What happens when 29 NYU researchers, studying everything from Alzheimer’s circuits to quantum hardware, sit in the same room and ask one question: who outside the lab needs this?
For most of them, it is a question their training never required. Research usually starts from what is unknown: a gap in the literature, a mechanism not yet explained. “Who needs this?” starts somewhere else, with a person who has a problem. Asking it does not change the science. It changes how researchers see what their science is for, and that shift is what Pathways to Impact (P2I) is built to create.
P2I is the NYU Leslie Entrepreneurial Institute’s new 11-week, non-credit program for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. It is not a startup accelerator but a place to learn how research moves into the world, whether through a company, a license, an industry partnership, or a policy or clinical pathway.
The reframing happens through customer discovery. Instead of presenting their work to peers, participants go out and listen to the people who might use it: clinicians, engineers, manufacturers, utilities and patients. Sometimes those conversations confirm a researcher’s instincts. Often they redirect them. The result a researcher considers the breakthrough may matter less to a user than cost, workflow or a regulatory hurdle they had never weighed. A scientist studying a disease mechanism begins to ask which diagnostic or therapy a clinician would actually adopt. An engineer developing a new material starts asking what a manufacturer would need to see before switching.
The cohort’s range makes the question sharper. Participants work in neuroscience, cancer biology, transplant medicine and public health; in machine learning, computer vision and augmented reality; and in low-carbon materials, chemical recycling, power grids and quantum hardware. A neuroscientist and an engineer building rehabilitation technology find they face the same questions about clinicians and reimbursement. A materials scientist and an energy researcher compare notes on finding partners who can scale lab results. Across every field, “who needs this?” proves to be a discipline, not a specialty. Each participant also works alongside a faculty advisor, and that backing matters. When a lab’s leadership encourages a postdoctoral fellow or PhD student to explore real-world applications, the new perspective travels back into the lab and shapes the next experiment, grant and collaboration.
Once researchers can name who needs their work and why, commercialization pathways start to get defined. They can bring sharper questions to NYU’s technology transfer office about intellectual property and licensing, approach industry partners with a clear value proposition, and prepare for programs such as SBIR and STTR. Federal funding is following the same shift. The NSF Translation to Practice (TTP) program supports research translation through tracks that range from use-inspired exploration to large industry partnerships, and it counts licensing, open-source projects and standards alongside startups as real impact. Its larger tracks are led by faculty PIs and require NSF I-Corps customer discovery training, so P2I participants and their advisors are well placed to pursue them together.
The question is simple; the answers rarely are. But researchers who learn to ask it early carry it into every project that follows. Some will found companies, others will license technologies, and many will shape their next research direction around a clear application. Each outcome shortens the distance between an NYU lab and the people who stand to benefit from its discoveries. If you are an NYU faculty member, postdoc or doctoral student curious about who needs your research, we would love to hear from you. Book a time to talk.
