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Sustainability of gap funding programs aimed at commercializing academic innovation

Nature Biotechnology volume 44, pages 155–159 (2026)Cite this article

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Rutgers University’s approach to building an effective and sustainable technology commercialization fund emphasizes getting industry input early to improve outcomes in the short and long term.

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Fig. 1: General funding spectrum from discovery to market.
Fig. 2: The overall process overview of Rutgers University’s gap funding programs.

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Acknowledgements

The Rutgers HealthAdvance program is partially supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number U01HL150852. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office for Research, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Pragati Sharma, Vincent A. Smeraglia & Michael E. Zwick

  2. Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Reynold A. Panettieri Jr.

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  1. Pragati Sharma
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  2. Vincent A. Smeraglia
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  3. Michael E. Zwick
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  4. Reynold A. Panettieri Jr.
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Correspondence to Pragati Sharma.

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Sharma, P., Smeraglia, V.A., Zwick, M.E. et al. Sustainability of gap funding programs aimed at commercializing academic innovation. Nat Biotechnol 44, 155–159 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02972-7

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