NSF I-Corps Hub (Track 1): Southwest Region

The NSF I-Corps Southwest Hub’s broader impact is establishment of a standardized regional I-Corps infrastructure across the southwest region with a robust expansion plan and ready access to entrepreneurial training to assist researchers in applying customer discovery principles in technology translation. Even with over 50 Fortune 500 research and development (R&D) and corporate headquarters located across the region, this vibrant ecosystem still has large disparities in terms of access to capital, experienced entrepreneurs, and mentors for deep tech researchers, resulting in challenges in meeting the growing innovation and workforce demands of the region.

The Southwest Hub addresses these challenges by bringing together a unique coalition of partner institutions to mitigate workforce, knowledge transfer, and capital disparities, which are critical impediments to a thriving deep tech venture ecosystem. The Southwest Hub institutions have successful track records of training researchers to apply customer discovery principles to develop products that are commercially relevant and attractive to potential investors and downstream partners.

Additionally, the Southwest Hub may increase the participation of Underrepresented Groups (URGs) in the I-Corps program, which historically have not had the same access to entrepreneurial education, investment capital, and mentors. The Southwest Hub region includes 123 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), 16 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and 20 Native American Serving NonTribal Institutions (NASNTIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and will have a special focus on the three largest minority groups in the southwest region: Hispanic, African American, and Native American.

The Southwest Hub will use its reach findings to increase diversity at all levels, including I-Corps teams, instructors, and leadership across the region.

This I-Corps Hubs project is based on the development of a systematic and comprehensive regional network of programming that accelerates the translation of federally funded research into innovations that benefit society and support deep tech workforce development and economic growth. The Hub represents educational partners from four states in one of the fastest growing regions in the United States with a vibrant innovation ecosystem driven by an R&D portfolio of over $3 Billion.

This group has prior experience as regional I-Corps Nodes and Sites. With a diverse demography of faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers, and an expert network of trainers, mentors, and entrepreneurs, a key impact will be increased participation in national I-Corps programs throughout the region, leading to an ecosystem that is diverse, inclusive, and representative of its population.

The commercialization roadmap has enhanced partnerships between academia and industry. In addition, this project will introduce the first regional I-Corps cohorts taught exclusively in Spanish, reaching a key underrepresented group in the region. The research component will test a data-driven hub-and-spoke model and its impact on training for successful outcomes, improving the understanding of innovation processes, and generating policy findings to improve the speed and likelihood of success for deep technology commercialization.

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.