The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched a new effort to help push scientific and engineering discoveries made by the scientists it funds into useful technologies, products and processes.
The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) programme, is a public-private partnership that aims to connect NSF-funded researchers with technology, entrepreneurial and business communities, to translate research results through to market.
“I-Corps will help strengthen a national innovation ecosystem that firmly unites industry with scientific discoveries, for the benefit of society,” said NSF Director Subra Suresh launching the initiative last week.
Scientists holding current NSF grants, or who have had a grant that was active within the past five years, will be eligible to apply for a further grant of $50,000 over six months to progress their research towards commercialisation. It is expected that the outcome will be the formation of a new company, outlicensing of a technology, or the drawing up a business plan for review by a third party.
Members of the private sector will provide critical support, sharing their knowledge and experience with NSF and I-Corps awardees. These technology developers, business leaders, venture capitalists, and others from private industry will act as I-Corps mentors.
The I-Corps programme will initially support up to 100 projects per year, at $50,000 a project. Over a period of six months, each I-Corps team, composed of the principal investigator, a mentor, and an entrepreneurial lead, will systematically identify and address knowledge gaps asking: What resources will be required? What are the competing technologies? What value will this innovation add?
The I-Corps programme will also pilot new merit review processes through which promising discoveries emerging from NSF-funded research projects will be identified quickly and efficiently, for financial support as well as for mentorship through the national network.
“While the main goal of I-Corps is to build on NSF’s investment in fundamental research, the programme also seeks to offer academic researchers and students an opportunity to learn firsthand about technological innovation and entrepreneurship to fulfill the promise of their discoveries,” says Errol Arkilic, NSF programme director for I-Corps.
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