Bridging the gap between lab discovery and commercial deployment

Translating insights from lab to industry is rarely straightforward. In this Voices piece, researchers and practitioners who have moved between academia, national laboratories, startups, and industry, across fields spanning batteries, catalysis, and synthetic organic chemistry, share what it takes to translate a promising idea into a viable technology. Scaling up technology insights from lab to industry requires overcoming many challenges. Some of those key challenges include differing motivations and resources between academia and industry, shifting definitions of success, and the gap between what works in the lab versus what holds up at scale. Despite the varied experiences and disciplines of our Voices contributors, a number of common themes emerge. These include navigating uncertainty and imperfect results, as well as responding to external factors beyond your control. Their responses also highlight the value of integrating academic and industrial perspectives to demystify what industry is looking for through organized collaborations and equipping students with the tools to be successful moving forward. Overall, bringing technology to market requires the convergence of many factors, and collaboration and experiences gained across academia, national laboratories, startups, and industry is an important step toward closing the technology transfer gap.