Closing the divide: accelerating technology commercialization by catalyzing the university entrepreneurial ecosystem with I-Corps™

Aileen Huang-Saad (), Jonathan Fay () and Lauren Sheridan ()
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Aileen Huang-Saad: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Jonathan Fay: Center for Entrepreneurship
Lauren Sheridan: Center for Entrepreneurship

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2017, vol. 42, issue 6, No 12, 1466-1486

Abstract: Abstract In recent years, universities have seen an increasing amount of activity in entrepreneurship and commercialization, not only for students, but for faculty as well. Traditionally, these initiatives have been separate, such that programs and curriculum have been focused on supporting just students or just faculty. In 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the NSF I-Corps™ program, an innovative funding program that not only offered principle investigators (PIs) funding, but also exposed PIs to an innovation/entrepreneurship curriculum as well. The University of Michigan (U-M) was one of the first two NSF I-Corps™ Nodes funded in 2012 and has leveraged the program to catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This paper describes the growth of this entrepreneurial ecosystem since 1983, the call of entrepreneurship in the U-M College of Engineering and describes the role the U-M NSF I-Corps™ program has played across the university. The paper concludes with lessons learned and recommendations to administrators and policy makers considering more active promotion of academic entrepreneurship and commercialization in universities.

Keywords: Researcher entrepreneur; University commercialization; I-Corps™; Technology commercialization; Entrepreneurial ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10961-016-9531-2

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