I'm not Steve, obviously, but I imagine that at some point an uplift process could be coded, or perhaps the NPRs will eventually discover TN tech on their own. It's a big part of the Starfire system which AURora took inspiration from, so I imagine it will be possible someday.
The one time Steve commented on it, he implied that the 'uplift' system he would code would be to delete the pre-TN NPR empire (but keep the race) and roll a new TN empire with the same pop but minimal starting research.
