I-Corps: Continuation and Expansion of Training and Evaluation Support

I-Corps计划旨在通过促进实验室技术的转化和实现商业化来增加NSF研究资金和其他研究资金的经济和社会影响。 此外，I-Corps计划旨在开始为科学家和工程师提供开发经济上可扩展的技术商业化商业模式的技能和经验。 计划参与者专注于学习和使用结构化的过程，使他们能够收集用户和潜在客户的输入，以评估和定义从基础研究到具有商业潜力和社会效益的应用的转化路径。大约50%的I-Corps团队继续组建公司，在包括健康，能源，材料，农业和信息技术在内的广泛领域开展业务。 这个结构化的，可重复的计划涉及机构和教师的国家社区提供培训，导致经济成果。 通过拟议的工作，VentureWell将支持2700多名I-Corps参与者的培训。拟议中的努力还将产生更多的I军团教师，以增加教师库的多样性，加强项目教学法，并推进系统的数据收集和立即参与该计划的团队的跟踪。NSF在2011年建立了I-Corps创业培训计划，以培训NSF-受资助的研究人员和其他研究人员如何评估他们在科学和工程方面的科学研究的商业潜力。VentureWell以系统、及时的方式对项目成果进行评估并跟踪项目影响，对于大规模实施一致、有效、高保真的项目以及衡量长期项目成果至关重要。这项工作的核心智力价值是洞察到该计划的影响，无论是经济成果和参与者的职业和研究成果，随着时间的推移。为了获得这种洞察力，VentureWell评估每个队列的教学交付，管理纵向成果调查，并独立跟踪风险成果，以验证计划影响数据。有效跟踪成果并为技术型企业的发展提供见解的流程和数据系统也是这项工作的产物。通过2024财年开始至2026财年结束的工作，VentureWell将支持国家I-Corps计划和Beat-the-Odds靴子Camp的虚拟培训，同时促进教学学习的策划和传播，以进一步发展国家I-Corps讲师。VentureWell将继续促进国家创新网络（NIN）内的工作，以传播有效的课程实践，成果和影响，使NIN能够有效地采用这些方法并使其制度化。这一支持将进一步推动NSF的目标，即推动I-Corps作为一个基础性的企业家培训计划，以达到全国各地的创新者。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The I-Corps program aims to increase the economic and societal impact of NSF research funding and other research funding by facilitating translation of technologies from the laboratory and enabling commercialization. In addition, the I-Corps Program is designed to begin to equip scientists and engineers with skills and experience in developing economically scalable business models for technology commercialization. Program participants focus on learning and using a structured process that enables them to gather input from users and potential customers to evaluate and define a translational path from fundamental research into applications that have commercial potential and societal benefit. Approximately 50% of I-Corps teams go on to form companies operating in a broad range of sectors including health, energy, materials, agriculture, and information technology. This structured, repeatable program engages a national community of institutions and faculty to deliver training that results in economic outcomes. Through the proposed work, VentureWell will support the training of more than 2700 additional individual I-Corps participants. The proposed effort also will generate additional I-Corps instructors to increase the diversity of the faculty pool, enhance the program pedagogy, and advance the systematic data collection and tracking of teams immediately participating in the program.NSF established the I-Corps entrepreneurial training program in 2011 to train NSF-funded and other researchers how to evaluate the commercial potential of their scientific research in science and engineering. VentureWell's evaluation of program outcomes and tracking of program impact in a systematic, timely way has been critical to the operation of a consistent, effective, high-fidelity program at scale, and to the measurement of long-term program results. The core intellectual merit of this work is the insight provided into the program's impact—both economic outcomes and participants' career and research outcomes—over time. To gain this insight, VentureWell evaluates the instructional delivery of each cohort, administers a longitudinal outcomes survey, and tracks venture outcomes independently to verify program impact data. The processes and data systems that efficiently track outcomes and provide insights into the development of technology-based ventures are a product of this work as well. Through the work proposed starting in FY 2024 and ending in FY 2026, VentureWell will support the virtual training of the National I-Corps Program and the Beat-the-Odds Boot Camp while facilitating the curation and dissemination of the pedagogical learnings to enable further development of the National I-Corps instructors. VentureWell will continue to facilitate work within the National Innovation Network (NIN) to disseminate effective course practices, outcomes, and impact enabling the NIN to effectively adopt and institutionalize these approaches. This support will further NSF's goal of advancing I-Corps as a foundational entrepreneur training program to reach innovators across the country.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.