February is focused on start-ups and new programs, particularly as we look to what lies ahead in 2026. We open this issue, in our yearly tradition, following up on the AUTM Annual Meeting with our Heard in the Halls article highlighting the trends and convos from Seattle earlier this month. 

Our next two articles take the pulse of trends impacting start-ups this year. We find that the investing environment is getting better (mostly) thanks to both increased capital availability from VC and PE funds as well as new, early-stage investment programs at universities. We follow with an article summarizing our January Roundtable on the state of the Express License in technology transfer. While the Express License is certainly still of use in the office’s toolbox, there have been some modern additions and changes after 15+ years of experience. 

Lastly, we highlight a fun and interesting program at NASA, the TechRise Challenge, where student teams compete to design and build experiments that will actually make it onto a suborbital flight. TechRise shows the diversity of how research programs disseminate knowledge beyond traditional teaching, publishing, and licensing.