Highlights
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UCF is leading the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) $20 million National Commercialization and Translation Institute (NCTI) initiative, a two-year pilot program designed to help promising federally funded technologies become successful companies.
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The effort validates decades of impact UCF has created with helping researchers take discoveries from the lab into the marketplace — and allows the university to help enhance economic vitality across America.
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Previously successful research commercialization efforts at the university include the UCF Business Incubation Program and three other NSF-funded programs: Accelerating Research Translation (ART), I-Corps and the Florida Semiconductor Engine.
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Led by Professor Ivan Garibay ’00MS ’04PhD, NCTI will support developing businesses under the guidance of technology, business and research experts, including College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Michael Georgiopoulos, and professors Thomas O’Neal ’96MS ’96MBA ’05PhD and Ron Piccolo.
A groundbreaking discovery in a university laboratory may solve a scientific problem but turning that discovery into a successful company is an entirely different challenge. Researchers must determine whether customers actually need their technology, develop a viable business model, attract investors, and build the expertise and infrastructure needed to compete in the marketplace. Even promising technologies can stall somewhere along that journey.
After decades of helping researchers bridge the gap between discovery and commercialization, UCF is now bringing that proven model to a national stage.
Small U.S. businesses based in a variety of technologies that are seeking support to scale their reach can learn more about NCTI here.
With a $20 million investment from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), UCF is leading the National Commercialization and Translation Institute (NCTI), a two-year pilot program designed to help late-stage federally funded technology companies make the difficult transition from validated technology to commercial success.
The effort has drawn support from more than 30 organizations across industry, academia, national laboratories and the innovation community. Samsung, Siemens, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris are a small sample of the industry leaders that submitted letters of support. Research and higher education institutions supporting the effort include UC Berkeley, the Florida High Tech Corridor, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory. Together, these organizations and others that will be brought into the mix represent the kind of national network NCTI aims to bring together to help promising technologies reach the marketplace.
How NCTI Will Support Small Businesses
Under the leadership of UCF’s experts, NCTI will build on that commercialization experience by studying companies that have progressed beyond the initial stages of research and development. Researchers will examine how different combinations of support, including capital investment, mentorship, training, prototyping and testing, and market validation, can most effectively accelerate commercialization.
“NCTI completes that pipeline rather than duplicating any part of it.” — Ivan Garibay, professor
UCF Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Ivan Garibay ’00MS ’04PhD, principal investigator for NCTI, will lead the institute. For more than 20 years, the UCF computer science alum has advanced research focused on modeling and simulating complex systems that combine social, technological, and economic factors. Through his previous positions at UCF, including serving as the Office of Research’s director of technology and innovation, Garibay has gained unique expertise on how to transform developments from the lab into real-world innovations.
Garibay says NCTI is designed to build upon existing federal research translation and commercialization programs by providing support at a later stage, when promising technologies have been developed but companies may still struggle to reach the market. NCTI also builds on another NSF effort Garibay has been leading at UCF since 2024, the Accelerating Research Translation program, which has strengthened internal processes at the university to enhance potential for developing viable business.
“NCTI completes that pipeline rather than duplicating any part of it,” Garibay says. “We coordinate the full continuum of federal resources, managing the handoffs from [the NSF] Innovation-Corps customer discovery through to commercialization support, so each company knows where it stands and what comes next.”
“Furthermore, the research study conducted in this effort will discover which interventions applied to enhance commercialization efforts of deep tech companies have the intended impact.” — Michael Georgiopoulos, CECS dean
Michael Georgiopoulos, dean of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science for over a decade, will also contribute expertise as a co-principal investigator for NCTI. Georgiopoulos is a seasoned researcher in electrical and computer engineering whose areas of interest include machine learning and neural networks. Georgiopoulos has also helped lead NSF-supported efforts focused on strengthening STEM education and student success — fueling a talent pipeline for future innovators and entrepreneurs.
“This is a great opportunity for UCF with its prior expertise with TIP (Technology, Innovation and Partnership) programs such as ART, I-Corps, Engines to bring together a national network of entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders to help deep-tech companies with proven technologies to successfully commercialize their efforts and attain the expected impact that their technologies are destined for,” Georgiopoulos says. “Furthermore, the research study conducted in this effort will discover which interventions applied to enhance commercialization efforts of deep tech companies have the intended impact.”
Enhancing a Commercialization Ecosystem
Over time, UCF has steadily expanded its efforts to help faculty researchers move discoveries beyond the laboratory, from establishing the UCF Business Incubation Program in 1999 to taking leadership roles in major economic-focused NSF initiatives.
Thomas O’Neal ’96MS ’96MBA ’05PhD, a professor of industrial engineering and management systems, has been involved in many of these efforts. He founded the UCF Business Incubation Program, whichTimemagazine recently named the No. 17 on its inaugural America’s Best Incubators and Accelerators 2026 — and the top ranked traditional business incubator in the country.
“The notion now is bringing all these disparate tools together to help an engineer or a scientist get the training, processes, and tools that they need to transfer that technology into something beneficial to society.” — Thomas O’Neal, professor
“The whole notion is to build a robust ecosystem at the University of Central Florida to help us get technology out of the laboratory and into the marketplace,” O’Neal says.O’Neal also serves as the co-principal investigator for UCF’s NSF Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) program, which launched at UCF in 2014 as the first NSF-sponsored economic effort at the university. Through the program, researchers undergo a structured customer-discovery process that helps them evaluate the market for their technology and ultimately reach what O’Neal describes as a “go or no-go” decision about pursuing commercialization.
“It is a formal process that helps engineers and scientists transfer their technology into viable business opportunities,” O’Neal says.
UCF is also strengthening the broader infrastructure surrounding research commercialization through NSF ART, which O’Neal is a co-principal investigator on.
“We were really siloed before,” O’Neal says. “The notion now is bringing all these disparate tools together to help an engineer or a scientist get the training, processes, and tools that they need to transfer that technology into something beneficial to society.”
Expanding Tech Focuses and Business Insights
That commercialization experience at UCF also extends to the Florida Semiconductor Engine, an NSF-funded initiative led by UCF Galloway Professor of Management Ron Piccolo, a co-principal investigator of NCTI.
“Some of the most critical factors include sufficient capital investment, clarity on customer need, business savvy and focused leaders, and the discipline to execute.” — Ron Piccolo, professor
“The Florida Semiconductor Engine is charged with translating and commercializing promising technologies in the semiconductor domain,” Piccolo says. “I am hopeful that we can support similar efforts in adjacent technologies. … NCTI extends the university’s portfolio of programs that support entrepreneurship, technology development and market readiness.”
As an NCTI co-principal investigator, Piccolo will draw on his experience as a business scholar to help develop and execute the institute’s research plan. His work with the Florida Semiconductor Engine will also help connect NCTI with a national network of NSF Engines spanning critical technology areas, including energy, textiles, quantum computing, critical materials, semiconductors and natural resources.
Determining why some promising technologies become viable companies while others do not will be a central part of NCTI’s research.
Ready to Grow Your Business?
NCTI supports a select group of NSF-funded U.S. small businesses (NSF-funded SBIR and STTTR Phase II and Phase IIB companies) at the later stages of deep technology research and development — such as AI, biotechnology, quantum computing and other fields — through funding, mentoring and connections, paired with individualized support that includes diagnostic triage, a commercialization plan, dedicated mentor teams and curated introductions to customers, investors, industry and national laboratories.
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