Development of a comprehensive suite of research-backed, integrated educational tools to inspire, educate, train, and support academic entrepreneurs in the commercialization of university research.

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PROJECT SUMMARY Continuum Educational Technologies’ (Continuum) will work with the University of Kansas (KU) on the proposed I-RED program entitled Smart Tools to Accelerate Research Translation by Uplifting Participants for the Central IDeA State Region (STARTUP Central) program to stimulate technological innovation in the IDeA state regions by addressing the entrepreneurial educational needs of investigators in translating scientific discoveries from research laboratories into commercial products that improve human health and promote economic growth. Through the proposed effort, STARTUP Central will help the Central Region address a persistent gap between its robust biomedical research activities and the development of a comparable pipeline of academic entrepreneurs commercializing the many innovations resulting from this research. Continuum’s proposed suite of educational products will provide a comprehensive, uniform, and assessable mechanism for developing robust cultures of entrepreneurship within individual regional institutions, and will provide a centralized mechanism for individual institutions to coordinate efforts, share resources, and develop regional best-practices. These “smart” tools will seek to organize and systemize the abundance of information and basic educational resources available regarding biomedical translation, employing educational psychology principles for adult online learning to develop an integrated and effective curriculum from an otherwise disparate and disconnected collection of resources and programming. Back-end analytics, user-feedback, and evaluation features will be heavily embedded into the learning management system to provide users, institutions, and Continuum with a means to continuously assess and improve the usability and effectiveness of the educational tools and their content, as well as to assess and maximize the impact of the products on individual users and the broader entrepreneurial culture of each institutional customer. In Phase 1, Continuum and KU will work collaboratively to assemble the project consortium and make all preparations to run the Phase 2 Pilot Project program. The team will work together to input content for and design a wireframe model of the educational products. These wireframe products will then be initially tested, iteratively redesigned, and initially validated. At the end of Phase 1, the validated wireframe educational product will be ready for full enhancement and used in the two Pilot Project programs in Phase 2. Assessment of the enhanced smart educational products to meet user needs in the two Pilot Project programs will be used to iteratively redesign the educational products. At the end of Phase 2, the smart educational products and the format of the Pilot Project program will be ready for commercialization. Outcomes will be assessed based on enhanced entrepreneurship attitudes, confidence, and competency in the program participants compared to the control. Metrics to evaluate program outcomes include number of products developed, number of licensing agreements signed, number of students and faculty being trained through the various aspects of STARTUP Central, number of patents filed, number of SBIR/STTR applications submitted and awarded by any federal agency, and number of start-up companies launched.