Activate Fellowship

Activate (formerly Cyclotron Road, founded at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) is the leading fellowship program for scientists and engineers who want to turn breakthrough research into real-world products and companies. The program bridges the gap between lab discovery and startup formation — the so-called "valley of death" where promising technologies often stall because researchers lack the resources, skills, and networks to commercialize their work.

Fellows receive over $100,000 in funding, access to world-class research facilities at Activate's partner institutions (including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and partner universities), and an intensive 2-year entrepreneurship curriculum. The program covers everything from IP strategy and fundraising to customer discovery and team building. Fellows are embedded in a cohort of fellow scientist-entrepreneurs and supported by mentors from the worlds of science, venture capital, and industry.

Activate has helped launch over 100 companies that have collectively raised over $3 billion in follow-on funding. These companies work on some of the hardest problems in energy, materials, biology, and manufacturing. The fellowship is unique in that it explicitly targets the commercialization gap — it is designed for researchers who have made a scientific breakthrough and need support to turn it into a viable business.