Turning Research Into Jobs, Startups and Industry Partnerships: New NSF Grant Powers up Portland State

Portland State University has been awarded a $5.9 million National Science Foundation Accelerating Research Translation (ART) grant to accelerate the translation of PSU research from the lab into companies, products and partnerships that strengthen the Portland-metro and Oregon economies.

The three-year award - PSU's largest NSF grant to date - arrives as the university's research enterprise reaches new heights, with research expenditures rising from $74 million in fiscal year 2024 to $91 million in 2025 in fields with strong commercial potential, including artificial intelligence and computational intelligence, semiconductors and transportation and infrastructure. The ART grant is designed to close the gap between that research strength and the region's need for new companies, traded-sector jobs and industry investment.

"PSU's motto is 'Let Knowledge Serve the City,' and this award puts that commitment to work for our regional economy," said Ann Cudd, president of Portland State University. "Our researchers are producing discoveries with real commercial and civic value. This investment helps us turn more of that work into Oregon companies, Oregon jobs and Oregon solutions."

Propel PSU at the center of regional economic development

The grant builds on the strength of Propel PSU, the university division that unifies PSU's innovation, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization functions under a single roof and a single leader. Propel PSU is located in a newly renovated building at the heart of Portland's entrepreneurship ecosystem and includes:

• The Portland State Business Accelerator, which has incubated more than 140 community startups across diverse sectors.
• The Oregon AI Accelerator, soon to accept its second cohort of 20 companies using AI to build products across industry sectors.
• PSU's Innovation and Intellectual Property department serves as the university's technology transfer office.
• PSU's Center for Entrepreneurship delivers entrepreneurship education to students both at PSU and statewide.
• The Portland Metro Region Innovation Hub, one of nine regional Innovation Hubs funded through a statewide Business Oregon program, which connects more than 400 traded-sector entrepreneurs to regional resources annually.

"We have built an array of economic-development infrastructure in Propel PSU, and we know PSU has a research portfolio that is ready to translate," said Joseph Janda, assistant vice president for Innovation and principal investigator on the award. "This award lets us connect that infrastructure to PSU projects deliberately and with depth, so that more PSU discoveries become products, licenses, startups and industry partnerships that benefit Portland and the state."

How the work drives economic impact

The project advances through three coordinated strategies:

• Cultivate builds a campus culture that identifies and rewards translational research, led by a network of faculty ART Ambassadors and supported by revisions to promotion and tenure guidelines.
• Elevate develops promising discoveries through internal seed grants, expanded evaluation capacity and a graduate and postdoctoral training program that prepares the next generation of innovation talent.
• Accelerate moves startups and projects toward customers, revenue and investment through intensive coaching at the Portland State Business Accelerator and dedicated navigation to the region's network of more than 160 capital providers, industry partners and support organizations.

Three inaugural seed projects illustrate the breadth of PSU's pipeline and its alignment with regional industry strengths:

• A resource-efficient single-photon LiDAR system developed with sensor manufacturers for robotics and mobile applications
• A non-invasive, wearable glucose sensor validated with Oregon Health & Science University and an industry partner
• A hand-held satellite ground station with both commercial and STEM-education applications, built on PSU's OreSat satellite program

Oregon State University, a national leader in research commercialization, will serve as PSU's mentor institution.

The ART Program, supported by the NSF TIP Directorate, seeks to advance the U.S. scientific and economic leadership by building capacity and increasing the number of robust translational research ecosystems in Institutions of Higher Education that span across the full geography of our nation.

The ART grant operationalizes the fourth strategic imperative of Future in Focus, to drive Portland's economic, social, and cultural resurgence by building research partnerships with regional industries, entrepreneurs and public agencies and by positioning PSU as the gateway to Portland for talent and opportunity.