The Catalyst Coaching Program is a cohort-based, on-site, coaching program that equips early to mid-career researchers with the communication skills, strategic awareness, and industry-ready presence to confidently engage stakeholders and move their work from the lab to real-world impact.
Taking cutting-edge technology to market requires addressing both technical and commercial challenges. Through Catalyst, researchers develop the skill set to connect with external investors to commercialize early-stage technologies.
With the assistance of ORNL commercialization experts and through the Catalyst program, researchers identify, evaluate and develop a commercialization plan that considers product, market, financing and team structure
Begun in 2023, Catalyst provides one-on-one coaching support to early and mid-career researchers interested in commercializing lab-developed, cutting-edge technology. The award-winning program has been recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium and the Department of Energy Technology Transfer Working Group for Innovation and Impact.
Catalyst grew from the Safari program, which was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Technology Commercialization Practices to Accelerate the Commercialization of Technologies (PACT) program and designed to promote the transition of research developed at DOE national laboratories toward the marketplace to promote US competitiveness and national security. Catalyst is supported by internal investment from ORNL.
Catalyst was developed and is delivered in collaboration with Angelique Adams Media Solutions, LLC, which provides the program’s researcher communication and commercialization coaching curriculum.
After taking part in the first Catalyst cohort, Nicholas Gregorich and Syed Islam refined their communications toolkit and learned to market their novel technology Green Capture, an affordable membrane technology that can absorb carbon dioxide from industrial emissions through participation in the Energy I-Corp program.