Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2025-07

$1M Moonshot Competition

Pillar VC's $1M Moonshot Competition invites all students and faculty to apply to receive up to $1M in the form of an uncapped SAFE for your startup or idea.  Pillar VC launched this competition because we believe many of the most transformative ideas across software, hardware, AI, robotics, climate, biotech, and more are forming inside research labs, MBA programs, and undergraduate dorm rooms.  For those based in Boston, you can register for our Harvard (2/25) or MIT (2/26) launch party! No worries if you aren't affiliated with either school. Learn more and apply by Sunday, March 2nd: 

https://moonshot.pillar.vc/

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USPTO launches new Open Data Portal for easy, quick access to data

As we modernize our systems and improve customer experience, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched our new Open Data Portal (ODP) on February 12. In our effort to deliver accessible, open data, this site provides easy access to relevant data sets in a user-friendly site that combines several services into one. Whether you’re an experienced researcher, an entrepreneur, or a student, you can quickly access, customize, and extract USPTO data in and from this site.  

Support resources are available, including information on getting started with Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and more. 

ODP will replace both the Patent Examination Data System (PEDs) and the Bulk Data Storage System (BDSS). PEDS will be available for at least 30 days after ODP’s launch, and BDSS will be available at least 60 days post launch. More information and specific dates on these retirements will be shared as they become available. 

If you’d like to participate in an upcoming feedback session or have questions, please email data@uspto.gov. You can get the latest updates, including details on events related to this topic, by subscribing to receive email updates at our Subscription Center. 

NSF: Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences

NIH: Investigator Gateway Awards for Collaborative T1D Research (R03)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 INnovations in Qubit Science for Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing (INQS) Program

Department of Energy: 2025 Exploratory Research for Extreme-Scale Science

NASA: ROSES 2024: A.52 Advanced Component Technology

National Endowment of Humanities: Humanities Initiatives

GOP lawmakers seek industry input on crafting US-first AI regulatory regime: As President Donald Trump works to develop a new national artificial intelligence action plan, Republican lawmakers are signaling the importance of differentiating between public-facing AI tools and those designed to advance the U.S. economy. During a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade hearing on Wednesday, multiple GOP members said that the Trump administration needs to embrace a regulatory framework that encourages the use of AI and other innovative technologies across the domestic manufacturing industry so that the U.S. can maintain its competitive edge over China and other rival nations.  While AI tools from companies like OpenAI and Chinese startup DeepSeek have drawn significant attention for their advanced capabilities, these publicly available technologies operate differently than many of those utilized by the private sector manufacturers. Industry representatives at the hearing said that manufacturing-focused AI tools fulfill specific needs and use controlled, often proprietary data to bolster workforce-related tasks and remove productivity barriers.  Republican lawmakers said those differences in AI use need to be considered as future policies are enacted. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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DARPA taps Microsoft, PsiQuantum for scalable quantum computer research:  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a new partnership Thursday working within the agency’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing program within the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, a program centered around identifying the technology that could bring a fault-tolerant — meaning that it arrives at its calculations without unexpected mistakes — quantum computer to life within the next few years.  DARPA selected Microsoft and PsiQuantum, a startup focused on leveraging photonics and semiconductors to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer, to move into the validation and co-design phase of that program to verify their proposed concepts. More information is posted on the NextGov website.