Enhancing NSF's Impact on STEM Translation and Commercialization Success

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of a comprehensive entrepreneurship training program to equip participants with the knowledge and skill set needed for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) translation and commercialization success. As global economic competition becomes increasingly innovation-driven, governments at all levels are intensely searching for ways to increase innovation across industry and societal sectors.

Among those being actively pursued is promoting high-growth startups based on early-stage technologies developed at universities and research institutions. However, faculty and student researchers at universities often lack the knowledge and skill set to launch a startup business to commercialize their technology. Programs such as the I-Corps Program have proven to be an excellent starting point to determine commercial interest and commercial viability of the technology, but data show that I-Corps participants lack fundamental knowledge and confidence on starting a business, which may inhibit startup formation and future startup success.

Startups are inherently high-risk, and failure rates among deep technology startups are even higher. The proposed program will provide researchers with entrepreneurial training and mentoring that goes beyond I-Corps training to give academic researchers the information and confidence they need to launch a startup to commercialize their technology. In addition, the proposed program may help reduce startup failure rates.

The initial goal is to facilitate translation and commercialization of university-developed technologies, especially in regions of the country that lack these resources, and to expand the program to government-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) companies, and to others in the community developing technologies for commercial applications, strengthening U.S. economic competitiveness.

The intellectual merit of this project is based on the development of an entrepreneurial training program to enhance and supplement NSF’s current I-Corps Program. The proposed program builds on and extends the I-Corps Program, which uses the customer discovery process to validate customer segments and value propositions as well as introduces other aspects of the Business Model Canvas, to provide the knowledge and skills needed to launch a startup business to commercialize the technology.

The proposed program is designed to provide additional entrepreneurial training both before and after I-Corps training. The topics covered will include validating the business model, founding team formation, business registration, intellectual property licensing and protection, sources of capital, pitching to investors, and preparing for startup growth and exit strategies.

In addition, the project will include an accelerator component to provide embryonic-stage companies that have successfully completed training with additional support services including industry-specific mentoring and funds for additional research to develop and test a minimum viable product. The proposed plan includes a proof-of-concept study that will be conducted to field test the program’s effectiveness using a quasi-experimental design on multiple comparison groups and impact outcome indicators using both objective and subjective measures at short, medium, and longer-term intervals.

This program may help to increase translation and commercialization of university-developed technologies as well as advance future research on entrepreneurship training and contribute to the development of an evidence-based understanding of the antecedents of startup success.

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.