Harvard Office of Technology Development

Supports Harvard-affiliated researchers translating discoveries into biotech, medtech, and hardware ventures.

Harvard Office of Technology Development (Harvard OTD) is Harvard's technology-transfer and translational-funding office, operating under the Office of the Provost with a distributed team across Harvard Square, Harvard Medical School, and the Wyss Institute. It channels Harvard-affiliated research toward commercialization through grants, licensing, and corporate alliances rather than external public calls.

Its funding is limited to Harvard principal investigators across FAS, HMS, HSPH, and SEAS. The office runs four internal routes: the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, the Harvard Grid Accelerator, the Climate and Sustainability Translational Fund, and the Lab1636 Deerfield R&D alliance. The climate fund carries a maximum award of USD 100,000, and the sector spread reaches biotech, medtech, synthetic biology, hardware, materials, energy, photonics, quantum, and semiconductors.

OTD is best viewed as the first institutional bridge between Harvard research and outside capital or licensing. Applicants succeed when they can show a credible translational path, a clear Harvard IP position, and a project that matches the scientific and commercial lane of one of its internal programs.