The Catalyst Fund provides grants of $25,000 to $75,000 to qualifying UO faculty and staff members to cover the direct costs of translational research projects. Translational research involves transforming fundamental research or early-stage innovations into more commercially viable products and services or even a new business.

Successful translational research efforts can give rise to companies such as NemaMetrix, a UO spinoff that grew out of research in the laboratory of Shawn Lockery, a professor in the Department of Biology.

Professor Lockery was one of the first recipients of translational research funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. NemaMetrix’s ScreenChip System is based on Lockery’s original “worm chip” device and can be used for screening drugs and developing new disease therapeutics.

Applications for the Catalyst Fund are open on a rolling basis to all faculty researchers with a disclosed innovation. The first step in the application process is to share the basic details of your innovation with Innovation Partners. You can do this by proposing to work on a previously disclosed innovation or by disclosing a new innovation online via our Innovation Portal. 

Visit the Catalyst Fund website to apply or to learn more about eligibility.