I-Corps Sites: STEM-Business (STEM-B) -The Fifth Element of Technology Innovation

University Of Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project, from the University of Houston (UH), creates an I-Corps Site at UH. NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites are NSF-funded entities established at universities whose purpose is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace. Sites provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. I-Corps Sites also strengthen innovation locally and regionally and contribute to the National Innovation Network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors. This UH Site builds on several iniatives including a faculty inventor/entrepreneurship student partnering program, an internal Technology Gap Fund, and a UH start-up incubator and various public-private partnerships providing access to investment capital. The long-term goal of this Site is to build a sustainable, innovation ecosystem anchored at UH with strong links to the local entrepreneurial community while also helping to address the national "innovation gap". The specific objective for the UH Site is to create an innovation culture at UH by establishing an I-Corps site to house an institutional-led, cross-disciplinary, initiative providing a combination of academic and "hands-on" entrepreneurial business training in STEM + Business (UH?s STEM-B program). Funding from this program, coupled with institutional resources, will be used to "seed" the formation of entrepreneurial teams around technologies "spun-out" from the UH IP portfolio or "spun-in" from the local ecosystem. The I-Corps site and STEM-B will be used to coordinate a range of other related activities such as a Life Sciences Entrepreneur Associate internship program, the UH Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) program, a new Life Sciences Laboratory Incubator facility to complement the existing UH Innovation Center and UH's recent $25 M strategic partnership with a venture capital firm, all located at the UH Energy Research Park. Broader Impact: The creation of an I-Corps site at UH will augment the number of STEM-qualified entrepreneurs available to enter the growing Greater Houston-area innovation ecosystem, while helping to address the national "innovation gap". It will also serve to strengthen existing relationships with the local and regional ecosystem by providing formal bi-directional partnering mechanisms for technology commercialization that takes advantage of the burgeoning UH entrepreneurial workforce. A key goal is to develop a cadre of qualified "Entrepreneurial Leads" eligible to serve on I-Corps grants submitted by both UH and non-UH inventors. It will also provide ongoing support and mentoring to these early-stage entrepreneurs, thereby leveraging UH's infrastructure to assist in enhancing the local, regional and national innovation systems in bringing technologies to market.