The US House of Representatives passed the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act last Thursday by a vote of 237-169, sending it to the Senate. The bill would bar colleges and universities that receive federal student aid from participating in boycotts of Israel. It also requires institutions receiving federal funding for international study and foreign language programs to certify annually that they do not restrict their students from participating in exchange programs in Israel, or restrict Israeli students from campus programs. Thirty-three Democrats voted with most Republicans in favor; two Republicans opposed it.

Co-sponsor Josh Gottheimer described the measure as targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The bill follows increased campus boycott activism since Israel’s invasion of Gaza. For universities with international research partnerships or exchange programs, the certification requirement could affect eligibility for federal funding.

With nominations now open for the 3rd Annual TechPipeline Impact Awards, we’re taking a look at why recognizing the people behind successful technology transfer offices matters and celebrating the professionals who keep those offices moving forward.

By Laura Schoppe

The first two years of the TechPipeline awards program to recognize individuals in the field of technology transfer were a resounding success with many strong submissions. Read about the wonderful accomplishments of the winners from 2024 and 2025.

The growing number of nominations we receive each year shows how important it is to recognize the individuals that keep an entire technology transfer office running smoothly. The TechPipeline Impact Awards provide an opportunity for universities and research organizations to acknowledge and appreciate the team members who enable exceptional operations for the technology transfer office throughout the year, not just on a single project. We’re looking for those people who go beyond their typical duties and come up with innovative ways to help the organization.

Read the article →

Flower Labs, a spinout from the University of Cambridge, has launched Endeavor 1.0, a generalist artificial intelligence (AI) model the company positions as a competitor to leading systems from OpenAI and Anthropic. The London and Hamburg-based start-up, founded in 2023, has raised more than £23 million and enables companies to train AI models on data that remains on-site rather than moving to a centralized database.

Endeavor combines open-source models with Flower Labs’ proprietary reasoning model and internally developed software, and can be deployed on an organization’s own information technology (IT) systems, allowing entities such as hospitals to keep patient data within their own networks. The launch coincides with a UK government effort to support domestic alternatives to major American AI companies.

Flower Labs, whose clients include the National Health Service (NHS) and JP Morgan, says Endeavor matches performance benchmarks of OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol and Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 on some tasks. The model will launch first to select organizations under license before a wider rollout as compute capacity increases.

Image: University of Cambridge

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has agreed to use PsiQuantum’s Construct software platform to support research into fault-tolerant quantum computing, the lab announced this week. Under the collaboration, BNL researchers will use Construct to build algorithms and scientific applications for future fault-tolerant quantum systems. Construct, released publicly at no cost in May 2026, is described as the first full-scale platform enabling government, industry and academic users to build quantum circuits and test algorithms for utility-scale machines. Potential applications span materials science, drug development and cryptography.

The partnership supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Quantum Genesis initiative, which aims to deploy a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of meaningful research by 2028. Quantum Genesis, part of DOE’s broader Genesis Mission on artificial intelligence, includes three priorities: the DOE Q Competition, showcasing systems with hundreds of logical qubits by 2028; a planned National Quantum Supercomputing User Facility; and R&D efforts with national labs, universities and companies to guide future system design.

Image: Brookhaven National Laboratory

What if the TTO didn’t always wait for the invention disclosure?

Most university technology transfer offices are built around a traditional intake model: wait for disclosures, evaluate them, protect the best opportunities, and search for licensees. That model works for many technologies—but it can be difficult to scale, and it may miss opportunities where faculty know the problems, students can help build early versions, and the TTO can help shape the pathway from idea to usable product.

On September 21, we’re bringing together David Brown, Director of Technology Transfer at Brigham Young University; Bennett Mortensen, Engineering Lead at Brigham Young University; Steven T. Stump, Director of the Center for Applied Research at the University of Southern Indiana; and Caitlin Long, Director of Technology Transfer & Innovation Commercialization at Alvernia University for a discussion about what a more active model might look like.

We’ll explore experiments with faculty co-creation, student-built software, rapid prototyping and even “vibe coding” — and whether these approaches can help TTOs create more pathways to commercialization without abandoning traditional deep-tech licensing.

Join the discussion →

Brown University and Brown University Health announced a $37 million investment from the Starr Foundation to launch the Starr Healthspan Innovation Alliance, a partnership aimed at accelerating aging research and clinical treatment development. The five-year initiative will expand Brown’s Center on the Biology of Aging, fund two new endowed faculty positions in geroscience—the study of the genetic, molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging—and strengthen clinical trial infrastructure across Brown University Health, Rhode Island’s largest healthcare system.

The alliance connects laboratory discoveries to Brown University Health’s network, which serves more than 1.5 million patients annually and currently runs about 500 clinical trials, two-thirds focused on aging-related conditions. Funding will also support specialized staff, community-based trial enrollment, and science and industry partnerships.

The Starr Foundation, established in 1955, has awarded more than $4 billion in grants over seven decades, including prior support for the Starr Cancer Consortium and the New York Genome Center. Foundation chair Jeffrey Greenberg, a Brown alumnus, called the partnership an opportunity to link Brown’s researchers with Brown University Health’s clinical reach.

Image: Brown University, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This spring, PTx Trimble opened an engineering facility in Seward, Nebraska, extending a partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that began nearly a decade ago when the company, then called JCA Technologies and based in Winnipeg, sought a Midwest university partner. The Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development connected company leaders with university expertise in agricultural engineering, robotics and autonomous systems, including the research lab of Santosh Pitla, professor of biological systems engineering. Nebraska Innovation Campus (NIC) and the university’s Industry Relations staff also linked the company to Career Services, research facilities and start-up space.

The new facility is staffed largely by University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumni and researchers who develop autonomous technology for tractors, tillage equipment and other farm machinery. PTx’s OutRun system, a retrofit autonomy kit that converts existing tractors into driverless machines, originated as an autonomous grain cart solution and is expanding into tillage. More than 30 OutRun systems are installed, mostly in North America, according to Josh Murman, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumnus and autonomous systems engineer with PTx.

Image: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln