MONET partnered with Duke's Innovation & Entrepreneurship office to deliver a four-session Technology Commercialization Bootcamp for nine early-career scientists. The program addressed a clear gap: trainees entered with strong research backgrounds but minimal exposure to commercialization frameworks, reporting an average confidence of just 2.7 out of 10 and tool familiarity of 1.5 out of 5. By the final session, those numbers had shifted dramatically. Confidence rose to 6.8, and familiarity with commercialization tools reached 3.6, a 140% increase.

The strongest gains came in the areas trainees initially found most foreign. Customer discovery confidence jumped 5.3 points, market segmentation rose 4.4, and market sizing increased 4.3. These were the exact skills participants had identified as barriers: the vocabulary gap between science and business, uncertainty about how to identify market opportunities, and lack of access to industry networks. The bootcamp met trainees where they were, providing hands-on frameworks for jobs-to-be-done interviewing, beachhead market selection, and IP landscape analysis. Participants worked in teams on real MONET technologies, including 3D printing materials, virus-like particle delivery for agriculture, and polymer chemistry data tools. The result: a cohort that moved from theoretical awareness to practical readiness, equipped to translate their research into real-world applications.