel innovations that have the potential to significantly improve our lives and lay the foundations for new industries."

SPRIND was launched by the German federal government in December 2019 to pioneer new ways of funding and supporting teams to create breakthrough innovations that are radically different, commercially successful and impactful on society in the near term - in many ways, compatible with the mission for TIP as chartered by the U.S. Congress in the "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022." SPRIND moves with speed and agility not typically seen in government agencies and attracts a broader audience of international innovators to apply.

SPRIND Challenges are innovative competitions where participating teams receive swift financial support to develop solutions for major modern societal and technological challenges. In the SPRIND Challenges, teams compete in a multistage format. At the end of each stage, the teams' work is evaluated, and only the best advance in the competition and receive additional financial support to further develop their ideas.

Since 2021, SPRIND has successfully launched nine innovation competitions across various sectors, including life sciences, computing and clean tech. Through this partnership, NSF will learn more about SPRIND's review and selection processes, and together, NSF and SPRIND will apply them to benefit innovation ecosystems in both the U.S. and Europe.

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About TIP

TIP harnesses the nation's vast and diverse talent pool to accelerate critical and emerging technologies and address pressing societal and economic challenges. The directorate comprises three primary focus areas: fostering innovation and technology ecosystems, establishing translation pathways and partnering across sectors to improve U.S. competitiveness, grow the U.S. economy and engage and train a diverse workforce for future, high-wage jobs. For more information about TIP, visit new.nsf.gov/tip/latest.

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