Acorn Innovation Grants

The application window will reopen Fall 2025

About

The Acorn Innovation Grant supports Principal Investigators at Massachusetts research institutions (universities and medical centers) who seek to demonstrate the viability of their technology. Awards could be used to: 1) further develop a prototype, 2) gather additional data to demonstrate proof of concept, or 3) obtain data to compare the technology to existing technologies and show its competitive advantages.

Acorn Awards are designed to fund small, rapidly accomplishable projects that will enable researchers to obtain further funding for additional proof of concept or commercialization. Applicants must be Principal Investigators at a Massachusetts research institution (university or medical center), with the technology disclosed to their institution.  As the awards are small, no overhead can be applied for in the budget. Up to 10 awards ($36,000 each) will be granted.

Read the January 2025 press release ​on last fall's winners.

Key Dates

September 2025 - Applications open

Testimonials

What people are saying…

“

Our company New Paradigm Biomedical received an Acorn Grant for mechanical testing of our external fixation device. Last week, we received our 510(k) approval letter from the FDA for this product. The funding we received from Mass Ventures was critical for this success! We are grateful for the support the MassVentures provided us, and your grant went to good use, for sure. Thank you!”

John Wixted

Cofounder, New Paradigm Biomedical

“

The grants truly helped us accelerate development works. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work on this project and are excited about the progress we have made towards commercialization. The experience has been invaluable, and we are confident that the outcomes of our work will have a positive impact on the industry.”

Junghyo Yoon

Cofounder, NONA Technologies

“

The Acorn Innovation Award is impactful and meaningful to faculty entrepreneurs like us. It allows us to transition from the lab-scale technology to pilot-scale, eventually to make prototypes out of the lab sooner. With the help of this first investment from MassVentures, my startup Planck Energies received our first SBIR grant of $275,000 from NSF this year.”

Yi Zheng

Founder, Planck Energies

“

This has been an impactful and instrumental grant for my company. The Acorn program’s funding was instrumental in advancing our product’s proof of concept (POC) with customers. This financial support enabled us to validate our product in real-world scenarios, which was crucial for our development and market entry strategies.”

Dr. Karen Panetta

Cofounder, Tessera Intelligence

Team Massachusetts is excited to connect you with the latest and most relevant resources available for businesses. We’re here to support you every step of the way as your company grows. Through the Business Front Door, we can make your business journey in Massachusetts a successful one. Learn more at www.mass.gov/business-front-door.

Join our mailing List

Fuel your innovation journey! Stay connected.

Join the MassVentures newsletter to receive insights, funding opportunities, portfolio news and founder resources in your inbox monthly.