Montana State University’s efforts to turn academic research into practical applications have received a boost from the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program. Launched at MSU in 2024 with $6 million in NSF funding, the initiative supports researchers as they move discoveries out of the lab and into real-world use.
The ART program expands resources within MSU’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO), helping faculty and students advance projects that could benefit society. Among the first recipients of ART support is Tricia Seifert, dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Development. Her team developed Success Prints Crash Course, a digital platform designed to help middle and high school students explore college pathways. The tool is now used in more than a dozen Montana schools, including some participating in GEAR UP, a statewide effort to improve graduation rates and college readiness.
Seifert described her experience: “On one hand, I am still the researcher on this product that I’ve been so invested in,” she said. “But now I’ve also created a small, woman-owned LLC. I have learned in the moment, and as a necessity, and not alone. I’ve been really leaning into other people’s knowledge bases.”
She added that integrating reflective learning with interactive experiences strengthens educational outcomes: “We’re intentionally using that literature to inform how we bring this into Montana schools,” she said.
Other projects funded through ART include a wearable device by nursing professor Elizabeth Johnson for patients in rural areas; research on CRISPR technology led by professor Blake Wiedenheft; waterway monitoring tools developed by engineering assistant professor Riley Logan; genetic work on wheat yield improvement from doctoral student Brandon Tillett and professor Mike Giroux; and space-hardened computers built by engineering professor Brock LaMeres—one of which was recently sent to the moon on a NASA mission.
Daniel Juliano, director of MSU’s TTO, emphasized that supporting diverse fields is central to ART’s mission: “Often a key piece of successfully translating research to practice is customer discovery,” Juliano said. “There’s a starting point, the societal or technical problem I need to solve. But as you start making progress on that fundamental research and approaching some sort of solution, the details really matter. It’s not enough just to solve the problems and be done. You have to start looking at, how do I deliver a solution that will be effective to a customer?”
The Builders Cohort training program was created under TTO associate director Magali Eaton when she joined MSU in spring 2024. Both Juliano and Seifert credited Eaton along with Travis Russell for their mentorship: “I can’t say enough about the team of mentors and advisers that they have created,” said Seifert. “They’ve asked hard questions and made really good suggestions, and I’m so grateful that the ART program has those seasoned business folks.”
A new round of seed translational research project funding will open this fall through MSU’s TTO as part of continued expansion under ART.
Juliano noted improvements for campus innovators: “The university now has an entire support system, an entire infrastructure, designed to facilitate research translation in a way that it really didn’t before,” he said.
Seifert sees personal growth opportunities for faculty involved: “ART is the mechanism to take what’s happening within the university and prepare it for use in an applied place. It’s literally that bridge between the researchers and the users, and I feel so fortunate to be on the research end,” she said. “As faculty, we ask first-year students to be comfortable being uncomfortable and commit to learning for a lifetime. And once you, as a researcher, take your own best advice, that’s when I think you can start to really move the needle in this kind of innovation.”
