The Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory to increase economic competitiveness and societal benefit through advancing innovative, university-developed, research-based deep technology venture products and services to local, regional, and national markets. I-Corps effects this by providing real-world, immersive instruction on customer discovery. This process allows participating teams to evaluate their technology’s commercial opportunity, a critical first step toward successful translation from lab to market. Ideally, applicant teams should have a technology development connection to an institution of higher education.
As part of the I-Corps program, UCSD is a member of the new NSF Desert and Pacific Region (DPR) Hub, a curated partnership of eight Western US universities in intended to synergistically combine nascent, emerging, and mature research and entrepreneurial areas of strengths across state lines and reaching beyond conventional geographical centers for innovation. At UCSD, I-Corps can either be an in-person workshop hosted at the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur, or a fully remote workshop hosted by one of the DPR participant universities.
The Spring 2023 cohort will be hosted virtually by Arizona State University. Accepted teams will complete a fully remote, five-week training which includes an assumption/hypothesis testing, customer discovery focused process to gather important insights on problem/solution fit and product/market fit to maximize the impact of an innovation. Subject to eligibility, successful teams may qualify for a monetary award and recommendation to the National I-Corps Teams program.
Sessions will be held on Fridays 11a - 12p PST via Zoom. Teams of 2 or more members are preferred, and team attendance at each session is expected.
Orientation, Friday March 17, 12p - 1p PST
Session 1,
Friday March 24, 11a - 2p PST
Session 2,
Friday March 31, 11a - 2p PST
Session 3,
Friday April 7, 11a - 2p PST
Session 4,
Friday April 14, 11a - 2p PST (final presentations)
The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 15.
