Special Webinar on NSF's I-Corps L Teams

Event Date
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Event Description

NSF’s Innovation Corps Teams Program (I-Corps Teams: NSF 12-602) has created a new opportunity, called I-Corps for Learning Teams (I-Corps L). I-Corps L supports taking discoveries and promising practices from education research and development and promoting opportunities for widespread adoption, adaptation, and utilization.

I-Corps L teams will receive support - in the form of mentoring and funding - to accelerate innovation in learning that can be successfully scaled, in a sustainable manner. There are a number of analogous elements between trying to bring product discoveries to market and getting learning innovations into broad practice. Getting the best evidence-based practices out to potential adopters, where those practices can benefit large numbers of students or learners, rather than just in a few classrooms or informal learning organizations, requires an entrepreneurial approach. I-Corps L can benefit education researchers by helping them to identify approaches that are effective in STEM teaching and learning.

To be eligible to pursue funding through I-Corps L, applicants must have been associated with a prior award from NSF (in a STEM education field relevant to the proposed innovation) that is currently active or that has been active within five years from the date of the proposal submission. The lineage of the prior award extends to the PI, Co-PIs, Senior Personnel, Post-doctoral Researchers, Professional Staff or others who were supported under the award.

To be considered for NSF’s I-Corps L Teams program, Executive Summaries (see below) must be submitted by September 30, 2014 to be considered for participation in the January 2015 cohort. Funding for each I-Corps L Team is $50,000 per award, for up to six months. 

To find out more about I-Corps refer to:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12602/nsf12602.pdf

Webinar Access Info

1.  Access the audio portion of the webinar by phone:

  • 800-593-8905 (for callers inside the U.S.) OR 210-835-9582 (for callers outside the U.S.).
  • Participant passcode: 9249766
  • You may download the slides in advance--download the slides (PDF, 1.6 MB).

2. Access the visual portion of the webinar (meeting number 740 195 594) online:

For assistance joining the meeting, go to https://nsf.webex.com/nsf/mc and click "Support" on the left navigation bar.

Note for First-Time Users: To check whether you have the appropriate players installed for UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files, go to https://nsf.webex.com/nsf/systemdiagnosis.php

Please be sure to review the solicitation and factsheet (PDF, 583 KB) before the start of the webinar.

Pursuing I-Corps L Support

If, after attending the Webinar or reviewing the I-Corps web site, you would like to pursue I-Corps L support, you can contact Don Millard via the information below.

It would be most helpful to do the following before contacting:

1. Form your team. Identify a project team that consists of:  a PI, an entrepreneurial lead, and a mentor (see below). Teams will participate in a focused effort throughout a 7-week period to fully develop and implement a strategy to scale their education innovations. The effort will begin with a three-day grantee entrepreneurial immersion workshop, which will be followed by five weeks of virtual meetings, and culminate in a two-day “lessons learned” presentation workshop. The teams will be mentored by a group of education experts who have experience in bringing innovations to scale or success in bringing findings or intellectual products of NSF-funded work into practice.

2. Prepare a one-page Executive Summary that describes the following:

  • Composition and roles (EL, PI, Mentor) of the team members proposing to undertake the commercialization feasibility research:
    • The Entrepreneurial Lead (EL) could be a Post-Doctoral scholar, graduate or other student with relevant knowledge of the technology and a deep commitment to investigate the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation. The Entrepreneurial Lead should also be capable and have the will to support the transition of the technology, should the I-Corps L project demonstrate the potential for commercial viability.
    • The I-Corps Mentor will typically be an experienced or emerging entrepreneur with proximity to the institution and experience in transitioning innovations out of Academic labs/classrooms into widespread utilization.  The I-Corps Mentor must be a third-party resource and may be recommended by the proposing institution.  The I-Corps Mentor will be responsible for guiding the team forward and tracking progress through regular communication with the Cognizant NSF I-Corps L program director. The Mentor should understand the evidence concerning promise, e.g., from an institutional education-focused center or commercial background that will help inform the efforts.
    • The Principal Investigator (PI) will be responsible for overall grant management. The principal investigator is the person who was affiliated with a prior NSF award.
  •  Relevant current/previous NSF awards (i.e., I-Corps L idea lineage)
  •  Brief description of your innovation’s potential impact
  • Brief description of the current plan for sustainable scaling of your innovation

3. Send the Executive Summary to Don Millard:   dmillard@nsf.gov

Sponsoring Organization
Executive Summaries Due: September 30, 2014