Cohort 8 | Fall 2024

The 4-weeks I-Corps regional training program provides a hands-on, high-impact and fast-paced opportunity for innovators to learn to commercialize their technology. Each cohort is fully remote and consists of a 1-hour Kick-Off Session plus four 3-hour sessions on Fridays during the cohort dates.

Four-week Cohort Application

Every Friday, November 8 – December 13, 2024 (with off week for Friday following Thanksgiving)
12 – 4 PM MST

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NSF Program Highlights:

1. Hands-On Innovation: The NSF I-Corps regional training program provides a hands-on, high-impact, and fast-paced opportunity to learn how to commercialize your technology.
2. Use-Inspired Research: With a focus on creating solutions that have a tangible impact on society, your use-inspired research will reach new heights. Through the I-Corps program, your innovations will be guided by a commitment to address real-world challenges and make a positive difference.
3. Customer-Focused Discovery Process: Immerse yourself in a customer-focused discovery process aimed at gathering crucial insights to maximize the impact of your intellectual property. Conduct customer discovery interviews, study customer/stakeholder needs, and collect insights into their workflows.
4. Financial Support: Teams that successfully complete the training may qualify for a small award of up to $3,000. Moreover, exceptional teams may be recommended to the National I-Corps Teams program, where they could qualify for an additional grant of $50,000.

Team structure for participation is flexible (single-member teams are allowed), but teams typically consist of:

• • • Entrepreneurial lead: Responsible for investigating the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation
    • Technical lead:  Inventor or creator of the product/service
    • Mentor: Experienced or emerging entrepreneur

Accepted teams will complete a fully remote I-Corps training which is 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. Successful teams that complete the Desert and Pacific Regional I-Corps training may qualify for and be recommended to the National I-Corps Teams program.