Washington state graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited to apply for part-time roles evaluating WRF’s grants and investments
Seattle, WA – April 29, 2026
Washington Research Foundation (WRF) will accept applications between April 30 and May 17, 2026, for the ninth cohort of WRF Venture Analysts to support its grantmaking and venture investment activities. 34 analysts have worked with WRF since the program launched in 2019.
WRF Venture Analysts are Washington state graduate students in the sciences, business students with a strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) background, or postdoctoral fellows. Selected candidates are appointed for one year and work part time alongside WRF staff, evaluating grant and investment opportunities under consideration by the Foundation. Analysts build hands-on experience in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship while contributing specialized scientific knowledge across a wide range of disciplines.
Rhett Britton and Aquene Reid, selected in 2025, will continue in the program as WRF Senior Venture Analysts.
Joe Albe, Ph.D., WRF’s manager of grants and venture research, is a former WRF Venture Analyst and now leads the program.
“Each cohort brings new depth of scientific expertise that makes WRF a more effective partner to the researchers and entrepreneurs we support,” said Albe. “The Venture Analyst program is a distinctive opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to develop real-world skills in technology commercialization and venture investment, and to contribute directly to WRF’s mission of advancing high-impact research across Washington’s innovation ecosystem.”
WRF Venture Analyst alumni hold positions across academia, industry and with startups. Several have joined companies that are commercializing technologies developed at Washington state research institutions.
For more information, please visit https://www.wrfseattle.org/about-us/venture-analysts/. An online information session will take place on Friday, May 8, at 10 a.m. (Pacific). Please send an email to ventureanalyst@wrfseattle.org to request the Zoom link.
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About Washington Research Foundation:
Washington Research Foundation (WRF) supports research and scholarship in Washington state, with a focus on life sciences and enabling technologies.
WRF was founded in 1981 to assist universities and other nonprofit research institutions in Washington with the commercialization and licensing of their technologies. WRF became one of the foremost technology transfer organizations in the nation, earning more than $445 million in licensing revenue for the University of Washington. To date, WRF has provided over $189 million in grants to the state’s research institutions.
WRF Capital, the investment vehicle for Washington Research Foundation, has backed 132 local startups since 1996. Returns support the Foundation’s grantmaking and investment programs.
