Five academic institutions in Milwaukee are joining forces to form a local site of the National Innovation Network that will recruit and train 90 entrepreneurial teams over the next three years. With training, the teams will conduct deep research into their chances of starting a viable business or find new pathways to market.<\/p>\n
The effort funded by a $300,000 National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps (NSF I-Corps) grant brings together academic researchers, graduate students and business networks to grow the local economy through research-generated ideas that are honed in collaboration with industry.<\/p>\n
Led by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the site\u2019s partners include Marquette University, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and Concordia University of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this site, we\u2019re able to bring the proven I-Corps model of commercializing innovation to Milwaukee, where academia already works closely with the private sector,\u201d said Brian Thompson, president of the 51ÁÔÆæ Research Foundation. \u201cThis will be a powerful complement to our city\u2019s evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accepted teams will be guided through a Lean LaunchPad program, which will lead them in customer discovery, find them mentors and link them to sources of early-stage funding. The teams will make a decision about whether to proceed to market within six months of completing the program.<\/p>\n
Each team in the I-Corps program will consist of an academic lead (a faculty member or a post-doctoral student), an entrepreneurial lead (typically a graduate student) and a mentor with business experience.<\/p>\n
Cohorts will consist of 10 teams that convene three times per year for three years. Each team will receive a mini-grant to use on their endeavor and access to the facilities and collaborators provided by the sites\u2019 academic members.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee-area resources enhancing the site include the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium, the Water Equipment & Policy Center at 51ÁÔÆæ and Marquette, the Global Water Center, the drug-discovery consortium Bridge-to-Cures, and the Clinical & Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin, funded by the National Institutes of Health and administered by MCW.<\/p>\n
The 51ÁÔÆæ Research Foundation will help coordinate the network and supporting curriculum. Here what each partner has to say about I-Corps:<\/p>\n
Five academic institutions in Milwaukee are joining forces to form a local site of the National Innovation Network that will recruit and train 90 entrepreneurial teams over the next three years. With training, the teams will conduct deep research into their chances of starting a viable business or find new pathways to market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":26836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[132,246,139],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-26772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-business","section-business-world-affairs","section-science-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n