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Accelerating the translation of university research
The Bakar Fellows Program at UC Berkeley accelerates important research discoveries and innovations out of the lab and into the hands of people who need them most.
What We Do
The Bakar Fellows Program at UC Berkeley fosters entrepreneurship in the STEM+ fields including engineering, computer science, chemistry, biological sciences, physical sciences, architecture, and more.
Program Overview
UC Berkeley faculty with promising projects that are more advanced than basic research, but not quite to the point of commercialization, are awarded research support to mature and translate their ground-breaking discoveries and innovations.
Research support is provided through two awards: the Spark Award and the Bakar Prize.
The Program in Numbers
Ranging from new products to platform technologies
Supporting Bakar Fellows and Bakar Prize recipients since 2012
Supported across 16 different academic departments
Supported as graduate students, postdocs and project scientists
Gaining real-world experience as undergraduates
Spark Award
The Bakar Fellows Spark Award is designed to accelerate faculty-led research to tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.
The Spark Award program accepts new applications annually.
Bakar Prize
The Bakar Prize is awarded to Bakar Faculty Fellows to bridge proof-of-concept to startup and commercialization for particularly promising technologies.
Eligible faculty are invited to apply on an annual basis and recipients have several years to use the award.
Innovation Fellows
Innovation Fellows are graduate students or postdocs who work on a funded Spark Award or Bakar Prize project and have a desire to translate research to commercialization and perhaps even launch a startup.
Spotlight
In Research Led by Bakar Fellow Wenjun Zhang, First Natural Enzyme Creates Azides From Scratch
In a study published by Nature Chemistry, a team of UC Berkeley researchers at the College of Chemistry led by Wenjun Zhang, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Kulik group at MIT(link is external), reported the discovery of the first natural enzyme capable of creating these complex molecules–azides–from simpler ones. They identified an enzyme called Tri17 that uses ATP and nitrite to create different types of azides through a series of chemical reactions. By studying the structure and function of Tri17, scientists learned how it helps form azides.
HOPO Therapeutics, led by Bakar Innovation Fellow Julian Rees, Awarded $226 Million BARDA Contract
HOPO Therapeutics scored a government contract for up to $226 million to develop an oral countermeasure against radiological threats and heavy metal poisoning.
