National Science Foundation National Innovation Corps Teams (NSF National I-CorpsTM Teams) Program

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) continues to develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that guides the output of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products, processes, and services that benefit all Americans. The goals of the NSF I-Corps™ program are to spur translation of foundational research to the marketplace, to encourage collaboration between academia and industry, and to train NSF-funded faculty, students and other researchers in innovation and entrepreneurship skills.

The NSF National I-Corps program utilizes experiential learning of customer and industry discovery, coupled with first-hand investigation of industrial processes, to quickly assess the translational potential of inventions. The NSF National I-Corps program is designed to support the commercialization of "deep technologies,” those revolving around foundational discoveries in science and engineering. The NSF National I-Corps program addresses the skill and knowledge gaps associated with the transformation of basic research into deep technology ventures (DTVs).

The purpose of the NSF National I-Corps Teams program is to provide NSF-funded researchers additional support in the form of entrepreneurial education, mentoring, and funding to accelerate the translation of knowledge derived from foundational research into emerging products, processes, and services that may attract subsequent third-party funding. The outcomes of NSF National I-Corps Teams' projects are threefold: 1) a decision on a clear path forward based on an assessment of the business model, 2) substantial first-hand evidence for or against product-market fit, with the identification of customer segments and corresponding value propositions, and 3) a narrative of a technology demonstration for potential partners.