Program Benefits
The I-Corps program offers many potential benefits to participants. Here is a short list derived from the experience of past participants.
- Introduction to the programs and team at GW’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
- Establish a path to NSF’s national I-Corps program with grants of $50,000 for I-Corps, and subsequent opportunities for the PFI-AIR prototyping grant and SBIR ($200,000).
- Improves quality of university research.
- Greater understanding of your technology/innovation and how it can benefit society.
- Knowledge about how to commercialize technology and the barriers to adoption.
- New market opportunities that you had not previously considered.
- New skills and toolset that you can use to test innovative ideas, make your research more commercially relevant, and assess potential new ventures.
- Greater self-confidence, and better presentation/interpersonal skills, in typical business settings.
- Savings in time and money through accelerated understanding about the real value of your innovation – from the market perspective.
- Expanded network through priceless interaction with teachers, investors, customers, and mentors.
- Satisfaction in building an innovation ecosystem that will significantly benefit the DC and greater mid-Atlantic region.
- Enhanced career opportunities. Be part of the “Lean” movement and make a “dent in the universe.”
I-Corps was a great experience. It knocked us out of our comfort zones and taught us a lot. If I’d had this information twenty years ago, I’d really have been dangerous!
-Kensall D. Wise, William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Michigan