NSF Hub, With NJIT as Member, Now Taking Applications to Commercialize Research

Aiming to propel discoveries made in university labs into everyday life, the new I-Corps Northeast Hub launched this week following its announcement last summer, as applications are now open for its first researcher training program.

The 4-week program, in which researchers confront the challenges of creating successful startups and entrepreneurial ventures based on scientific and technological discoveries, kicks off Feb. 28 and runs through March 23 online.

Funded with a 5-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the Hub brings together an initial eight of the region’s top universities — including NJIT, and led by principal institution Princeton University — to deliver the NSF’s signature I-Corps educational experience, which introduces science and technology researchers to tasks more familiar to business school students, such as interviewing potential customers to discover if a technology will meet users’ needs.

Participants attend the course in small teams that may include faculty members, postdoctoral and staff researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students from the lab associated with the technology being explored. Each team is partnered with an experienced mentor who helps the researchers navigate the process.

Hub instructors employ the NSF I-Corps training approach, which for more than a decade has been preparing researchers to form startups and transition their research into the public sphere where it can benefit everyday lives.

Through its programs, the hub will build skills and opportunities among researchers from around the northeast region and from all backgrounds, including those historically underrepresented in entrepreneurship

Through its programs, the hub will build skills and opportunities among researchers from around the northeast region and from all backgrounds, including those historically underrepresented in entrepreneurship. Participants do not need to belong to the hub institutions to attend the 4-week course.

Rutgers University and University of Delaware are partner institutions. Affiliates in addition to NJIT are Delaware State University, Lehigh University, Rowan University and Temple University in Pennsylvania. The hub will expand each year to add new affiliate universities.

“It is exciting to see the launch of the Hub, which will have a positive impact on the regional innovation ecosystem,” said Rodney Priestly, Princeton University's vice dean for research and professor of chemical and biological engineering, who is a co-director of the Hub.

Teams must apply for the program, and those selected are eligible for up to $3,000 in funds with which to conduct customer discovery research. Upon completion, the squads are eligible to apply to the NSF I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant for customer and industry discovery research.

Learn how to apply for the 4-week Regional Program at the I-Corps Northeast Hub website.

Applications are open to researchers affiliated at any university or institution.

The program runs Feb. 28, Mar. 2, Mar. 9 and Mar. 23 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET online. Applications are due Jan. 31.

Visit www.icorpsnortheasthub.org to apply and to register to attend an online information session to be held Friday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. ET.