The funding and incentivizing model for research and development has evolved rapidly within the past decade, with philanthropy playing an increasingly significant role alongside government, university, and industry partnerships to accelerate discovery and innovation. Traditional academic research processes are inadequate to facilitate a rapid transition to real-world applications and markets—and growing national security concerns have affected how universities participate in the innovation ecosystem. On October 15–16, 2024, members and guests of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Government-University-Industry-Philanthropy Research Roundtable convened in Washington, DC, to consider these and related questions. These questions included how collaborations across sectors are shaped by research environments and culture, how to overcome barriers, and how to incentivize risk-taking to address urgent societal technology challenges. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the event.
