Overview of NSF’s I-Corps
The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a suite of activities and programs that aim to:
- Prepare scientists and researchers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory.
- Broaden the impact of basic-research projects by translating technology into commercial products.
- Combine experience and guidance from established entrepreneurs with a targeted curriculum.
I-Corps is a public-private partnership program that teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research and offers entrepreneurship training to student participants.
I-Corps is structured nationally into:
- I-Corps Teams, a nationwide program composed of academic researchers, student entrepreneurs and business mentors that participate in a rigorous curriculum administered through on-site activities and via online instruction.
- I-Corps Nodes are regional in their footprint and serve as recruitment programs for the I-Corps Teams program through short, introductory workshops.
- I-Corps Sites catalyze additional groups to explore potential I-Corps Team projects and other entrepreneurial opportunities that build on basic research through targeted early-stage programs.
- Together, the I-Corps programs strengthen the innovation ecosystem at the local and national levels.