Are you interested in taking your innovative idea, technology, or process commercial? Michigan Tech is an affiliate with the Great Lakes Region NSF I-Corps Hub. Interested parties may participate in events throughout the region or at Tech. Entrepreneurially minded graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, and local community teams are invited to join the next Great Lakes Region NSF I-Corps Hub cohort. The site program offered through Michigan Tech is structured around the lean startup teaching methods and principles used by NSF’s National I-Corps Program. The purpose of the NSF-funded I-Corps Hub Program is to foster entrepreneurship that will lead to the commercialization of technology and to develop team readiness for the teams going on to the I-Corps National I-Corps program.

Michigan Tech and affiliate institution teams who complete the five-week workshop and customer discovery process may be eligible to apply for the following opportunities:

• Mini-grant funding for continued customer discovery
• NSF’s National I-Corps program which includes $50,000 in funding and additional training

Participation in the program can lead to qualification for research and other funding from several granting agencies, including the NSF I-Corps and SBIR/STTR/PFI programs and various state and regional programs. Past participants have reported that they saved time and money by better understanding potential applications of their technology, experienced improved engagement with teams, and improved their ability to receive add-on funding.

Course Benefits

• Exploring pathways to startup launch.
• Evaluating the potential of research discoveries or technologies.
• Discovering the societal impact of innovations as usable technologies.
• Enhancing research proposals for securing funding.
• Obtaining eligibility to apply for $50,000 grant from the National NSF I-Corps team grant.

Course Schedule

All meetings will be held virtually on Zoom.

• 1/13-20/25: Pre I-Corps team meetings/orientation
• 1/27/2025: Workshop 1 – Kick off
• 2/3/2025: Workshop 2
• 2/10/2025: SKIP – (break for customer discovery)
• 2/17/2025: Workshop 3
• 2/24/2025: SKIP (due to spring break)
• 3/3/25: Workshop 4
• 3/10/25: Workshop 5 – Wrap up