AWARE: Cultivating the Diversity of the Health Care Innovation Ecosystem

这一加速妇女和代表不足的企业家(AWARE)项目的更广泛影响是提高妇女和少数族裔拥有的企业在获得NSF小型企业创新研究(SBIR)/小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)资金方面的成功，从而导致一个多样化和响应性的创新生态系统，将少数族裔企业家与现有的支持来源联系起来，最终改善美国人，特别是弱势群体的健康。医疗保健是一个高度监管的环境，需要达到一定程度的科学和临床严谨，这对许多企业家来说都是一种挑战。另一方面，学术研究人员精通在研究研究中接触适当的患者群体、临床准确性和相关性、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惠互利的合作和培训，以确定使接受SBIR资助的主要调查员群体多样化的最佳做法。培训将侧重于NSF SBIR/STTR项目要求，而专家的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身临其境的培训中，为那些已经拥有潜在的高风险-高回报技术并具有商业潜力的代表不足的企业家提供培训。拟议的项目将开发和测试Aware Immersion计划，以提高由传统上处于不利地位和在该计划中代表不足的初创公司提交的SBIR/STTR提案的质量和数量。通过定性和定量相结合的方法，将确定成功女性和少数早期企业家(毕业于顶级加速器项目)提交SBIR的障碍和促进者。该计划将基于对少数族裔和女性企业家以及孵化器和创新计划的关键领导人进行的广泛需求评估。这些发现将指导沉浸计划的具体要素的发展。第一批企业家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。招聘的人员将与在SBIR/STTR资助方面有经验的卫生保健研究人员和临床医生以及商业和商业专业人员相匹配。该计划将包括一些网络研讨会、面对面培训、计划会议和写作会议。每个企业家将在项目开始时与他们的导师/顾问团队一起制定行动计划，该计划将受到监督，以确保实现明确的目标，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.