I-Corps Sites: Type II - Southeastern Wisconsin I-Corps Site: Enhancing Regional Technology Commercialization

Award ID: 1829202

This project, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), extends their initial I-Corps Site award for scale up to their next phase of support for innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites are NSF-funded entities established at universities whose purpose is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace. Sites provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. I-Corps Sites also strengthen innovation locally and regionally and contribute to the National Innovation Network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors. This is a proposal for a Type II I-Corps Site - Type II proposals are submitted by institutions that have already received a Type I award. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), in partnership with the UWM Research Foundation (UWMRF), currently operates the NSF I-Corps Site of Southeastern Wisconsin ("Milwaukee I-Corps Site"), which is the only NSF I-Corps site in Wisconsin. The site draws academic teams from five Milwaukee-area academic institutions: UWM, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), Marquette University (MU), Concordia University of Wisconsin (CUW), and the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). This has been an exemplary I-Corps Site that: reached out across the state; launched a Healthcare initiative; succeeded in inclusiveness, particularly among women; experimented with a variety of curricular offerings; and engaged in entrepreneurship research and published outcomes of their studies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman