Organization(s)
The U.S. National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program is an immersive, entrepreneurial training program that facilitates the transformation of invention to impact. This immersive, seven-week experiential training program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory — accelerating the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded and other basic research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization.
Widely recognized as an effective training program in the U.S. and internationally, I-Corps addresses three urgent national needs:
- Training an entrepreneurial workforce
- Bringing cutting-edge technologies to market and enabling positive economic impact
- Nurturing an innovation ecosystem
Mission
The mission of I-Corps is to reduce the risk associated with translating technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. To do this, I-Corps uses experiential education to help researchers reduce the time it takes to translate promising ideas from the laboratory to widespread implementation.
Impact
More than 5,800 innovators, 1,900 teams and 1280 universities, colleges, institutions and represented organizations have been trained through the I-Corps program. Through Fiscal Year 2020, more than half of all participating teams have launched startups that have cumulatively raised over $760 million in public and private funding.
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I-Corps cohorts
Approximately 20 to 30 teams participate together in the I-Corps curriculum as part of a training cohort, which is hosted by an I-Corps Hub or Node. Read on for details about the upcoming I-Corps cohorts.
Webinars
Before applying, join one of our monthly introductory webinars to better understand the I-Corps program and the Teams application process.
Featured stories
The I-Corps training program has helped launch more than 1,000 startups. Read about the remarkable work performed by our funded researchers and their role in fostering technology commercialization.