The broader impacts of this I-Corps Node project are to develop programs and resources that will accelerate the translation of fundamental research to practical applications that will improve the well-being of society and increase the economic competitiveness of the United States. These activities will also result in increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others on a national scale. The Node will actively work to engage the participation of women, underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities, as well as individuals from diverse economic regions and backgrounds, in all activities and programs. The Node research will investigate utilization of business and industry mentors and various methods of interaction to guide researchers exploring commercialization of their technologies. The training and materials developed by the Node, lessons learned, and the research findings will be shared and disseminated widely across the region and nationally.
This I-Corps Node project will deliver I-Corps training programs at research universities throughout New England, build a large regional instructor pool with individuals from its academic partners., support and collaborate with regional I-Corps Sites to enhance their programs, identify and assist potential new I-Corps Sites, and investigate methods of assessing I-Corps team composition and alternative models of mentoring. The Node will explore creative and potentially transformative concepts and widely disseminate findings, lessons learned, new content and training materials across the region and the national innovation network. The Node will build and coordinate a growing and robust pipeline of teams from across the region for the National I-Corps Team program. It will provide additional support and nurturing for those teams to continue to advance after completing the team program. This project will enable MIT to reach and influence researchers across New England, to act upon their ideas based upon basic research and initiate the exploration of getting their inventions and discoveries to the marketplace.
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.
