Thank you for your interest in applying to the Activate Fellowship and/or Cyclotron Road Program. 

Before starting your application, please read the following instructions:

How We Use AI in Selection

We use enterprise-grade AI tools to support the review process, including research and summarization. We require these tool providers to not use your information to train their own general-purpose AI models, and to maintain appropriate confidentiality and security safeguards. 

AI does not select applicants. Every decision about who advances is made by our selection team, based on human judgment.

How We Share Your Application

Outside of the application review process our team frequently interacts with leaders from across industries, often gaining unique insight to specific technology needs, strategic initiatives, and investment goals. These leaders might include: Industry partners like corporate CTOs or R&D managers who may be interested in partnering or investing, venture fund managing directors, angels, foundations, or family offices who may want to fund you, or government funding agencies and their program managers that may want to support you. Our fellows benefit greatly from connections to these decision-makers and we'd like to make this service available to you, as well. As we interact with these individuals outside of the application review process, we can inform potentially aligned partners about your project by sharing your application or contact information. See our privacy policy for more information.

Steps to Apply

1. Determine number of applicants (up to 2 per application)
2. Determine project eligibility
3. Gather application materials
4. Register in SurveyMonkey Apply, and begin application

Step 1. Determine number of applicants (up to 2 per application)

You can apply solo or with a co-applicant / co-founder. Individuals working together on the same project are required to apply as a team (versus in two separate applications). Both applicants must meet all eligibility requirements.

To be eligible, you…

• Must have a bachelor’s degree and 4+ years post-baccalaureate scientific research, engineering, or technology development experience.
• Must be leading the commercial development of a hardware-based technology innovation for the first time if awarded the fellowship, i.e., not a repeat hard-tech founder.
• Must be committed full time to the proposed project or company if awarded the fellowship.
• Must be legally able to work in the U.S. for the duration of the fellowship.
• Must be able to communicate proficiently in English.

Step 1a. Determine who will apply as the Principal (if applying as a team)

The Principal applicant is the individual who completes the pre-application form and begins the application. Once you start the application, you may optionally add a co-applicant as a collaborator. Your collaborator will receive an e-mail inviting them to join your application. You cannot swap the Principal applicant and co-applicant yourself in SurveyMonkey Apply, but can email apply@activate.org for help as needed. 

NOTE: Only the Principal applicant will receive funding if selected; the co-applicant will become an unfunded Affiliate Fellow. Affiliate Fellows are fully recognized as part of the Activate Fellow community with the same participation expectations, but do not receive a stipend.

Step 2. Determine project eligibility

To be eligible, your proposed project or company…

• Must be based in the physical or biological sciences, or related engineering disciplines.
• Must be still be in development and not yet ready for full-scale product sales at the time of the application deadline.
• Must not have raised more than $2m in debt or equity funding from non-governmental sources at the time of the application deadline.

Step 3. Gather application materials

For the application, you must answer a number of written questions, upload a blinded resume (one for each applicant, 1 page maximum), and upload a Technical Vision document (3 page maximum), a Technical Reality deck (4 slide maximum), and a Video Prototype demonstration (60 seconds). You will also be allowed to upload additional optional documents.

Step 4. Register in SurveyMonkey Apply, and begin application

Before starting an application, you must first register to create an account in SurveyMonkey Apply and complete the pre-application form. When registering your account, please use the email from which you’d like to receive emails from Activate. After completing the pre-application, you may start your application. Instructions to add an optional co-applicant are found in Task 1 of the application.

Please read our General FAQs on our website. Once you start your application, you can find additional FAQs about how to navigate the application portal.