UW Researchers Invited to Take Part in NSF Innovation Corps

University of Wyoming faculty members, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in converting their laboratory-scale research into commercial businesses are invited to participate in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Great Plains Hub.

The hub is a $14 million, five-year effort to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs in rural, economically underserved regions. UW is one of nine universities in the Great Plains Hub.

UW’s I-Corps contacts are Steve Hanlon, director of the Health and Bioscience Innovation Hub, and Ramsankar Veerakumar, an assistant instructional professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. They may be reached by emailing shanlon@uwyo.edu or rveeraku@uwyo.edu.

NSF I-Corps has established regional hubs across the nation, with each hub consisting of a lead institution and several partner universities.

“The NSF I-Corps program is a proven mechanism to stimulate creation of new products and startup companies,” says Cameron Wright, Carrell Family Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. “The Great Plains Hub serves this area of the country for the first time and will benefit both the state of Wyoming and the University of Wyoming.”

Founded by NSF in 2011, I-Corps programming nationwide enables researchers to combine their technical and scientific knowledge with an entrepreneurial mindset to develop new technologies and startups that benefit society. The I-Corps curriculum addresses the knowledge gap between the skills needed to develop an innovative technology in a lab and the skills needed to bring that technology to market.

Several UW teams have taken part in the training and found this to be useful in securing Small Business Technology Transfer grants. About five different training cohorts are scheduled in 2024. Any teams interested in taking part in this may reach out via email to seek additional information. Registration for this free training is via the Great Plains Regional I-Corps website at https://gp-icorps.org/programs/regional-i-corps-training/. The first cohort will start Jan. 17. The registration deadline for this cohort is Dec. 22.

STEM researchers interested in finding out more about the Great Plains Hub can visit https://gp-icorps.org.