Activate Technical Reviewer Registration
Activate Fellowship FAQ
Activate Technical Reviewer FAQ
Activate empowers scientists to bring their research to market by providing two years of funding, mentorship, and a network to help them build companies around breakthrough technologies. We rely on industry experts to weigh in on each project's technical and market viability, so we select fellows who can make the biggest impact across all five of our communities.
The experts who review applications are a big part of that impact. Their insight directly shapes who advances to interviews, to Finalist Week, and ultimately into the Fellowship.
Technical Reviewer Criteria
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Technical or market knowledge in at least one of our sixteen Verticals
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8+ years of experience
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Profile of person can be academic, industry, investor, entrepreneur, or government
About the Review Process
The applications are about 5 pages and the review form is also succinct.
Ways you can get involved:
- External Review (Nov. 23 to Dec. 6)
Get an early look at some of the most innovative hard tech coming out of labs today. You'll review up to 10 applications (about 5 pages each) and score them on technical credibility, market viability, and fit. Most reviewers spend 2.5–5 hours total, on their own schedule. - Finalist Week (March 15–19)
Meet the finalists live. In 45-minute virtual sessions, you'll hear finalists pitch their technology, ask them questions, and share feedback directly with our selection team. Most attendees join 3–4 sessions over the week.
The applications are about 5 pages and the review form is also succinct.
Timeline
- On Nov 23rd, you will receive an email from Activate with instructions for completing your reviews, as well as guidance on how to log in to our review portal.
- We ask that you complete your reviews by 5:00 PM PST on December 6th. If you are having difficulty completing your reviews on time, please contact Tyler Volpe (tyler.volpe@activate.org) for support.
- Optional attendance of finalist pitches throughout the week of Mar 15 - 19, 2027.
Application Selection Criteria
We ask reviewers to evaluate the project concepts based on the following criteria. Our team relies on your expertise to ensure that the proposed projects are feasible and offer the potential for impact. Please assume each application originated from a strong and adaptable leader when providing feedback to our team.
- Technical merit: Project is rooted in sound scientific principles, and proof of concept has been established
- Differentiation: Project is a significant step forward in the field, additional to ecosystem, or offers unparalleled performance as compared to state of the art, and is reasonably differentiated from existing solutions and commercial efforts
- Commercial viability: Project has a credible path to creating value in the market at scale, including viable entry markets or the potential to pivot
- Impact: Project is aligned with Activate’s mission of science for good, has a hardware component, and has the potential to advance one or more industries without an established go-to-market pathway (e.g. pharmaceuticals) beyond incremental improvements.
Your participation in our process is essential to selecting the fellows that can have the biggest impact in areas such as advanced manufacturing and carbon management. This form takes less than 2 minutes to complete.
Confidentiality & Conflict of Interest Requirements
We expect participants in the written review to follow the requirements below in the evaluation of fellowship application materials:
- I will not disclose, during the course of the evaluation and thereafter, any information that has been disclosed to me in the course of the evaluation, including the content of any applications and Activate’s evaluation process (together, the “confidential information”), to anyone, except as authorized by Activate.
- I will not use any confidential information except for the sole purpose of evaluating the applications on behalf of Activate as instructed by Activate.
- I will not contact any fellowship applicant concerning their application or the fellowship, unless authorized by Activate.
- I certify that I am not aware of any matter which might reduce my ability to participate in the application evaluation in an objective and unbiased manner, or which might place me in a position of conflict, real or apparent, between my responsibilities as an evaluator and other interests.
- In making this certification I have considered all my financial interests and employment arrangements (past, present, or under consideration), including those of my spouse or domestic partner, my children, and other members of my immediate household. I will notify Activate immediately as soon as I become aware of any circumstance that may result in me no longer being able to make this certification or this certification no longer remaining true, and thereafter, until advised to the contrary by Activate, I will not participate further in any way in the evaluation process.
- Neither I, my spouse or domestic partner, my children, nor members of my immediate household will accept anything of monetary value from any person, firm, or organization affiliated with an application, even seemingly trivial courtesies, which can present the appearance of impropriety or create a subtle sense of obligation and must be avoided.
Using Artificial Intelligence in your Review
Above all, we value your analysis based on your subject-matter expertise. AI can be a useful tool to support this analysis; however, we ask the following if you choose to use it:
- Use AI tools for getting an update on recent scientific and commercial developments, and to help confirm or disprove technical differentiation or market viability — but do not generate your review or scoring rationale with AI.
- Your evaluation should reflect your own expert judgment. If AI helped you understand a concept, verify it against your own knowledge before it informs your score.
- Do not paste applicant materials into public/consumer AI tools. Applications may contain confidential IP; treat them accordingly.
Sometimes the topic and reviewer are not a good fit; you are not obligated to generate a review if it is outside your expertise.
By submitting this form, you are confirming your intent to participate as a reviewer and agreeing to abide by the confidentiality and COI requirements listed below:
Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Requirements
We expect participants in the written review to follow the below requirements in the evaluation of fellowship application materials.
I will not disclose, during the course of the evaluation and thereafter, any information that has been disclosed to me in the course of the evaluation, including the content of any applications and Activate’s evaluation process (together, the “confidential information”), to anyone, except as authorized by Activate.
I will not use any confidential information except for the sole purpose of evaluating the applications on behalf of Activate as instructed by Activate.
I will not contact any fellowship applicant concerning their application or the fellowship, unless authorized by Activate.
I certify that I am not aware of any matter which might reduce my ability to participate in the application evaluation in an objective and unbiased manner, or which might place me in a position of conflict, real or apparent, between my responsibilities as an evaluator and other interests.
In making this certification I have considered all my financial interests and employment arrangements (past, present, or under consideration, including those of my spouse or domestic partner, my children, and other members of my immediate household. I will notify Activate immediately as soon as I become aware of any circumstance that may result in me no longer being able to make this certification or this certification no longer remaining true, and thereafter, until advised to the contrary by Activate, I will not participate further in any way in the evaluation process.
Neither I, my spouse or domestic partner, my children, nor members of my immediate household will accept anything of monetary value from any person, firm, or organization affiliated with an application, even seemingly trivial courtesies, which can present the appearance of impropriety or create a subtle sense of obligation and must be avoided.
