42 U.S.C. § 19103 — Activities

Subject to available funding, the Director must fulfill the Directorate's purposes from section 19102 of this title by making awards that: support big advances in use-inspired and translational research and technology development, using different funding models at different scales, including convergence accelerators and projects built around specific technology goals; encourage turning research into real innovations, processes, and products — by getting researchers to work on topics tied to societal, national, and geostrategic challenges, including teaching them to engage with end users and the public; by finding new ways to reduce barriers to technology transfer, including intellectual property arrangements between academia, industry, nonprofits, and venture capital, and approaches for public-benefit uses that may not fit traditional commercialization; and by building partnerships that connect researchers and their work to businesses, accelerators, and incubators that help turn research into prototypes, entrepreneurship training, and new companies; build mutually beneficial research and technology partnerships among colleges — including historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal Colleges, minority-serving institutions, emerging research institutions, and EPSCoR institutions — and nonprofits, labor organizations, businesses, federal and state agencies, local and Tribal governments, civil society groups, other Foundation directorates, national labs, field stations, marine labs, and, where appropriate, international partners and binational research funds, though never with foreign entities of concern; partner with other Foundation directorates and offices on specific projects, including: pursuing basic questions about nature, people, and physical phenomena that could advance the challenges and key technology areas in section 19107 of this title; studying how technologies in those challenges and focus areas are designed (including their human interfaces), how safe and secure they are, how they operate and deploy, and their social and ethical effects — including technology that helps workers and how specific innovations affect domestic jobs and fair opportunity; and helping build a domestic workforce that can advance, use, and adapt to these key technology areas; build research capacity and infrastructure for use-inspired and translational research at colleges across the country, including funding the administrative work needed to develop, run, integrate, deploy, and share innovation; support education, mentoring, and training for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers — both to advance this kind of research and to address workforce needs — through scholarships, fellowships, and traineeships; and identify the social, behavioral, and economic forces and effects behind technological innovations that could advance the challenges and key technology areas under section 19107 of this title.