Five-Year National Initiative Will Expand Collaboration, Intellectual Property Education, and Strategic Partnerships To Accelerate Invention into Societal and Economic Impact
Hadley, Massachusetts, July 29, 2026—VentureWell is proud to join the founding coalition supporting a new five-year national initiative announced yesterday by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to strengthen America’s innovation ecosystem. Formed through a Joint Partnership Agreement between NAI and USPTO, the initiative launches three coordinated efforts—the American Innovation Campaign, the National Invention Ambassadors Network, and Innovation and Economic Competitiveness Workshops—designed to unite research, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and workforce development under a shared national strategy.
VentureWell joins the Association of American Universities (AAU), AUTM, the Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP), Command Strategies, the NSF National Innovation Network (powered by the 13 NSF I-CorpsTM Hubs), and the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) as founding members of the coalition, which brings together many of the nation’s leading voices in research, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and innovation policy.
“We’re proud to join the National Academy of Inventors–USPTO founding coalition to help strengthen entrepreneurship, commercialization, and innovation education while empowering the next generation of inventors and founders,” said Phil Weilerstein, president and CEO of VentureWell. “This partnership reflects the kind of collective effort our innovation ecosystem needs to turn great discoveries and inventions into solutions and ventures that create lasting impact.”
The initiative arrives as the nation marks its 250th anniversary, with NAI and USPTO framing the effort as part of a broader vision for America’s next era of innovation leadership. For over 30 years, VentureWell has worked to build pathways that help science- and technology-driven innovators move from research to real-world impact. Joining this coalition extends that mission by connecting VentureWell’s network with a broader national effort to strengthen intellectual property education and accelerate commercialization.
About VentureWell
VentureWell supports the cultivation of an emerging generation of science and technology inventors and the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their success. Since its founding in 1995, VentureWell has funded or trained over 21,000 science and technology inventors and innovators, resulting in the emergence of more than 7,000 ventures with groundbreaking technological advancements in fields like biomedicine and healthcare, sustainable energy and materials, and solutions for low-resource settings. The startups they have supported have raised subsequent funds totaling more than $9.8 billion and are reaching millions of people globally.