AWARE: Cultivating the Diversity of the Health Care Innovation Ecosystem

这个加速女性和代表性不足的企业家（AWARE）项目的更广泛影响是提高女性和少数族裔企业获得NSF小企业创新研究（SBIR）/小企业技术转让研究（STTR）资金的成功率，从而建立一个多元化且响应迅速的创新生态系统，将少数族裔企业家与现有支持来源联系起来，最终改善美国人的健康，尤其是弱势群体。 医疗保健是一个高度监管的环境，需要一定程度的科学和临床严谨性，这对许多企业家构成了挑战。 另一方面，学术研究人员精通有关接触适当患者群体、临床准确性和相关性、研究中人类受试者保护等问题。 该项目将在代表性不足的企业家和学术研究人员之间建立互利的合作和培训，以确定使接受SBIR资助的主要研究人员多样化的最佳做法。 培训将侧重于NSF SBIR/STTR计划要求，而专家指导将支持企业家开发，审查和完善关键提案要素以及实施，研究和商业化计划。这种模式将把所有这些资源和专业知识整合到一个沉浸式培训中，为那些已经拥有潜在高风险高回报技术并具有商业潜力的代表性不足的企业家提供培训。 拟议的项目将开发和测试AWARE沉浸计划，以提高传统上处于不利地位且在该计划中代表性不足的初创公司提交的SBIR/STTR提案的质量和数量。 通过混合定性和定量方法，将确定成功女性和少数民族早期企业家（从顶级加速器计划毕业）提交SBIR的障碍和促进因素。 该计划将基于对少数民族和妇女企业家以及孵化器和创新计划的主要领导人的广泛需求评估。 调查结果将指导沉浸式课程的具体内容的发展。 第一批创业者将通过现有的孵化器网络和我们建立的社区和创业网络招募。 那些被招募的人将与具有SBIR/STTR资金经验的医疗保健研究人员和临床医生以及商业和商业专业人士相匹配。 该计划将包括一些网络研讨会，面对面的培训，规划会议和写作会议。 每个企业家将在项目开始时与他们的导师/咨询团队制定一项行动计划，该计划将受到监督，以确保达到明确的目标，最终提交SBIR/STTR提案。

The broader impact of this Accelerating Women and Under-Represented Entrepreneurs (AWARE) project is to enhance success for women- and minority-owned businesses in obtaining NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) funding, thereby leading to a diverse and responsive innovation ecosystem connecting minority entrepreneurs with existing sources of support that ultimately improves the health of Americans, especially disadvantaged populations. Health care is a highly regulated environment that requires a level of scientific and clinical rigor that challenges many entrepreneurs. Academic researchers, on the other hand, are well-versed in issues regarding access to appropriate patient populations, clinical accuracy and relevance, human subjects' protection in research studies. This project will build mutually-beneficial collaborations and training among underrepresented entrepreneurs and academic researchers to determine best practices for diversifying the pool of principal investigators receiving SBIR funding. Training will focus on NSF SBIR/STTR program requirements while mentorship by experts will support entrepreneurs in the development, review and refinement of key proposal elements and implementation, research and commercialization plans. This model will bring all of these resources and expertise into one immersive training for underrepresented entrepreneurs who already have potentially high risk-high reward technology with evidence for commercial potential. The proposed project will develop and test the AWARE Immersion Program to increase both the quality and quantity of SBIR/STTR proposals submitted by startup companies that traditionally have been disadvantaged and underrepresented in the program. Through mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the barriers and facilitators to SBIR submission for successful women and minority early entrepreneurs (graduated from a top accelerator program) will be determined. The program will be based on this extensive needs assessment with minority and women entrepreneurs and key leaders of incubators and innovation programs. The findings will guide the development of the specific elements of the immersion program. The first group of entrepreneurs will be recruited through the existing network of incubators and through our established community and entrepreneurial networks. Those recruited will be matched to health care researchers and clinicians with experience in SBIR/STTR funding as well as business and commercial professionals. The program will consist of a number of webinars, in-person trainings, planning meetings and writing sessions. Each entrepreneur will develop a plan of action with their mentor/advisory team at the start of the program which will be monitored to ensure that clear objectives met, culminating in the submission of an SBIR/STTR proposal.