What is NSF I-Corps?
The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program uses experiential education to help researchers gain valuable insight into entrepreneurship, including how to start a business and face current industry challenges.
The program helps researchers of diverse backgrounds bring their scientific and engineering discoveries to the marketplace as commercial ventures that spur economic growth and narrow long-standing racial and gender disparities in the STEM workforce.
UAlbany’s NSF I-Corps program can help you:
- Explore the market need for your research
- Define the broader impacts of your work
- Strengthen your next grant application’s commercialization plan
The University at Albany is proud to be a part of the New York Region I-Corps Hub.
Who can participate in I-Corps?
I-Corps offers training and guidance to students, researchers, faculty and entrepreneurs looking to progress existing scientific or engineering research into a business venture.
Startup ideas can originate from funded or unfunded research, student work, or institutional or industrial projects.
How does I-Corps work?
This highly interactive course begins with two kickoff sessions where participants learn how to:
- Identify their top customer segments and the benefits they value
- Form testable hypotheses about their potential customers and their value propositions
- Find and effectively interview customers to make data driven decisions about their venture
During the weeks that follow the kickoff, teams speak with at least 20 potential customers. Teams also have two mandatory office hour consultations with instructors to check-in, share progress and receive coaching.
The program concludes with a lessons learned report-out where teams present what they have learned, receive additional coaching and learn about their options for moving forward with their ideas.
After completing the course, teams may be eligible to apply to the National I-Corps Teams Program and receive up to $50,000 to support their participation, including expenses related to conducting further customer discovery.
Join Our Next Cohort
This is a free, 3.5-week course held at various times throughout the year.
apply
Eligibility
Individuals and teams must be working on a project based on new, innovative and differentiating technology that could be a candidate for a future proposal to the federal non-dilutive funding program for small business technology development, including the Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs.
Individuals and teams must also be either current faculty, postdocs, students or staff at any university in the United States or other individuals working on serious STEM-related technology.
Information Sessions
Information sessions are offered on the first Tuesday of every month and are held at noon on Zoom.
Registration is required. Register to attend an information session.
Application
By enrolling in the program, you agree to fulfill attendance requirements for all workshops and office hour sessions and to complete all assignments. The course will require about 20 to 40 total hours of effort over a four-week period.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Apply now!
Fall 2024 Schedule
- Kick-off Day 1: 5 to 8:30 p.m. EST, September 18, 2024
- Kick-off Day 2: 5 to 6:30 p.m. EST, September 19, 2024
- Lessons Learned: 5 to 7:30 p.m. EST, October 16, 2024
Fall 2024 Instructors
Kelly Reardon-Sleicher and Arber Ruci will lead the Fall 2024 I-Corps at UAlbany cohort.
Kelly Reardon-Sleicher has dedicated more than a decade to helping nascent entrepreneurs develop the skills and knowledge necessary to explore the market potential of their business ideas.
A connector with drive and creativity, she streamlines essential processes and builds relationships to promote growth and success in herself and others. Kelly co-founded a startup meetup that provides a platform for young companies to ask for a hand-up from a supportive community.
Having coached hundreds of teams to pitch their businesses, she excels in teaching early-stage companies to hone their key messages for a variety of audiences. As a public speaker and instructor, Kelly can address numerous audience demographics proficiently. She is also a 2017 recipient of the Albany Business Review 40 Under 40 award.
Arber Ruci is an accomplished entrepreneur and inventor dedicated to transforming the world's buildings into smart, accessible spaces.
With a strong focus on leveraging computer vision, mixed reality and 3D visualization, he co-invented the world's fastest indoor modeling, positioning and navigation system. As an experienced CEO, Arber has also contributed his expertise as an economic development expert for the National Science Foundation, Empire State Development in New York State and the City of New York.
A passionate advocate of the lean startup methodology, he serves as National Faculty at the NSF Innovation Corps program. Arber is an ecosystem builder, actively involved in new venture creation and regional economic development, particularly in initiatives centered around university innovation and applied research centers.
Questions? Please contact Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Director Kelly Reardon-Sleicher at [email protected].