UCSF Joins I-Corps’ New Regional Innovation Hub for the Northwest
Training will help entrepreneurs at UCSF develop their ideas into companies.
UC San Francisco is part of a new Northwest Region Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Hub funded by the National Science Foundation to train faculty and student entrepreneurs on how to commercialize their research.
The Hub, which will receive up to $15 million over five-years, will be led by UC Berkeley and includes UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, Oregon State University, University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Washington.
I-Corps Hubs are part of a national network of universities, NSF-funded researchers, local and regional entrepreneurial communities, and other federal agencies, that help researchers realize the commercial potential of fundamental discoveries.
Since it began in 2011, the NSF’s Innovation Corps has trained more than 3,600 teams. More than half of these teams have launched startups, going on to raise more than $3 billion.
The goals of the NSF I-Corps Hubs include technology development and translation, entrepreneurial training, workforce development and economic impact.
The I-Corps curriculum focuses on a “customer discovery” process in which entrepreneurs interview prospective customers and industry stakeholders to understand their needs and how they might use the technology.
“This is a proven approach to helping teams that are still at an early stage find a business model that will scale,” said Peter Kotsonis, PhD, assistant vice chancellor for Business Development, Innovation and Partnerships at UCSF. “It will help our entrepreneurs advance their projects and, ultimately, help patients.”
Kotsonis is the PI for UCSF’s grant, and Charles Hart, PhD, executive director of the Catalyst Program at UCSF, is the faculty lead.
Hart said that I-Corps training will help participants in the Catalyst program and other UCSF innovation programs on the translational path to product development.
“For example, if you do I-Corps, the acceptance rate for obtaining Small Business Innovation Research grants goes up three-fold,” Hart said. “NSF I-Corps is a great program that is based on the Lean Launchpad entrepreneurship and startup company methodology of Steve Blank, and the Business Model Canvas methodology of Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.”
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