The Geoscience Innovation Hub

Programs in the GEO iHub fall into three categories:

1. Funding for faculty and students to work with the private sector:
   • Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC): Supports centers consisting of one or more university sites that target the science needs of a sector of the economy.
   • Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students (INTERN) Program: Provides graduate students with experiential learning opportunities through research internships in nonacademic settings to get real-world work experience while still in school, bring new ideas and expertise to the host organization and their teams and be exposed to interesting science and other issues.
   • Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Proposals: Supports faculty research in collaboration with industry through supplemental funding requests and standalone awards.
2. Funding to solve real-world, societal and technological problems with a multi-stakeholder approach:
   • Convergence Accelerator: Supports multi-stakeholder teams that tackle a major societal or technological challenge. Results must be delivered within two years.
   • Civic Innovation Challenge: Supports science teams working with communities and civic organizations to create solutions that increase community resilience in a specified area of interest.
3. Funding to translate research results to society and the economy:
   • NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™): A training program that lets researchers find out if the innovation that resulted from their GEO-funded research could have commercial potential. I-CORPS teaches customer discovery using a hypothesis-driven method that helps discover whether an idea has the potential for a patent, license or viable start-up. I-CORPS involves a faculty member, a student or postdoc and a mentor who has been involved in tech transfer or starting their own company.
   • Partnerships for Innovation (PFI): Provides funding for principal investigators to improve their innovation to make it more attractive to investors. PFI has two tracks: One just for a professor or researcher and a second involving a small business collaborator.
   • NSF Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR): Provides funding for start-ups to attract investors to take their business to the next level.