Advancing Women And underRepresented Entrepreneurs (AWARE): ACCelerating Entrepreneurial succeSS (ACCESS): Building Innovation Capacity through Diversity

加速女性和未被充分代表的企业家（AWARE）加速创业成功（ACCESS）项目的更广泛影响是，积极让未被充分代表的群体参与创业，并通过利用不同人口的宝贵智力资本来建立创新能力，提高美国以科技为导向的竞争力。该项目旨在扩大弱势群体（女性、非裔美国人、西班牙裔/拉丁裔、亚裔美国人、印第安人）的教职员工、博士后研究员和学生对商业化的参与和接触，丰富沟通机制，促进包容性创业。提高妇女和代表性不足的企业家的竞争力，以成功获得小企业创新研究/小企业技术转让研究（SBIR/STTR）的资助。该项目将支持妇女和未被充分代表的创新者，让他们了解通过将其基于技术的产品商业化将其发现付诸实践所带来的好处。AWARE: ACCESS项目将使妇女和未被充分代表的创新者成为成功的企业家，并为增加新兴技术进入市场的渠道扩大新的范例。创业创新者的多样化将提供更广泛的宝贵资源网络？从而提高科学和技术知识，增加国家培养有能力、训练有素的技术企业家的渠道。拟议的项目解决了女性和少数族裔创新者在获得SBIR/STTR资金方面取得的不成比例的有限成功，尽管她们在总人口、STEM毕业生和企业主中占很大比例。该计划的四个目标是：1)识别、吸引、鼓励和指导女性和未被充分代表的创新者，将创业作为一种职业道路；2)扩大妇女和代表性不足的企业家获得教育、经验和网络的机会；3)增加这些创新国家的SBIR/STTR申请量和竞争力；4)与其他机构分享最佳实践，创建一个区域生态系统，为创业女性和未被充分代表的创新者提供有吸引力、有益的体验和氛围。这些目标将通过六个关键组成部分的协同互动来实现：1)创新创业资源中心；2)企业家人才匹配系列；3)资助写作援助计划；4)阶段双零补充方案；5)商业化与创业峰会；6)向社会推广和分享成功的故事。拟议的项目将培养一批训练有素、以创业为导向的妇女和代表性不足的创新者，他们可以激励其他人参与SBIR/STTR进程并取得成功，并融入创新生态系统和社区。

The broader impact of this Accelerating Women And underRepresented Entrepreneurs (AWARE) ACCelerating Entrepreneurial succeSS (ACCESS) project is to proactively engage underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship and increase the science and technology oriented competitiveness of the U.S. by harnessing the valuable intellectual capital of diverse populations to build innovation capacity. The program is specially designed to broaden participation and access of faculty, staff, post-doctoral fellows and students from underrepresented populations (defined as female, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American, Native American) in commercialization, enrich communication mechanisms to promote inclusive entrepreneurship, and enhance the competitiveness of women and underrepresented entrepreneurs to succeed in securing Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (SBIR/STTR) funding. The program will support and engage women and underrepresented innovators on the benefits of moving their discoveries into practice through commercialization of their technology-based products. The AWARE: ACCESS program will empower women and underrepresented innovators to be successful entrepreneurs as well as expand a new paradigm for increasing the pipeline of emerging technologies to the marketplace. A diversification of entrepreneurial innovators will provide a wider network of valuable resources ? thereby enhancing scientific and technological knowledge and increasing the national pipeline of enabled, well-trained technology entrepreneurs. The proposed project addresses the disproportionately limited success that women and minority innovators have had in securing SBIR/STTR funds even though they represent a significant share of the general population, STEM graduates and business owners. The four goals of this program are to: 1) identify, engage, encourage, and mentor women and underrepresented innovators to consider entrepreneurship as a career path; 2) expand access for women and underrepresented entrepreneurs to educational, experiential and networking opportunities; 3) increase the volume and enhance competitiveness of the SBIR/STTR applications of these innovators; and, 4) share best practices with other institutions to create a regional ecosystem that provides an inviting, rewarding experience and climate for entrepreneurial women and underrepresented innovators. These goals will be achieved through the synergistic interaction of six key components: 1) An Innovation Entrepreneurship Resource Center; 2) Entrepreneur talent matching series; 3) Grant writing assistance program; 4) Phase Double Zero supplement program; 5) Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit; and, 6) Outreach and sharing of success stories to the community. The proposed project will develop a cadre of well-trained, entrepreneurial-oriented women and underrepresented innovators who can inspire others toward engaging and succeeding in the SBIR/STTR process and assimilate into the innovation ecosystem and community.