CoMotion Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)

CoMotion Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)

Provides one-year support for University of Washington postdocs to test and commercialize disclosed university technologies.

UW CoMotion's Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) provides a full-time, one-year Postdoctoral Entrepreneur position to UW researchers who want to focus exclusively on exploring and advancing the commercial potential of a technology they have already disclosed to CoMotion. The fellowship is funded at the NIH postdoctoral pay scale and includes the full suite of UW employee benefits for the duration of the one-year appointment. No fixed application cycle or annual deadline has been published; prospective applicants initiate the process by requesting a consultation with a CoMotion Innovation Manager.

Eligibility is limited to current UW postdoctoral researchers and graduating PhD students who remain in a UW laboratory. The underlying technology must be actively disclosed and under management at CoMotion before the application is submitted. A supportive principal investigator mentor is required — candidates without an institutional backer will not advance through selection. The review committee assesses proposals on three criteria: the commercial potential of the technology, the candidate's prior commercialization experience (such as I-Corps participation or business plan competition involvement), and the candidate's demonstrated desire to spin the technology out into a company.

The PEP occupies a distinctive position in the UW innovation ecosystem because it provides dedicated protected time — a full year, salary-equivalent — rather than a cash-equivalent project grant. Fellows focus entirely on commercialization activities, distinct from the proof-of-concept research funded by the separate CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund. Teams that complete the PEP often proceed to seek external pre-seed or SBIR funding, leveraging the CoMotion network of WRF, local investors, and industry mentors that CoMotion assembles around its funding programs. The program is UW-internal and not open to external applicants.