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.
