Request for Information: NSF Tech Labs Launchpad U.S. National Science Foundation | Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships

The U.S. National Science Foundation's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) seeks input from experienced organizations to inform the agency’s development of an NSF Tech Labs Launchpad—one or more effort(s) to accelerate the launch and success of NSF Tech Labs teams. NSF is interested in hearing from organizations with expertise in supporting focused research or development organizations, independent labs, deep tech startups, or other non-traditional scientific ventures.

NSF is not announcing any choice of instrument, solicitation, or request for proposal at this stage. This RFI is solely for information‑gathering and planning purposes. NSF will use the responses to inform its selection of an appropriate instrument [e.g., a FAR‑based procurement or an Other Transaction (OT)]. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to respond. Submissions will help guide NSF’s decision and may be used to identify the competitive pool should NSF choose to use OT authority. Providing feedback does not create any obligation to submit a future proposal.

I. Program Description

A. Summary NSF TIP is interested in exploring both a single-performer launch organization model and an ecosystem/network model in which multiple support organizations with complementary specializations serve the portfolio (both collectively referred to as “Launchpad” hereafter), with NSF Tech Labs teams choosing among them based on their specific needs. The Launchpad will provide options for tailored, high-touch support to teams selected for the NSF Tech Labs initiative a new effort to launch and scale a new generation of transformative independent research and development organizations tackling high-priority technical challenges, bottlenecks, and opportunities.

Launching and scaling an independent research organization is among the most operationally complex challenges a team of scientists and technologists can undertake, and its difficulty extends beyond the technical work itself. To address this, NSF seeks to launch or enable options for a Launchpad that is designed to meet the teams where they are: providing hands-on strategic, operational, and organizational support to ensure that founding teams made up of frontier technical and scientific talent are fully positioned to successfully lead an organization capable of achieving ambitious technical objectives. The Launchpad will be co-designed between the selected performer(s) and NSF Tech Labs initiative staff to ensure it meets the evolving needs of the portfolio.

The purpose of this RFI is to both gather input on the design of that Launchpad and begin a competitive selection process for one or more performers to provide these services.

B. Rationale Based on its experience providing support to NSF awardees (including most recently through its NSF Builder Platform for the NSF Regional Innovation Engines), NSF understands that support beyond capital is essential to success. The real work of launching a frontier research organization requires dedicated technical and infrastructure support from people who understand what it takes: entrepreneurial scientists who have built organizations, navigated governance challenges, recognized nascent technological and market opportunities, hired top technical talent under competitive market conditions, structured complex intellectual property (IP) agreements, and helped founders make the hardest decisions in uncertain environments.

The work ahead for each NSF Tech Labs team, which may include transitioning from academia or industry to launch an independent research organization, is difficult for reasons that extend well beyond their already ambitious technical challenges. Without options for pre-existing supports, teams may face an operational “cold start” problem: standing up a new entity, establishing governance, signing award agreements, receiving funds, hiring staff, procuring equipment, securing facilities, and negotiating IP rights—all while simultaneously trying to maintain scientific momentum at the outset.

Teams with strong operational and organizational support can move faster, attract better aligned talent and partners, navigate pivots more effectively and deliver greater scientific and technical impact. The Launchpad is designed to provide that advantage to all NSF Tech Labs teams, or at least to those that opt in, during both the Phase 0 preparation period and the Phase 1 execution period.

NSF is therefore seeking one or more organizations with the operational nimbleness, entrepreneurial capacity, and hands-on experience with a variety of independent research organizational models—including focused research and/or development organizations, university lab spin-outs, industry labs, and deep-tech startups—to design and deliver the technical assistance, incubation services, and peer community infrastructure that will accelerate the successful launch and sustained performance of NSF Tech Labs.

C. Scope of Services NSF envisions that a Launchpad provider could:

• Prepare Phase 0 teams to quickly launch independent organizations with turn-key operational infrastructure, avoiding the “cold start” problem by providing fiscal sponsorship with back-office supports (e.g., human resources, payroll, basic legal services, insurance, information technology) and (where needed) assistance with identifying appropriate facilities and procuring necessary capital equipment.

• Provide tailored, one-on-one support structures for each NSF Tech Labs team, adapted to their stage of development, organizational model, and technical foci.

• Support Phase 0 teams with planning and due diligence as they assemble strategic and governance plans, refine their technical R&D vision, set ambitious technical milestones, and prepare full Phase 1 applications to submit to NSF.

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• Offer continued tailored support to Phase 1 teams who elect to continue working with the Launchpad, with portable funding provided through NSF Tech Labs teams’ own budgets to ensure Phase 1 teams can select a support model that suits their needs.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to NSF Tech Labs leadership teams throughout their organizational development by providing a mix of in-house and external executive coaching, technical expertise, entrepreneurs-in-residence advice, and other tailored mentorship resources.

• Build a robust peer-to-peer network and community of practice across the full NSF Tech Labs portfolio, encompassing all program phases and organizational maturity levels, potentially including through in-person events, regular webinars, and asynchronous technology platforms to facilitate ongoing information flow and learning (e.g., sharing templates and other resources).

Supports will be delivered through a mix of virtual, hybrid, and in-person services/modes.

The Launchpad will be co-designed through active collaboration between the selected performer(s) and NSF Tech Labs program staff. NSF anticipates that the Launchpad will serve up to 15 Phase 0 NSF Tech Labs teams and up to 5 Phase 1 NSF Tech Labs teams (refer to the NSF Tech Labs RFI for details on the initiative structure and phase definitions). Team counts are subject to change as NSF finalizes the NSF Tech Labs program design.

NSF is not seeking a technology-first platform, a standalone website, a holding company that outsources substantial portions of its work to contractors, a technical demonstration tool, nor a prospective NSF Tech Labs team. The focus of this effort is on experienced organizations that help NSF Tech Labs teams—in high-touch, one-on-one, and cohort-based ways—build high-performing independent research organizations.

D. Period of Performance NSF anticipates an initial commitment of up to three years. NSF may select one or more performers, including organizations that specialize in complementary service areas and wish to form a coalition to provide a comprehensive suite of services.

II. Strategic Objectives and Performance Areas The Launchpad will pursue the following strategic objectives. NSF provides significant flexibility to respondents in choosing how to structure proposed activities within each area; the final scope and prioritization of specific offerings will be co-developed with NSF Tech Labs program staff.

Administrative and Organizational Support

• Provide a fiscal sponsorship, incubation model, or other operational infrastructure for

Phase 0 teams to quickly stand up as functional organizations—including human resources, payroll, basic legal services, insurance, information technology, and more—so that NSF Tech Labs leadership can move from concept to onboarding hires in weeks rather than months.

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• Help NSF Tech Labs teams not pursuing a turn-key approach (or otherwise being incubated or housed within a parent institution) to plan, select, and structure their NSF Tech Labs organizational model to satisfy NSF’s operational autonomy requirements, including advising on legal entity formation, organizational agreements, institutional negotiation, and tax structure considerations.

• Provide ongoing back-office support services for Phase 1 teams who elect to continue fiscal sponsorship or operational service arrangements.

• Help NSF Tech Labs leaders design financial incentive structures and compensation plans that both align with their mission and attract top technical talent under competitive market conditions.

• Help teams develop strong governance models—including formal boards, advisory structures, and accountability mechanisms—that drive technical progress, manage risk, and maintain appropriate oversight without sacrificing operational speed.

• Where necessary, help teams identify appropriate facilities, laboratory space, or capital equipment procurement pathways for hardware-intensive or infrastructure-dependent work.

Leadership and Coaching

• Develop mentorship, coaching, and topical programming for NSF Tech Labs leadership teams, with a particular focus on supporting founders transitioning from academic or industry environments to leading independent, mission-driven research organizations.

• Help NSF Tech Labs teams develop hiring strategies, talent pipelines, and management practices to attract and retain full-time, dedicated experts aligned with their technical missions.

• Help teams assemble formal governance boards and scientific advisory boards that best support their technical visions, including connecting founders to experienced independent lab leaders, industry experts, and other accomplished scientific founders.

Intellectual Property

• Assist NSF Tech Labs teams to develop IP and technology transfer policies that balance a set of competing priorities: enabling commercial spinouts while ensuring public benefit from publicly funded work; moving quickly while maintaining appropriate oversight;

allowing key personnel to benefit from success while avoiding conflicts of interest; and maximizing technology translation potential.

• Support teams in structuring licensing approaches that encourage broad adoption, facilitate research partnerships with universities and industry, and protect the public-good intent of federally funded research.

Strategic Research Guidance

• Help each NSF Tech Labs team hone its technical vision to be appropriately ambitious and realistic by refining the defined technical gap, bottleneck, or opportunity; assembling the right full-time team of qualified experts; and structuring an approach that is resource-efficient and likely to achieve sector-wide impact.

• Support Phase 0 NSF Tech Labs teams in designing milestone plans tied to appropriate, ambitious technical breakthroughs and structured reporting processes aligned with their technical visions and NSF’s program goals.

Partnership and Fundraising

• Help each NSF Tech Labs team develop a plan to resource its efforts with a diverse capital stack beyond NSF funding, including philanthropic co-investment, industry support, and other non-dilutive capital.

• Identify key strategic partners for each NSF Tech Labs team, including potential user communities, industry co-developers, and future funders, to accelerate its technical vision, demonstrate early progress, and build proof points for long-term sustainability.

Peer Network

• Foster and coordinate a peer learning community across the full NSF Tech Labs portfolio, spanning all program phases, enabling NSF Tech Labs teams to share learnings, challenges, and opportunities as they pursue their technical objectives.

• Connect NSF Tech Labs teams with other independent research organizations, industry leaders, and domain-relevant talent to build a broader community of practice in the emerging independent research organization sector.

• Institutionalize learnings from across the portfolio in evergreen resources for new and existing NSF Tech Labs teams—including resources for new talent being onboarded to teams.

III. Funding Mechanism, Amounts, and Considerations If NSF decides to continue this process following the RFI submission period, the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad may be structured as an OT or a FAR-based procurement. If continued, this process will require a separate proposal governed by the appropriate solicitation and evaluation framework, which will be informed by the information provided through this RFI process.

NSF intends to provide funding to the selected performer(s) to establish and operate the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad through Phase 0. Funding for Phase 0 support is expected to range from $1 million to $3 million. Ongoing operating support beyond Phase 0 will be provided through portable budget line items made available to individual NSF Tech Labs teams in Phase 1, which teams may utilize for whichever NSF-approved support organizations best fit their individual needs.

The NSF investment in the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad—inclusive of Phase 0 funding and Phase 1 portable resources—is expected to total up to $10 million across the life of the effort. These amounts represent aggregate program investment, not necessarily the funding allocated to any single organization.

IV. Potential Selection Criteria for a Resulting Solicitation NSF may use the following criteria in any resulting solicitation to evaluate respondents. In any resulting solicitation, respondents will be welcome to propose a prime/sub, partnership, or coalition model with partner organizations with complementary capabilities. Respondents may be allowed to propose to provide either the entirety or just a defined subset of the scope of services outlined in this RFI.

1. Organizational Capability and Experience

a. The extent to which the organization has direct, hands-on experience supporting early-stage technical labs, focused research organizations, deep tech startups, independent labs, or university lab spin-outs in an operational or incubation capacity—not merely as a funder, convener, or advisory body.

b. The extent to which the organization’s leadership team has the operational nimbleness and entrepreneurial capacity to co-design an evolving Launchpad alongside NSF and respond effectively to the wide range of needs of NSF Tech Labs teams at different stages of development and across different technical domains.

c. The extent to which the organization has relevant networks—including connections to top technical talent, philanthropic funders, industry partners, and experienced scientific founders—that can be brought to bear in direct support of NSF Tech Labs teams early in the initiative

2. Launchpad Vision

a. The extent to which the proposed vision for the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad is ambitious, well-reasoned, and responsive to the specific challenges of launching independent research organizations at speed and scale.

b. The extent to which proposed services and support structures reflect a high-touch model (with experienced human staff at the center) rather than a primarily technology-driven or outsourced approach.

3. Administrative and Operational Infrastructure

a. The extent to which the organization can provide robust, turn-key fiscal sponsorship and back-office infrastructure—including rapid entity formation, employment, payroll, benefits, compliance, and IP management—that would allow Phase 0 teams to operate at startup speed from day one.

b. The extent to which the proposed administrative and/or fiscal sponsorship model preserves NSF Tech Labs teams’ ownership and control of their IP and organizational autonomy.

V. Questions for Respondents

1. Briefly describe your organization, its capabilities and services offered, legal structure, and size.

2. Describe your understanding of the NSF Tech Labs Initiative as a whole and your vision for the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad, the services you would offer to teams, and how your approach would support a robust, nimble, and ambitious support platform. Include what specific capabilities, collaborators, and networks you would leverage for this effort.

3. Outline the relevant experience your organization and leadership team have to execute on the vision you described. Where possible, provide specific examples of organizations you have incubated, supported, or helped launch, and the outcomes of that support.

4. If you are proposing to offer turn-key launch services (e.g., fiscal sponsorship, back-office services) to Phase 0 NSF Tech Labs teams, describe:

a. How you would structure the relationship and what operational services you would provide.

b. How you would ensure that NSF Tech Labs teams retain ownership of their IP rights and maintain the organizational autonomy expected of NSF Tech Labs teams under the NSF initiative.

c. How you would help teams avoid the “cold start” problem, including how quickly a team could begin onboarding hires, executing contracts, and deploying resources under your model.

d. Any other considerations you believe are important for NSF to understand about your turn-key approach.

5. Provide a two-page budget narrative and high-level line-item breakdown that helps NSF understand how your organization would allocate resources to achieve your outlined vision.

a. IMPORTANT: NSF intends to commit no more than $3 million over the initial 12 months of the effort, and no more than $10 million over the first three years. If you believe these resources are inadequately scaled to the effort NSF is describing in this RFI, please include that feedback in the budget narrative and briefly explain your reasoning.

b. Nothing provided in the budget narrative is binding.

6. Any other feedback, questions, areas of concern, or suggestions on how to improve the NSF Tech Labs Launchpad concept. Respondents may provide feedback without intending to submit a future proposal.

VI. Instructions for Respondents Responses should be a maximum of five (5) pages excluding the budget narrative required in Question 5. Submit responses as a Word document or PDF file with 1” margins and a font size no smaller than 11 points. No other file types will be accepted, including raw text submitted in the body of an email.

Interested parties are strongly encouraged to respond. Submissions will help guide NSF’s decision and may be used to identify the competitive pool should NSF choose to use OT authority. Providing feedback does not create any obligation to submit a future proposal.

Please submit all responses to this RFI to [TechLabs@nsf.gov] with the subject line “NSF Tech Labs Launchpad RFI Response” by April 15, 2026 at 3:00 PM EST.

Any information received becomes the property of the U.S. Government and will not be returned to the submitter. NSF may share responses with other parts of the U.S. Government or unattributable portions of responses outside of the U.S. Government as helpful in finalizing the design or implementation of the program.

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