Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Cumulative No. Optioned or Licensed
Cumulative No. Patents Granted
Cumulative No. Startups
Begin Your Journey
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Disclose Your Innovation
Share your innovation prior to publication or other public dissemination to Venture Partners, the University's technology transfer office. Early disclosure ensures that intellectual property can be properly evaluated and protected before it enters the public domain. You can easily submit a disclosure online through the Sophia Inventor Partner.
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Get Started: Intellectual Property 101Ìý
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Disclose an Innovation: Access the Sophia Inventor Portal
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Discover the Market
Identify and talk with potential customers and evaluate the product-market fit of your innovation. This process will help you understand the real-world problems your technology can solve and the value it provides to different stakeholders. Venture Partners offers programs through NSF I-Corps that connect you with market research and customer discovery resources to guide this process.
- NSF I-Corps Hub West: Starting Blocks.ÌýWhether a researcher, entrepreneur, inventor or problem solver, the Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Workshop at Venture Partners at Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder can help you transform your concept into a successful venture.
- NSF I-Corps Hub West: Research2Market.Ìý(January, April, August, November) This four-week program helps teams through customer discovery and finding a market for their innovation. Specifically designed for researchers, entrepreneurs, inventors and problem solvers commercializing their innovations.
- (Spring, Fall) I-Corps prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory to increase the economic and societal impact of NSF-funded and other basic research projects.
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Decide Your Commercialization Route
Choose between licensing with industry or launching a startup. Venture Partners can help you evaluate which path best aligns with your goals, resources, and the stage of your innovation. Factors such as market size, development needs, and your desired level of involvement often guide this decision.
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EMBARK Deep Tech Startup Creator. For Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØresearchers, inventors, and creators who are not interested in starting a company themselves with their innovation, EMBARK provides a powerful avenue for an entrepreneur to bring their technology to market and create real-world impact. Through EMBARK, Venture Partners recruits and matches experienced entrepreneurs with promising Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØinnovations, forming new startups that advance these technologies beyond the lab. The program provides business mentorship, market validation support, and access to early-stage funding to accelerate commercialization success.
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De-Risk Your Technology
Secure non-dilutive translational research and commercialization funding. These funds help bridge the gap between academic research and market-ready products by supporting prototype development, validation, and scalability. Venture Partners offers several internal and external funding opportunities, such as the Lab Venture Challenge and other proof-of-concept programs, to help demonstrate your technology’s commercial potential.
- SBIR/STTR.Ìý (Rolling Application Deadline). Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, America’s Seed Fund awards non-dilutive funding to develop your technology and chart a path toward commercialization. Participating Agencies: NSF, DOE, USDA, DOD, NASA, EPA, DOT, DHS, HHS, Department of Education, and Department of Commerce. Phase I: $50,000-275,000; Phase II: $750,000-$1.8M.
- NSF TTP-E.Ìý (Rolling Application Deadline) ($600,000) The NSF TTP-E track provides the opportunity to obtain an extension of the initial award period of a current NSF award for up to two years in order to offer investigators an opportunity to explore adventurous, high-risk, use-inspired research and initial translational activities as the starting point for translation that was not covered by the original research award.
- NSF TTP-T.Ìý) (September 16, 2025) ($1,200,000). The NSF TTP-T track starts with use-inspired research and initial translational activities and further matures the idea(s), iterates and improves the solution(s), and lowers the barrier(s) to effective translation of research from lab to practice.
- NSF TTP-P.Ìý (September 16, 2025) ($2,000,000). The NSF TTP-P track supports translational efforts that demand one or more partnerships for technology development and deployment. The NSF TTP-P track requires an NSF-Catalyzed Partnership with an organization that will assist in the translation to practice. In addition to the Principal Investigator (PI), NSF TTP-P proposals must include a co-PI or Senior/Key Personnel who is a member or employee of the NSF-Catalyzed Partner.
- DOE America-Made Challenges.ÌýÌý(Deadlines Vary).ÌýBrowse more than 100 American-Made Challenges to find prize, competition, or voucher details—including how to join to bring bold new possibilities and energy solutions to light. American-Made's open challenges represent active opportunities to ignite innovation, unleash curiosity, and explore the extraordinary with some of the brightest minds working in science, technology, and industry.
- Lab Venture Challenge.ÌýThrough LVC, top faculty, graduate student, and postdoc innovators from the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ, Denver and Colorado Springs compete for grants of up to $125,000. LVC supports projects that address a commercial need, have a clear path to a compelling market and have strong scientific support. These grants are funded by Venture Partners at Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) Advanced Industries Program.
- CatalyzeCU.ÌýCatalyze Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØis a summer-long startup accelerator program designed for Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder ventures created by students, faculty and staff. It combines world class mentorship, funding and a dedicated co-working space to help the most promising ventures from across campus reach escape velocity—without taking any equity.
- New Venture Challenge.ÌýThe New Venture Challenge (NVC) connects the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder campus with the Boulder community to develop and fund innovative ideas. Participants attend year-round events, network and collaborate with mentors to refine their ideas and form startup teams to pitch for funding.
- . A two-year program that helps scientists and engineers transition to founders by providing funding, mentorship, training, and a community to bring hard-tech innovations to market, all with no equity taken.
- . Offered by NREL under the DOE’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP), West Gate embeds innovators in lab settings for up to two years, pairing them with scientists and providing funding, technical support, and training to de-risk and scale core technologies.
- . Chevron Studio matches entrepreneurs with university and national lab technologies to support the commercialization of early-stage, lower-carbon innovations via technical assistance, field trials, and access to IP from those institutions.
- . IN2 accelerates deployment of energy and built-environment technologies by offering startups validation, pilot support, and access to NREL’s facilities and networks, helping bridge the “valley of death.â€
- A program of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability that funds and supports projects aimed at translating Stanford research into scalable technology, policy, and system solutions to urgent global sustainability challenges (e.g. food & agriculture, electricity/grid systems, greenhouse gas removal, water, etc.). Beyond grant funding, it provides coaching, resources, networking, and cross-disciplinary support to help projects scale with impact, speed, and equity in mind.
- . A regional incubator based in Colorado, Innosphere offers incubation, lab and office space, mentorship, commercialization training, and access to investor networks to help science- and technology-based startups grow.
The Center for Translational Research (CTR) is a campus-wide resource for both existing and aspiring university-originated startups seeking non-dilutive funding—including Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards—to translate their university inventions into a startup company. It provides support to university faculty, researchers and staff as well as non-university employees of startups utilizing university technology.Ìý
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Develop Partnerships
Build relationships, secure additional funding, and scale. Strategic partnerships with industry, investors, and government agencies can accelerate the development and deployment of your innovation. Venture Partners and Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder’s extensive network can help connect you to collaborators, pilot opportunities, and follow-on funding to bring your technology to real-world impact.
- ASCENT Deep Tech Accelerator.ÌýThe Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase brings together researchers, investors and community supporters to highlight innovative deep tech startups spinning out of the University of Colorado. Attendees will have a chance to see pitches from each of the Ascent 2025 cohort startups, followed by a networking happy hour to learn more.
- . Buff Gold Ventures is a venture capital firm that supports University of Colorado entrepreneurs to create transformative companies. Buff Gold Ventures provide Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A capital, follow-on capital and assist with syndication.
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- Destination Startup. Destination Startup brings groundbreaking startups built on novel discoveries from top national labs and universities together with investors from throughout North America to catalyze real-world impact. This showcase demonstrates a powerful way to invest in and get funding for innovative research and translate it into impactful business ventures.
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Other Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder I&E Programs, Policies and Resources
College of Engineering and Applied Science
Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder
- Real Estate Services: Private Use Space Request
Events & Workshops
Oct. 22-23, 2025
Oct. 27-30, 2025
Application Deadline Oct. 30, 2025