Ignition Awards

Calling all innovators, entrepreneurs and impact creators!

Have you identified a product or service that can have real-world impact? Are you developing a solution to a market-relevant problem? If so, you are likely looking for resources to navigate the entrepreneurial process and transform your innovation into a potential commercial opportunity.

Idea to Impact

The Ignition Award Program provides financial and advisory resources to Boston University innovators who are committed to converting an idea/innovation into a potential product or service opportunity. Awards support:

Technical Milestones

Demonstrating proof-of-concept using an industry-acceptable model, comparing performance of a device against industry standards, creating a prototype, running an alpha/limited beta test, etc.

Business Milestones

Defining current state of the art, assessing the competitive landscape, identifying key differentiators for the proposed product/service, understanding the size and segments of an intended market, etc.

More Than a Funding Source

In addition to funding, each faculty-led innovation team will have the opportunity to interact with technical and business leaders who will work with the team over a twelve-month period to look at the opportunity through an “impact-potential lens.” An advisory committee will provide advice and guidance to each project team as it looks to:

• Refine and improve plans for early development of a potential commercial product/service.
• Examine the market relevance and potential societal impact of a proposed product/service.
• Learn from industry veterans how to assess innovation through a “business lens.”
• Build your network of industry contacts and other relevant stakeholders to support you throughout your entrepreneurial journey.

Faculty members at Boston University are invited to submit a pre-proposal for the 2027 cycle of the Ignition Awards. You may have identified a clear problem in a market that needs a solution, but you need support to build the prototype you envision. You may have an innovative technology but are having difficulty identifying how to use it most effectively to disrupt a market. Please consider applying to the Ignition Award Program to support your entrepreneurial journey. Share Your Vision with us!

Please join us on October 7 at 3 pm for an Information Session being held by the Entrepreneurship Team on the Award and Pre-proposal.

The Faculty Entrepreneurship Team is here to help. Questions? Contact Melinda Shockley at shockley@bu.edu.

Essential Information

Application and Review Process

Timeline

The application period opens on October 1, 2026. Timeline is below. Dates are subject to change.

Review Criteria

Pre-proposals will be reviewed using the following general criteria:

The reviewers will be assessing the potential for your project to move along a path toward commercialization, even if the project is still at an early stage. The project, however, cannot be at the basic research stage. Please make sure to convey a clear vision of the product/service and the rationale for why such a product/service should be developed and commercialized.

Full proposals will be reviewed using similar criteria but with the expectation of more detail provided, especially with respect to technical milestones and relevant experience of team members.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must hold a primary faculty or principal investigator status at Boston University.
• An individual listed as a project team member must be willing to commit to attending the in-person meetings with the advisory committee. If a team member is essential but is not local, then the team member must be willing to join online for each meeting if approved by the advisory committee.
• Each individual, whether a PI, collaborator, or team member, can be listed on only one application in this 2027 cycle.
• Projects, intellectual property, technology, and potential products/services that have been the subject of more than two (2) prior Ignition Awards are not eligible for consideration. This includes projects where the PI may have changed but the underlying technology, intellectual property, intended product/service or proposal focus is related to a past award.
• The project should have the potential to result in a licensable asset, and the proposal should reflect the intended development of that asset.*
• Each proposal must have an invention disclosure on file with Technology Development. For $25K track candidates, the disclosure must be on file prior to the Online Quick Pitch; for $75K track candidates, it must be on file prior to submission of the Full Proposal.
• If your technology was invented with researchers/collaborators from outside of BU and the intellectual property is co-owned, you may still apply for funding, but you must include this information in the Innovator Questionnaire and have an invention disclosure on file with Technology Development.

*Note: The creation of that “asset” might not be completed with this Ignition Award, but it is important to articulate how the creation of such an asset will be the result of your effort

Scope and Uses of the Award

There are two classes of Ignition Awards: $25,000 and $75,000. Awards are distributed in two tranches, contingent on satisfactory progress toward technical and business milestones approved by the advisory committee. There is no overhead charge associated with Ignition Awards. Funds may be used in many ways to move an innovation closer to commercialization. The awards are intended to fund translational research and market assessment to increase the commercial readiness of a technology or potential product/service and are not a source of funding for basic or general exploratory research. For example, funds may be used to:

• Conduct proof-of-concept studies or build prototypes;
• Test a technology/material to obtain data on performance compared to industry standards;
• Develop a more user-friendly software interface;
• Send a material out to an independent third party for testing under industrial conditions;
• Conduct in vivo or animal testing of a new compound;
• Hire outside technical experts or services to validate the technology.

Funds may not be used for:

• Salaries for faculty, including summer salaries;
• Basic research;
• Legal expenses to advance intellectual property protection;
• Publicity expenses (e.g., the development of marketing materials);
• Legal and other expenses of business formation and operation;
• Attendance at academic conferences;
• Purchase of computers or other equipment;
• Expenditures that are covered by other funding sources (grants or sponsored research);
• Business development expenses not approved by the advisory committee such as third-party market research, travel for customer interviews, or hiring business consultants.

We encourage you to match Ignition Awards with other funding. If you can use the Ignition Award funds to augment or to attract other commercialization funds, we would like you to show this in your proposals. If you are awarded funding from multiple sources for the same project, we will want to see budgets and milestones showing which parts of the project will be paid for by the Ignition Award and which will be paid for by other funding sources.

Post-Award Requirements

Details of the post-award requirements will be communicated in the letter of award notification, including instructions on completing any outstanding COI/FCOI checks. The Ignition Award Program begins with a kick-off meeting with an assigned advisory committee for your project to finalize the technical and business milestones, budgets, and timelines.

Information Session

To help the BU community of innovators learn more about this program, the Entrepreneurship Team is hosting a virtual information session on October 7, 2026.