Enhancing NSF's Impact on STEM Translation and Commercialization Success

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一个全面的创业培训计划，为参与者提供科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)翻译和商业化成功所需的知识和技能集。随着全球经济竞争日益由创新驱动，各级政府正在积极寻找增加行业和社会部门创新的方法。其中正在积极推动的是促进基于大学和研究机构开发的早期技术的高增长初创企业。然而，大学的教职员工和学生研究人员往往缺乏创业的知识和技能，无法将他们的技术商业化。事实证明，i-Corps计划等项目是确定这项技术的商业利益和商业可行性的极好起点，但数据显示，i-Corps参与者缺乏创业的基本知识和信心，这可能会阻碍初创企业的形成和未来的创业成功。初创企业天生就是高风险的，深度科技初创企业的失败率更高。拟议中的计划将为研究人员提供创业培训和指导，超越i-Corps培训，为学术研究人员提供启动创业所需的信息和信心，将他们的技术商业化。此外，拟议的计划可能有助于降低启动失败率。最初的目标是促进大学开发的技术的翻译和商业化，特别是在美国缺乏这些资源的地区，并将该计划扩大到政府资助的小企业创新研究(SBIR)和小企业技术转移(STTR)公司，以及社区中其他为商业应用开发技术的公司，以增强美国的经济竞争力。该项目的智力优势基于制定创业培训计划，以加强和补充NSF当前的I-Corps计划。拟议的计划建立在i-Corps计划的基础上并进行了扩展，i-Corps计划使用客户发现过程来验证客户细分和价值主张，并引入了商业模式画布的其他方面，以提供启动创业企业将技术商业化所需的知识和技能。拟议的计划旨在提供I-Corps培训之前和之后的额外创业培训。涵盖的主题将包括验证商业模式、创建团队组建、商业登记、知识产权许可和保护、资金来源、向投资者推介，以及为初创公司的增长和退出战略做准备。此外，该项目将包括一个加速器部分，为成功完成培训的处于萌芽阶段的公司提供额外的支持服务，包括特定行业的指导和额外研究的资金，以开发和测试最低限度可行的产品。拟议的计划包括一项概念验证研究，将在短、中、长期间隔内对多个比较组和影响结果指标进行准实验设计，实地测试该计划的有效性。该计划可能有助于增加大学开发的技术的转化和商业化，推进未来关于创业培训的研究，并有助于发展对创业成功先决条件的循证理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of a comprehensive entrepreneurship training program to equip participants with the knowledge and skill set needed for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) translation and commercialization success. As global economic competition becomes increasingly innovation-driven, governments at all levels are intensely searching for ways to increase innovation across industry and societal sectors. Among those being actively pursued is promoting high-growth startups based on early-stage technologies developed at universities and research institutions. However, faculty and student researchers at universities often lack the knowledge and skill set to launch a startup business to commercialize their technology. Programs such as the I-Corps Program have proven to be an excellent starting point to determine commercial interest and commercial viability of the technology, but data show that I-Corps participants lack fundamental knowledge and confidence on starting a business, which may inhibit startup formation and future startup success. Startups are inherently high-risk, and failure rates among deep technology startups are even higher. The proposed program will provide researchers with entrepreneurial training and mentoring that goes beyond I-Corps training to give academic researchers the information and confidence they need to launch a startup to commercialize their technology. In addition, the proposed program may help reduce startup failure rates. The initial goal is to facilitate translation and commercialization of university-developed technologies, especially in regions of the country that lack these resources, and to expand the program to government-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) companies, and to others in the community developing technologies for commercial applications, strengthening U.S. economic competitiveness.The intellectual merit of this project is based on the development of an entrepreneurial training program to enhance and supplement NSF’s current I-Corps Program. The proposed program builds on and extends the I-Corps Program, which uses the customer discovery process to validate customer segments and value propositions as well as introduces other aspects of the Business Model Canvas, to provide the knowledge and skills needed to launch a startup business to commercialize the technology. The proposed program is designed to provide additional entrepreneurial training both before and after I-Corps training. The topics covered will include validating the business model, founding team formation, business registration, intellectual property licensing and protection, sources of capital, pitching to investors, and preparing for startup growth and exit strategies. In addition, the project will include an accelerator component to provide embryonic-stage companies that have successfully completed training with additional support services including industry-specific mentoring and funds for additional research to develop and test a minimum viable product. The proposed plan includes a proof-of-concept study that will be conducted to field test the program’s effectiveness using a quasi-experimental design on multiple comparison groups and impact outcome indicators using both objective and subjective measures at short, medium, and longer-term intervals. This program may help to increase translation and commercialization of university-developed technologies as well as advance future research on entrepreneurship training and contribute to the development of an evidence-based understanding of the antecedents of startup success.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.