Committee on Accelerating Translation and Entrepreneurship (CATE)

From President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Anantha Chandrakasan

MIT has long been recognized as a global leader in innovation, startup creation, and the translation of research into real-world impact. Our faculty, students, staff, and alumni have founded companies that have shaped existing industries, launched entirely new ones, and advanced technologies with profound societal influence. MIT’s educational programs in innovation and entrepreneurship remain among its greatest strengths.

At the same time, as the landscape of technology and translation continues to rapidly evolve, we need to ensure that MIT processes keep pace. To this end, we are convening a new Committee on Accelerating Translation and Entrepreneurship (CATE).

The aim of this committee is to identify how the Institute can best support, remove barriers to and accelerate the movement of ideas from MIT’s research and innovative discoveries into new ventures. Its scope includes startups based on Institute-generated intellectual property as well as ideas that originate anywhere within the MIT community, from in-course projects to dorm-room innovations.

The committee’s overall task is to define who MIT wants to be in today’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and recommend actionable steps to get there – bold, high-leverage approaches that can significantly increase the rate at which our community transforms ideas into real-world impact.

This effort is intended to build upon, integrate with, and amplify MIT’s existing entrepreneurship ecosystem—including the Martin Trust Center, the Deshpande Center, Sandbox, StartMIT, DesignX, Venture Mentoring Service, the NSF I-Corps Hub, the MIT Kuo-Sharper Center, Faculty Founder Initiative, PKG IDEAS Social Innovations Challenge, MIT Solve, and others.

Based on preliminary input from a group of faculty members, we ask that the committee:

• Review existing policies governing leaves and appointments and recommending appropriate updates.
• Evaluate current Conflict of Interest (COI) policies and proposing revisions as needed.
• Identifying opportunities to strengthen support for recent MIT alumni who wish to start a new company.
• Examine strategies to expand global impact through the development of MIT innovation hubs—supported by targeted fundraising—across the US and internationally.
• Enhance support for founder matchmaking and strengthening connections to the venture and investment community.
• Expand institutional support for startups through Presidential and other Institute-wide initiatives.

It will be important for the committee to engage broadly with the MIT community, including deans, department heads, faculty, students, postdocs, staff, and alumni, to identify barriers, develop practical recommendations, and ensure that proposed actions support the Institute’s core mission. The Undergraduate Association and the Graduate Student Council will identify student representatives for the committee. The Committee should also consult with successful entrepreneurs and investors.

The report should be data driven, and the committee should work with Institutional Research, the Office of Strategic Alliances, Transactions, and Translation, and the Technology Licensing Office to obtain the most up-to-date data on entrepreneurship at MIT. The report should also benchmark other institutions on best practices. The committee will work directly with relevant MIT offices (OGC, Research Compliance, TLO, etc.) to articulate important internal and external policy issues related to any recommended steps.

We ask that the committee complete its work by April 2026, with an eye towards implementing some game-changing initiatives as early as summer 2026.

• Jeffrey Grossman, Morton (1924) and Claire Goulder and Family Professor in Environmental Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (co-chair)
• Antoinette Schoar, Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management (co-chair)
• Fadel Adib, Associate Professor, Program in Media Arts and Sciences and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Saman Amarasinghe, Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Bill Aulet, Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Sangeeta Bhatia, John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor, Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Health Sciences and Technology
• Yet-Ming Chiang, Kyocera Professor of Ceramics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
• Bevin Engelward, Associate Chair of the Faculty; Professor, Department of Biological Engineering
• Rupinder Grewal, Associate Director, Conflict of Interest, Office of the Vice President for Research
• Svafa Gronfeldt, Professor of the Practice, Morningside Academy for Design
• Dina Katabi, Thuan (1990) and Nicole Pham Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Joshua McDermott, Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• David Mindell, Frances and David Dibner Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Fiona Murray, William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Desiree Plata, School of Engineering Distinguished Climate and Energy Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Scott Stern, David Sarnoff Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Yogesh Surendranath, Donner Professor of Science, Department of Chemistry
• Timothy Swager, John D. MacArthur Professor, Department of Chemistry
• Skylar Tibbits, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture
• Giovanni Traverso, Karl Van Tassel (1925) Career Development Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Vladan Vuletić, Lester Wolfe Professor, Department of Physics
• Prerna Bhargava, Senior Program and Project Manager, Office of the Provost, Staff to the Committee
• Daniel Delgado, Senior Director of Human Resources and Finance, Office of the Provost, Staff to the Committee
• Mark DiVincenzo, Vice President and General Counsel; Advisor to the Committee