Overview

The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a suite of activities and programs that aim to:

• Accelerate the transition ideas to the marketplace.
• Encourage collaboration between academia and industry.
• Train students to understand innovation and entrepreneurship.

I-Corps is a public-private partnership program that teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and offers entrepreneurship training to student participants. There are 3 components of the I-Corps program that work together to grow and sustain the national innovation ecosystem.

I-Corps Nodes support regional needs for innovation education, infrastructure and research.

I-Corps Sites nurture and support teams in academic institutions to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace.

I-Corps Teams participate to learn what it takes to achieve commercial impact of their innovation.

I-Corps Site Process

1.   Team composed of three members submits an application:

• Entrepreneurial Lead will be postdoctoral scholar, graduate or undergraduate student with relevant knowledge of the technology and deep commitment to investigating the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation.
• Academic Lead  will be a faculty member or senior research scientist with a deep understanding of the core technology.
• Business Mentor will be an experienced or emerging entrepreneur with experience in transitioning technology out of academic labs.

2.   Selection committee chooses up to 10 applicants per cohort based on:

• Team and Commitment
• Intellectual Property Strength
• Technology Strength
• Commercial Potential/Applications

3.   Team completes the program focused on Lean LaunchPad methodology:

• Customers/Users Discovery
• Business Modeling
• Competitive Analysis
• Presentation Skills

4. Team make three presentations to three different panels of experts.

5. Team makes a go/no-go decision on pursuing commercialization.

Program Benefits

• Seed funding up to $3000 per team for prototyping and customer discovery
• Education workshops on customer discovery, business modeling and presentations
• Mentoring by experts in business, technology and commercialization

Use of Funds

I-Corps funding of up to $3000 can be used to support various entrepreneurial activities including:

• Prototyping including materials and supplies
• Travel to meetings, conferences, trade shows and workshops for the purpose of customer discovery

Schedule

Application Deadline: October 24, 2021

Workshop I: October 29, 2021, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

Workshop II: November 12, 2021, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

Workshop III: November 19, 2021, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.