About I-Corps
NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) partners with universities across the U.S., including more than a dozen New York State Universities, to offer a series of Innovation Corps (I-Corps) programs. Clarkson University serves as a Partner Institution within the NSF’s New York Region I-Corps Hub, and in this role we will offer a a series of regional “bootcamps,” with each lasting approximately 4-weeks. The goal of this I-Corps program is to help advance scientific and engineering discoveries into commercial-ready technologies. Designed for teams that wish to explore the market opportunity for their innovation, this local-level program will connect innovators to resources that can assist technological, scientific, and business challenges.
Learn more about Customer Discovery
Customer Discovery is a crucial process in the early stages of developing a product or starting a new business. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs assume that they understand their market and their customers, but ultimately these assumptions must be validated before an entrepreneur should be confident in deploying their limited resources! Therefore, the goal of customer discovery is to validate assumptions about the target market and gather insights that can inform the development and refinement of a product or service. This process involves actively engaging with potential customers through one-on-one interviews, observations, and experiments in order to gain a deep understanding of their needs and preferences.
Goals of the NSF I-Corps Program
Research
To facilitate the translation or research and innovations into the marketplace
Training
To provide training to researchers and inventors that increases the likelihood of their ideas successfully reaching customers
Collaboration
To encourage collaboration between academia and industry
Clarkson I-Corps
This four-week bootcamp will provide a greater understanding of innovation and entrepreneurial processes and prompt the translation of research to industry. Participants will assess the market opportunity of their research and to explore the value that it could serve customers and society at large. In doing so, teams will be required to conduct customer discovery research wherein they will talk to at least 20 potential customers. Throughout the bootcamp, an emphasis will be placed on the Lean Launchpad methodology, Business Model Canvas and Customer Discovery.
Upon completion of this regional-level bootcamp, select teams may be invited to apply to the national level program, which takes place over seven-weeks and is hosted by our partners at the City University of New York (CUNY), or by one of the other nine NSF I-Corps hubs. At the national-level, teams receive $50,000 in grant funding to support their customer discovery research throughout the duration of the program.
For alternative I-Corp programs and dates, please visit the New York I-Corps Hub website.