Impact

We are a catalyst for impact inventions

Driving lasting social, economic, and environmental benefits

Our broad partner network and strategic initiatives aim to inspire inventive mindsets in youth, increase access to invention and entrepreneurship education, support the launch, early incubation, and mentoring of invention-based enterprises, and reduce carbon emissions.

Impact Spotlights

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January 31, 2025

Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures.

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Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

January 31, 2025

This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures.

Kory Murphy: A Legacy Defined by One Play and a Life of Innovation

September 18, 2024

Thirty years ago, Kory Murphy’s life took a pivotal turn on a football field in Hawaii.

Meet the Woman Who is Transforming Early Breast Cancer Detection in India

July 28, 2022

From Waste to Wattage

December 19, 2023

This student inventor uses an innovative renewable energy source to help monitor natural disasters.

As Earth Heats Up, This Inventor is Focused on Keeping Cool

June 4, 2021

Legacy Impact

Shortly after its founding, The Lemelson Foundation launched three critical partnerships, all focused on recognizing and celebrating invention and cultivating the next generation of inventors. These legacy partners have greatly influenced our understanding of how we can have an impact in supporting invention.

Founded in 1995 through a generous gift from Jerome Lemelson and his family, the Center documents, interprets, and disseminates information about invention and innovation; encourages inventive creativity in young people; and, fosters an appreciation for the central role that invention and innovation play in the history of the United States.

Founded in 1994 by Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson, the Lemelson-MIT (LMIT) Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a national leader in efforts to prepare the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs. LMIT focuses on the expansion of opportunities for young people to learn ways inventors find and solve problems that matter.

Founded with support from The Lemelson Foundation, VentureWell fosters collaboration among the best minds from research labs, classrooms, and beyond to advance innovation and entrepreneurship education and to provide unique opportunities for STEM students and researchers to fully realize their potential to improve the world.

All Resources

Climate Action
The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth

We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.

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Climate Action
Indigenizing Catalytic Capital

First Peoples Worldwide (FPW) studied the role that catalytic capital plays in “forwarding self-determination and non-extractive investing” for Indigneous Peoples in the United States. “Native Peoples have built economic power; Native businesses are flourishing; and there are ample opportunities to fund successful Native enterprises both on and off reservations,” according to the new report, Indigenizing Catalytic Capital.

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Climate Action
Funding trends 2024: Climate change mitigation philanthropy

The report traces the evolution of climate philanthropy and highlights ways to support bold climate action.

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Climate Action
AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023

The IPCC finalized the Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment Report during the Panel’s 58th Session held in Interlaken, Switzerland from 13 – 19 March 2023.

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Climate Action
ACE/CIRCLE: Growing and Diversifying Youth Climate Activism

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) partnered to examine how climate-focused organizations can reach a wider diversity of young people, both to strengthen their efforts and to deepen youth civic and political engagement.

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Climate Action
Clear Path to A Clean Energy Future

This second edition of “Clear Path to a Clean Energy Future” updates the inaugural edition, tracking the power sector, clean technology, and policy trends in America. In our previous report, we identified that utility commitments contribute to significant additional reductions in emissions beyond what was projected in our reference case. Still, underinvestments in new technologies and retirement of the existing nuclear fleet could result in a rebound in emissions out to 2050.

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Climate Action
Insurance and climate risks: Policy lessons from three bounding scenarios

This report identifies policy lessons based on the investigation of three bounding scenarios designed to address the question of how near-term (1 to 3 y) policy and regulatory choices surrounding insurance markets in Florida could influence medium-term (3 to 15 y) risk levels, disaster recovery, housing markets, and local economic outcomes.

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Climate Action
Sustainable Cooling for All in Kenya

Cooling and cold chains are vital for healthcare and vaccines, for nutrition and agricultural value chains, for thermal comfort at home, work, school, in transportation, and for industrial processes and data centres. Affordable and sustainable cooling is essential for a thriving society and a healthy nation, sitting at the intersection of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Engineering for One Planet
The Engineering for One Planet Framework

This draft curricular framework for the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) initiative from the Foundation and VentureWell will help accelerate integration of environmental and sustainability principles in engineering education.

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Engineering for One Planet
Teaching Environmentally Responsible Inventing – Higher Education Environmental Landscape Research & Analysis Phase I

This qualitative study identifies best practices in teaching Environmental Responsibility to inventors and innovators in higher education.

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Engineering for One Planet
Inventing Green: A Toolkit for Sustainable Design

This toolkit prepared by VentureWell helps early-stage inventors understand how the lifecycle of their products will affect the environment.

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Engineering for One Planet
I2E Inventing Green Tool

NESsT provides an online tool that simplifies the process of assessing and tracking environmental impact for companies in the U.S. and developing countries that have started early production and sales and are validating or preparing to scale.

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Engineering for One Planet
Business Sustainability Booster (BSB)

Presidio Graduate School’s Business Sustainability Booster (BSB), an extension to the well-known “Business Model Canvas” (BMC), guides leaders of startups and existing enterprises through a set of questions to make their business models more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

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Engineering for One Planet
Impact Inventing: Going Green

This 2016 report from the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) explores the areas where invention-based entrepreneurs who promote environmental responsibility require ecosystem-level support in order to succeed.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Clean Energy

This 2021 report from Endeavor Insight analyzes the challenges and opportunities for invention-based enterprises and service companies in clean energy in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Agriculture

This 2021 report from Endeavor Insight examines innovative companies in agriculture in Africa to understand how they can maximize their impact in support of the SDGs.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Impact Financing for Hardware Startups

This 2018 resource guide is for investors interested in working with Indian product-based entrepreneurs to deliver impact at scale, and provides a case study of The Lemelson Foundation’s use of Masala bonds for Program-Related Investments.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Hardware Pioneers

In this 2016 report, FSG investigates obstacles to bringing innovative technologies, such as solar lanterns or low-cost medical devices, to under-resourced communities in developing countries.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
What’s Working in Startup Acceleration: Insights from Fifteen Village Capital Programs

This 2016 report studies the effectiveness of accelerator programs for entrepreneurs in emerging markets working in sectors such as agriculture, energy, education, financial inclusion and health.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Global Accelerator Learning Initiative

The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) uncovers best practices around global business accelerator programs.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Catalyzing Capital for Invention: Spotlight on India

This 2015 field study examines India’s ecosystem to enable social enterprise, and provides action steps for building support systems in other countries.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Impact Inventing: Strengthening the Ecosystem for Invention-based Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets

This 2014 report from the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) details what resources are available for invention-based businesses, what ecosystem level gaps remain and what tangible actions can be taken to fill those gaps.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
50 Breakthroughs The 50 most critical scientific & technological breakthroughs required for sustainable global development

This 2014 study from the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab highlights the critical scientific and technological advances needed for sustainable development.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
AVPA priming private sector investment in climate adaptation innovations in East Africa

This report aims to identify the needs for physical climate adaptation technologies in East Africa, the investment opportunities, and the practical routes to investment.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
SELCO reports: Sustainable Energy Led Climate Action Program

SELCAP offers a comprehensive, compelling, practical way forward to advance development, adapt to climate change, and alleviate poverty in a holistic manner.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Villgro A Practitioner’s guide to blended finance solutions for social enterprises

Villgro’s comprehensive analysis of the challenges each key stakeholder group faces when trying to put the idea of blended finance into action makes a pragmatic set of recommendations based on Villgro’s own first-hand experiences, specific to enabling impact through social enterprises within India.

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Invention & Entrepreneurship
Pollinate Impact Potluck

2023 Post Potluck Report & Insights

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Invention Education
Researching Invention Education

Released at InventEd 2019, Researching Invention Education extends the work published in the April 2019 issue of Technology and Innovation Journal focused on the structure, execution and results of local and national invention education programs from primary school through higher education. Researching Invention Education consolidates the current knowledge base that informs the current work.

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Invention Education
A Framework For Invention Education

The Invention Education Framework promotes consistency and rigor in the field by identifying the principles and characteristics of both formal and informal best-in-class K-12 Invention Education learning experiences. More than 100 community stakeholders – including in- and out-of-school time educators, business leaders, education researchers, nonprofits, policy makers, inventors and representatives of the philanthropic community.

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Invention Education
InventionEducation.org

This site produced by The Lemelson Foundation and partners provides resources for educators, administrators and other stakeholders about Invention Education in the U.S.

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Invention Education
Who Becomes an Inventor in America?

This comprehensive 2017 analysis shows that exposure to innovation during childhood has a significant causal effect on a child’s propensity to become an inventor.

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