Brandeis University Named National Science Foundation I-Corps Site to Fund Campus Discoveries

Brandeis University today announced it has been awarded a $237,050 five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps^TM) program. The grant will provide funding for innovative startups and technologies developed by Brandeis students, faculty and staff.

Brandeis is one of only six new sites nationally designated by NSF. The University of Massachusetts Lowell was also designated this year. Previously, the only I-Corps site in Massachusetts was MIT.

“I-Corps funding shows that the Brandeis innovation ecosystem is robust, with the potential to grow and provide greater opportunities to translate university discoveries into real-world impact,” said Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz. He noted that the grant will provide funding for up to 15 Brandeis teams to help develop their discoveries into useful technologies ripe for commercialization.

Brandeis’  I-Corp grant will be managed by the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL).  An NSF I-Corps Site, to be housed at the Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center (HFIC),  will build on HFIC’s many existing programs and initiatives geared toward cultivating innovation across campus.

“As an I-Corps Site, our goal is to provide additional support and infrastructure to advance technology development, commercialization and, ultimately, product creation for the innovations coming from our faculty, students and staff ,” said Rebecca Menapace, Principal Investigator of the I-Corps grant and executive director of both OTL and HFIC.  “This funding is an important step toward establishing a permanent facility on or near campus to further our mission and to provide much-needed incubation space for our community.”