I-Corps Sites: Type II - The Penn I-Corps Site

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project, from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), extends its I-Corps Site. 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. The Penn I-Corps Site supports the translation of research from STEM areas into the marketplace by providing educational programming, financial support, and strategic guidance through offering Site e-teams access to commercialization programs at its innovation hub, the Penn Center for Innovation (PCI). The Site employs a structured process for business model validation following the Lean Launchpad methodology. Within the context of technologies arising from STEM research at Penn, the goals of the Site are to train teams consisting of faculty, staff, and students by providing hands-on experiential entrepreneurial education, and to accelerate startup creation at Penn. A direct result of the Penn I-Corps Site is hands-on training in the Customer Discover Methodology of faculty and students, applications to the NSF's I-Corp program, validation of market need for team projects, the creation of new startups and, when appropriate, licensing of technologies originating from Penn research. The ultimate goal is to help transition of research to commercialization. Promoting a hands-on experiential approach the Site's activities integrate education and traditional technology transfer. More than 75 teams have already been trained since the Penn Site started operating in the summer of 2015. From these, 32 companies were launched, which have acquired $7.2 million in funding via grant awards and investments, and 39 jobs created. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.