National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Site

This Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Site is housed at the MIT MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS). MIT has a track record of transitioning activities from research laboratories into inventions and discoveries with broad economic and societal impact. This new NSF I-Corps Site at the MIT VMS will build upon existing resources and expertise to increase the successful transition of university research to commercialization and diffusion. This project enables VMS to reach and influence more researchers, and underrepresented participants in particular, from across the MIT campus to explore getting their inventions and discoveries to the marketplace. VMS is expanding its existing entrepreneurial and education services to increase support specifically for early stage research-based ideas including: customer exploration, development and validation as well as understanding the stakeholders, relationships and dynamics in the targeted marketplaces. VMS employs a Team Mentoring approach that may potentially be transformative by increasing the rates of learning and progress of Sites team participants.

MIT's activities are likely to have broad impact including: encouraging entrepreneurial aspirations and providing researchers with training and activities to understand the entrepreneurial process allowing them to greatly increase their future prospects while still within the academic environment; attracting and supporting a greater number of students, faculty and other researchers to actively explore the possibilities of translating their research into future commercial applications, ensuring the supply needed to fuel the continuous flow of innovations needed by society; and, encouraging more women and other underrepresented participants to become engaged and reach successful outcomes, serving as visible role models to accelerate the participation of others. Finally, through its existing and active Outreach Program, MIT VMS will disseminate both the knowledge and practical techniques to its large and growing network of universities that have launched mentoring programs based upon the VMS model.