STARTUP  A C T

Section 8 – Accelerated Commercialization of Taxpayer-funded Research
• Uses existing federal funding for research and development to support innovative initiatives at American universities to accelerate and improve the commercialization of taxpayer-funded research. Grants will be awarded to universities pursuing specific initiatives to improve commercialization capacity and to assist universities that want to pursue initiatives that allow faculty to directly commercialize research.
• Tasks the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, created in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-357), with the role of advising the Secretary of Commerce on the grant program created in this section. The Advisory Council will issue criteria to guide university grant applications and will issue recommendations on which grant proposals to fund.
• Directs the Advisory Council to issue a report evaluating the effectiveness of the grant program in accelerating the commercialization of taxpayer-funded research.​