The deadline for applying to the program is Sunday, November 1, 2026. Fill out the application form and send us a link to an up to 3-minute introduction video, your LinkedIn profile and a resume. 

As a participant, you will work alongside world-class researchers and build on innovations that have advanced to a high maturity stage through substantial UW investments. You will also gain access to CoMotion programs and mentors and become part of a community committed to helping you succeed. 

Possible participation in Innovation Gap Fund – selection is competitive and award is to the UW research team, not to the entrepreneurs. Award timing would be after the CASCADE program. SBIR/STTR application support is also available. We are happy to introduce you to our ecosystem’s early-stage VCs upon request when the time is right.  

Applicants must be available January 4 – 15, 2027 for online interviews. Candidates who move forward must also be available January 18 – 29, 2027 to participate in virtual matchmaking meetings with UW innovators. 

The inaugural cohort will be required to attend an in-person, one-day orientation meeting at the UW Seattle campus during the week of February 16, 2027.  

CASCADE runs from February 16 to June 30, 2027. Over this period, participants will work on building their startup, optionally participate in CoMotion programs, regularly interact with assigned mentors that will help them move forward, and meet with CoMotion Leadership, culminating in executing an option to license.  

We are looking for experienced entrepreneurs. We will be looking at entrepreneurial track record, technical and market fluency, opportunity enthusiasm, learning agility and coachability, experience working with academic researchers and universities (if any), and communication skills, among other qualities. 

No.

Orientation is in person at UW Seattle during the week of February 16 (date TBD). Interview and matchmaking meetings are virtual. We will consider remote participants, but you may not be able to fully benefit from in person CoMotion programming and networking opportunities. Remote participants are expected to meet all program requirements (including regular meetings with assigned mentors and CoMotion leadership). 

We are looking for CEOs of new startups. You can however build your team how you see fit. 

Entrepreneurs must have the time, flexibility, and bandwidth to form a startup. This means conducting customer discovery, creating a business plan, defining and meeting milestones, go to market strategy, team and capital. There is also time needed for attending applicable CoMotion programming and meeting with mentors and CoMotion leadership. This is an outcomes-based program.

You can select and rank order up to three innovations. We will attempt to match you with your first choice but cannot guarantee this will be the case and will then move on to your next choice. Final matches will be made based on mutual fit after you have a chance to meet the UW innovators.  

This is a pilot program. We have 18 available innovations to match and could potentially match all 18.  

Entrepreneurs must take an option or a license by the end of the program June 30, 2027. Please refer to the [CASCADE 2027 Exclusive Startup Option Agreement Template].

CASCADE is for commercializing University of Washington innovations, and not about sourcing innovations from outside. We are looking for entrepreneurs to build a company around the UW innovation.

CoMotion is happy to hear from you for licensing questions that are outside of the CASCADE program – write to us at [email protected] and include “Licensing inquiry for [technology]” in the subject line.

Established companies are not eligible to participate in the CASCADE program. 

The technologies selected for the CASCADE process will go through the entrepreneur review and selection process and will not be available for licensing outside of the program while that process is ongoing. Should a technology NOT be selected to proceed in the CASCADE cohort, then licensing inquiries will be reviewed. 

It will be considered inappropriate to reach out to a research team outside of the CASCADE matchmaking process. Entrepreneur applicants who move forward will have an opportunity to meet with the UW innovators.