Type I: Iowa State University I-Corps Site: Driving Innovation through Entrepreneurial Talent

这个项目来自爱荷华州立大学（ISU），在这个机构创建了一个I-Corps Site。美国国家科学基金会创新队（I-Corps）站点是由美国国家科学基金会资助的实体，建立在大学里，其目的是培养和支持多个本地团队，将他们的技术概念转化为市场。网站提供基础设施、建议、资源、网络机会、培训和适度的资金，使团体能够将他们的工作转化为市场或成为I-Corps团队的申请人。I-Corps站点还加强地方和区域创新，并为由导师、研究人员、企业家和投资者组成的国家创新网络做出贡献。ISU网站的主要目标是在整个校园社区中嵌入一种强大而普遍的创业和创新文化。在专家的领导下，该网站与中西部地区的其他创新网站建立了严格的体验式学习计划，预计在五年内，将推动该大学在创建新企业方面发挥其全部潜力。这一目标正在通过一个新的创业生态系统来实现，该生态系统有效地整合了几个关键组成部分，包括连续的创业选择、导师、融资网络和援助、天使投资者、“创业工厂”项目和新创业工厂大楼的空间。人们期望国际农业大学网站能够激发解决重大挑战的方案，例如为不断增长的全球人口提供粮食生产，这需要农业、工程和其他学科的创新思维和创造力。ISU是一所浸没于农业传统的土地捐赠机构，其在工程、生物可再生能源、材料科学和农业方面的优势反映了其创业贡献的记录。从长远来看，I-Corps网站将培养一批新的学者，他们将被全面培训为科学家-技术-企业家，具备知识和技能，为棘手的农业和其他全球问题提供变革性的新解决方案，以确保食品和能源供应链的健壮性和可持续性。与中西部其他农业和工程学校的合作增强了知识基础，并创建了一个创新者和企业家的虚拟网络，推动了整个中西部地区的经济发展。通过与爱荷华州经济发展局（IEDA）、爱荷华州创新委员会和爱荷华州创新公司（I-ICorp）的合作，来自爱荷华州立大学创新生态系统的新企业家与该州更广泛的风险资本家和商业领袖网络建立了联系；通过实际的体验式学习模块，学生们与研究园内众多成功的现实世界创业企业（生物科学、信息技术、生物能源等）以及推动该州经济引擎的更成熟的公司（先锋杜邦、孟山都和约翰迪尔）合作；此外，Site培训计划体现了对创新经济中各种形式多样性的尊重和包容。

This project, from Iowa State University (ISU), creates an I-Corps Site at this institution. NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites are NSF-funded entities established at universities whose purpose is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace. Sites provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. I-Corps Sites also strengthen innovation locally and regionally and contribute to the National Innovation Network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors.The primary goal of the ISU Site is to embed a strong and pervasive culture of entrepreneurship and innovation across the entire campus community. With a rigorous and experiential program of study, led by experts, this Site interfaces with other innovation Sites in the Midwest and, within five years, is expected to propel the university towards reaching its full potential in terms of creating new ventures. This goal is being accomplished via a new entrepreneurial ecosystem that effectively integrates several key components including a continuum of entrepreneurship options, mentors, funding networks and assistance, Angel investors, a "Startup Factory" program and space in a new Startup Factory Building. Expectations are that the ISU Site is energizing solutions to grand challenges - such as food production to serve a growing global population - that require innovative thinking and creativity in agriculture, engineering and other disciplines. ISU, a land grant institution steeped in traditions of agriculture, contributes a record of entrepreneurial contributions reflecting its strengths in engineering, bio-renewables, materials science and agriculture. In the long term, the I-Corps site will generate a new body of academics, holistically trained as scientists-technologists-entrepreneurs, equipped with knowledge and skills to galvanize transformative new solutions to vexing agricultural and other global problems that will ensure the robustness and sustainability of the food and energy supply chain. Association with other agricultural and engineering schools in the Midwest enhances the knowledge base and creates a virtual network of innovators and entrepreneurs driving the economy of the entire Midwest region. Through partnership with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), the Iowa Innovation Council and the Iowa Innovation Corporation (I-ICorp), novice entrepreneurs from the ISU innovation ecosystem connect with the broader network of venture capitalists and business leaders in the state; through practical experiential learning modules, cohorts collaborate with a diversity of successful real-world entrepreneurial businesses (bioscience, information technology, bioenergy etc.) in the Research Park as well as the more mature companies (Pioneer-DuPont, Monsanto and John Deere) that drive the economic engine of the state; and, the Site training program incorporates respect for and inclusiveness of all forms of diversity in the innovation economy.