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I-Corps at USA

NSF I-Corps Innovation Corps

To view the livestream of the virtual Spring 2021 I-Corps Graduation Ceremony on April 12, 2021 at 3:30pm CT, please click here:  GRADUATION

Awarded in 2017, a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites grant will fund the Innovation Scholars program for five years.

The CREATE Center, led by Michael Chambers, will make the I-Corps curriculum available to all colleges and schools at the University of South Alabama through the Innovation Scholars program, as well as to partner institutions Bishop State Community College, Spring Hill College, and the University of Mobile. 

Using the Lean Launch and the Business Model Canvas models, I-Corps participants at USA will be prepared to:

  • embrace business thesis and customer discovery as applied to innovative ideas and research; 
  • demonstrate the value of that analysis to current and future research;
  • be empowered to pivot in their own research and collaborations in the private sector;
  • and view future research ideas through a critical filter of business thesis and customer discovery.

About I-Corps

The National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps program, or I-Corps, comprises a national innovation network that supports scientists in transitioning innovative technologies towards commercialization at a variety of levels.

At the most local level, I-Corps Sites are based at a single institution and support local innovation by providing infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding.

I-Corps Nodes are single- or multi-institutional efforts to support regional needs for innovation education, infrastructure and research. 

National I-Corps Teams put innovators through a rigorous seven-week curriculum where they learn what it will take to achieve a commercial impact with their innovations.