NJIT Research Newsletter includes recent awards, and announcements of research related seminars, webinars, national and federal research news related to research funding, and Grant Opportunity Alerts (with links to sections). The Newsletter is posted on the NJIT Research Website https://research.njit.edu/funding-opportunities.
Special Announcements
Call For Proposals
NJIT Center for Translational Research (CTR)
Funded by the U.S. NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Program
2025 Innovation Pitch Competition
Prize: $100,000 TITA-Advanced Seed Grant
and
2026 Technology Innovation Translation and Acceleration (TITA) Seed Grant
Up to four $75,000 TITA Seed Grants
TITA Program Proposer Information Session:
Wednesday, September 10, 2025: 11.00.00 AM – 1.00 PM; Eberhardt Hall Room 112
(light lunch will be served)
Please RSVP to attend the information by filling out this form by September 5, 2025.
Total 2026 Available TITA Seed Grant Program Funding: $400,000
TITA External Advisory Board (EAB)
NJIT Center for Translational Research (CTR) and Technology Innovation Translation Acceleration (TITA) Seed Grant Program
The NJIT Center for Translational Research (CTR) funded by U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program of the Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) directorate and institutional strategic investment plan serves as a hub to promote and facilitate translational research through workshops, training and networking opportunities that help students, faculty and other stakeholders develop innovation partnerships for technology validation and commercialization. In alignment with the NJIT 2030 Strategic Plan – Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Priority, the NJIT CTR focuses on the following objectives:
- Building institutional capacity and infrastructure for successful translational research and innovation activities.
- Funding and supporting translational research seed projects and developing innovation partnerships and commercialization pathways to further enhance NJIT’s Research, Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (RITE) ecosystem for tangible societal and economic impact.
- Creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral and faculty researchers to learn roadmaps for technology research and innovation translation through workshops, internships and mentoring programs towards addressing market and societal needs.
The NJIT Technology Innovation Translation Acceleration (TITA) Seed Grant program continues to increase awareness of the potential commercial benefits at earlier stages of the translation and market validation process and allow researchers and stakeholders to collaborate for entrepreneurial success. It helps faculty innovators to submit competitive translational research proposals to external grant funding opportunities.
Two Funding Opportunities Competitions
There are two paths for seed grant funding opportunities available this year to support technology innovation translation projects.
1. Advanced TITA (Technology Innovation Translation Acceleration) Seed Grants with $100,000 Innovation Pitch Competition Award: This is a direct path to innovation pitch competition for those who are already at TRL - 4 or above and have a start-up or tech transfer agreement. This path is open to all previous TITA/CERT seed grant awardees.
Application process: Submit 5-page white paper following the required format (please see below for details). After the review by the TITA External Advisory Board, top 5 applicants will be invited to compete for $100,000 TITA-Advance Grant.
2. Regular TITA Seed Grants of $75,000 per Project: The usual path of the TITA seed grant of $75,000 each with an external partner.
Application process: The applicants should follow a multi-stage submission following the format instructions and review process as outlined below – Stage -1: 2-page Concept Paper, Stage -2: 5-Page White Paper, Stage -3: Full Proposal and Stage -4: Live Pitch Presentation. The path does not require a start-up or tech transfer agreement at the time of proposal submission.
_________________________
The NSF I-Corps Northeast Hub
The NSF I-Corps Northeast Hub provides training and grants to science and engineering researchers to support team-based customer discovery aimed at exploring the viability and societal impact of scientific and technological discoveries. Our four-session Propelus program helps researchers explore the customer perspective to learn how a discovery or innovation can become the basis of a successful startup or venture. To sign up for Propelus, use the link here.
Have a great technology concept?
Need funds to explore the commercialization pathways for your Deep-Tech Innovation?
Apply for an I-Corps Northeast Hub Mini-Grant
We will provide specialized training and stipends of up to $1,500 to teams interested in exploring the commercial viability of their ideas for products and businesses that are based on their University-based intellectual property. Do you have an exciting technology that works in the lab? Would you like help to start a company to commercialize the technology? Do you want to test a prototype in the real-world environment? Interested in having your research make a societal impact?
I-Corps mini grants are available to teams made up NJIT students and faculty. Each team must have:
- an entrepreneurial lead (typically an NJIT undergraduate or graduate student)
- an technical lead researcher/advisor (faculty member)
- a business mentor with significant entrepreneurial business experience.
The NJIT I-Corps Program Manager (Dr. Michael Ehrlich) will provide assistance to complete teams as necessary. You must have at least 2 teams members identified to apply. All team members must be able to participate for the project duration.
For questions, please contact Dr. Michael Ehrlich – NJIT School of Management and Director of the NJ Innovation Acceleration Center or Imane Djemil -- NJIT I-Corps Program Manager - icorps@njit.edu
If you're ready to apply: Go to our website and sign up here
__________________________
Recent NJIT Non-Provisional Patent Applications (Filed)
Patent Title: ADDRESSABLE MICROFLUIDIC SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLED FLUID FLOW, DIFFUSION, AND MICRO-ORGANISM BEHAVIOR
NJIT Ref No.: 24-009
Inventor(s): Voronov, Roman / Chapek, Sergei / Nguyen, Huu Anh Minh
Patent Application Status: Filed Non-Provisional Patent Application
Patent Application Filing Date: 8/25/2025
Application Filing No.: 19/309,238
Technology Licensing Status: Available
_____________________________
Recent NJIT PCT Patent Applications (Filed)
Patent Title: System and Method for Private Generation of Code
NJIT Ref No.: 25-002
Inventor(s): Khalil, Issa / Phan, Hai / Nguyen, Khoa / Ton, Khiem / Jin, Ruoming / Thai, My
Patent Application Status: Filed PCT Patent Application
Patent Application Filing Date: 8/18/2025
Application Filing No.: PCT/US2025/042391
Technology Licensing Status: Available, Jointly Owned
Grant Opportunity Alerts
NSF: NSF STEM K-12 (STEM K-12); Computer and Information Science and Engineering: Future Computing Research (Future CoRe); Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science (SCH)
NIH: Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (R01); Forecast: BRAIN Initiative: Integrative Team-Research BRAIN Circuits Program - iTeamBCP (RM1); Forecast: NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5)
Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Broad Agency Announcement; Air Force Fiscal Year 2026 Young Investigator Program (YIP)
Department of Energy: Magnetic Acceleration Generating New Innovations and Tactical Outcomes (MAGNITO)
Recent Research Grant and Contract Awards
In the News
Quantum computers have an isolation problem and DARPA wants to solve it: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for companies to build the hardware and software quantum computers need to communicate and work together. Most quantum computers are standalone systems and the connections that exist rely on quantum teleportation, which has limitations and introduces errors.
DARPA is proposing a multiple award contract to be called HARQ, for Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum. The idea is that there are multiple types of quantum computers that rely on different qubit technologies such as superconducting qubits or photonic qubits. Quantum computers can also have different types of processors and different quantum models. Building large quantum computers with more than 1,000 logical qubits is prohibitively expensive. Relying on a homogeneous qubit infrastructure limits the types of problems a quantum computer can work on, according to solicitation documents. More information is posted on the NextGov website.
_______________________________
US and EU agree to trade framework prioritizing secure chip sales: The European Union and the U.S. announced on Thursday that they have finalized trade negotiations on a reciprocal framework, ensuring that tariffs on semiconductors from the EU will be capped at 15% and affirming that the EU will match U.S. security requirements to access sensitive technologies. Detailed in a joint statement, the EU and U.S. trade framework — called the Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade — solidifies several commitments to sharing safe access to advanced AI chips, among other provisions. This includes purchasing $40 billion worth of U.S.-made AI chips for European computing centers, under the condition that EU partners avoid any technology leakage to countries of concern. EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič said that ensuring the EU has access to advanced AI computing chips was one of the first items he broached with U.S. trade officials in negotiating updates to the US-EU Framework Agreement. More information is posted on the NextGov website.
Webinars and Events
Research Grant Opportunities:
National Science Foundation
National Institutes of Health
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
Proposal Submission and Streamlyne Information
The NJIT Proposal Submission Guidelines and Policy provides the expected institutional timeline for proposal submission. Streamlyne User Manuals are posted on https://research.njit.edu/streamlyne. For contact information on proposal submission, pre-award services and post-award grant management, please visit research website https://research.njit.edu/researchers and https://research.njit.edu/contact.