Get Started with the I-Corps™ Program
The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program uses experiential education to help researchers gain valuable insight into entrepreneurship, starting a business or industry requirements and challenges.
Brandeis received an NSF I-Corps site grant in 2017, making Brandeis University one of only 10 I-Corps sites in New England. The program provides funding and support in the form of fellowships to participants across disciplines.
I-Corps enables the transformation of invention to impact. The curriculum integrates scientific inquiry and industrial discovery in an inclusive, data-driven culture driven by rigor, relevance, and evidence. Through I-Corps training, researchers can reduce the time to translate a promising idea from the laboratory to the marketplace.
NSF is developing and nurturing a national innovation network to guide scientific research toward the development of solutions to benefit society.
I-Corps Fellows receive training, resources and funding for innovative startups and technologies developed by Brandeis faculty, students, and staff.
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- Receive tangible support via funding, training and mentorship
- Explore real world research opportunities
- De-risk for translating technology into the marketplace
- Increase probability of product success
- Unlock eligibility for additional funding to develop your technology further
- Work in an interdisciplinary team
- Conduct customer discovery and validate research ideas
- Build a business based on the Lean LaunchPad methodology
- Train to be an entrepreneur and learn what it takes to bring a technology to the market
- Broaden the impact of basic research projects
Upon meeting all completion criteria, teams are eligible to apply to the NSF I-Corps Teams Program to receive additional support - including funding of up to $50,000 - to accelerate the translation of knowledge derived from fundamental research into emerging products and services that can attract subsequent third-party funding.
I-Corps teams are interdisciplinary collaborations between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) researchers and business students, focused on the commercialization of basic research that shows the strongest promise as new products.
- The technology should be sufficiently developed or demonstrated to motivate the exploration of commercial potential.
- The technology should be positioned such that a meaningful go/no-go decision can be envisioned at the end of the I-Corps Teams training.
- There should be sufficient questions remaining regarding the determination of product-market fit.
Check Out Current & Past Projects
Applications for I-Corps open at the beginning of each calendar year. Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future opportunities for I-Corps and other Brandeis Innovation programs.
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