The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program provides academic innovators with the training they need to assess the commercialization potential of their inventions. This training is now available to UC life sciences and health care innovators on a competitive basis through a grant from NSF. Innovators in any disease area are invited to apply; innovators in heart, lung, blood, sleep, drug abuse or addiction are especially welcome.
I-Corps is a team-based program; teams can be assembled in any way that makes sense for the project. Teams often include the inventor, an MBA student, and a graduate student or post-doc in the inventor's lab. All teams must have three to five participants.
The I-Corps training lasts seven weeks. Trainees are better prepared to compete for STTR/SBIR funding and grants from the University of California Center for Accelerated Innovation (UC CAI). The UC CAI provides grants of up to $200,000 to advance technologies that address sleep disorders or heart, lung, or blood diseases, drug abuse or addiction toward commercialization.
The I-Corps program for life sciences and health care is administered through the UC CAI.
More information:
Questions about the I-Corps program can be directed to Elvira Liclican, PhD at
eliclican@mednet.ucla.edu
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