Technology Maturation Awards
Technology Maturation Awards (TMAs) are designed to help promising but yet unlicensed technologies attract external partners. TMAs support efforts to demonstrate the commercial potential of science and engineering innovations through proof-of-concept, prototyping, technology development and/or scale-up work. Successful TMA projects generate the validation necessary to attract experienced licensees.
TMA Guidelines:
- Type of award: Grant or continuing grant
- Estimated number of awards: The Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) may fund two (2) awards this round. Projects may receive up to $50,000 for a term of 6-12 months per award.
- Eligibility: Proposals may be submitted by GW faculty inventors with a GW-owned invention available for licensing (optioned inventions are eligible). Applicants with a new idea must disclose it to TCO before submitting a TMA proposal.
- Limit on number of proposals per PI or Co-PI: Two (2)
- Deadline: Likely in October 2025.
- Applicants that have completed a two-week Lean Startup Short Course for the technology with the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship will be preferred. Please reference the course and learnings in your proposal.
Read about recent TMA-funded projects:
A stepping stone to success
After Ekundayo Shittu won a TMA in 2023, he won a Partnerships for Innovation grant from NSF. Then his graduate student and co-inventor founded Opal HTM. Opal HTM then won a phase I STTR grant. With a subaward to GW, patent licensing status, and a proposal for additional development, Shittu won the first $100,000 SBIR Matching Fund award from TCO. Opal HTM is advancing to the market.