The Missouri University of Science & Technology local program will support teams through customer discovery and commercialization associated with an idea or technology.  The program teaches entrepreneurial skills to teams of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and regional teams and focuses on developing potential I-Corps Teams for the National I-Corps program. The program typically lasts for 5 weeks. Teams will attend in-class or virtual sessions where they will receive instruction and mentorship. Out-of-class work will focus on gaining a better understanding of customers and testing assumptions. Teams will conduct a minimum of 10 interviews with potential customers and record insights using a frame work called the Business Model Canvas and a digital Tool (LaunchBoard). Each eligible team will receive a microgrant as a National Science Foundation (NSF) award for their participation in the program. The microgrant will be used for customer discovery, program educational materials and/or purchasing prototype materials.

The I-Corps program runs multiple cohorts throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. A training program in the summer  may be offered depending on demand. A limited number of teams will be accepted into each cohort. Business experience is not required to apply, though teams are expected to have an early-stage idea, research, or technology that qualifies as a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) project.

Cohorts are offered three times each year, in the Spring, Summer and Fall.  Visit https://i-corps.mst.edu/apply/ for the upcoming cohort or contact tgordon@mst.edu for more information on upcoming dates.  

All current undergraduate and graduate students, doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, alumni, administrative staff, and faculty are eligible to apply as an Entrepreneurial Lead (EL). 

Proposed ventures/technology areas:

• Any field of Engineering
• Physical Sciences
• Life Sciences and Ag
• Software
• Mobile Applications
• Website Platforms
• Mathematics

 Applications will be evaluated on:

• Team and commitment
• Intellectual property strength
• Technology strength
• Commercial potential and applications
• Fit with I-Corps Site program

Students may only apply ONCE per Cohort. Students may only be on ONE team per Cohort.

Teams must spend their Grant Awards in the specified time (spending window) by each Cohort. Teams must determine the dates they plan to spend the Grant Award and apply to the corresponding Cohort. The Selection Committee may defer acceptance to a later Cohort.

Participants in the Missouri S&T Local I-Corps program will be expected to commit at least 3 - 5 hours per person per week to market learning, customer discovery and other commercialization-focused activities. Therefore, it is important that the participants are interested in gaining new knowledge from the program, and not just receiving the I-Corps Site grant funding.

The end of the program will culminate in a final lessons learned presentation where participants will show how their business ideas have developed over the course of the training program.

Participants will also be expected to schedule regular meetings with their assigned Mentors and/or Teaching Team throughout the semester.

Each cohorts runs for 5 weeks. During this time, participants are expected to dedicate an average of  3-5 hours per week to the following program activities and requirements:

• Attend Five Classroom Sessions: Each member of an I-Corps team is required to attend five 2-hour sessions. These sessions consist of lectures, team presentations, and guest speakers. In addition, these sessions provide time to foster team discussion, group work, and networking with other cohort members, speakers, and mentors.
• Complete Homework Assignments: To prepare for each classroom session, participants are expected to complete video and some reading assignments in order to become more familiar with entrepreneurial topics discussed in class.
• Conduct Interviews: In order to better understand the commercial potential of their ideas, teams will test their assumptions by conducting interviews with industry experts and potential “customers.” Outside of class, each team will conduct a minimum set by each affiliate of in-person interviews over the course of the five-week program. Participants are not expected to have any prior experience in conducting interviews. All participants will be trained and learn best practices for how to conduct stakeholder interviews as part of the I-Corps Site program.

Completed applications are to be submitted online at http://i-corps.mst.edu/apply.  Applicants must submit the following documents with their application:

• Biosketch from each team member

All participants will receive the following special benefits:

• Minigrant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Funding can be used for:
  • Prototyping materials
  • Defray the travel costs of entrepreneurial interviews/customer discovery
  • Attend conferences or trade shows
  • Purchase educational materials for program

Funding may not be used to pay for business services (i.e., legal, accounting, etc.), to purchase electronic equipment or to pay third party service providers. The I-corps Site selection team will work with participants to identify appropriate uses of program funding.

• Receive designation as an NSF-funded project, leading to further opportunities for training and funding though the NSF’s National I-Corps team program ($50,000 grant).
• Instruction and entrepreneurial education delivered by world-class faculty and staff from the Missouri S&T College of Engineering and the Department of Economics and our other partner institutions.
• Individualized mentorship and coaching, access to resources, and training.
• Opportunity to see the real world impacts of your research and technology.
• Gain an appreciation for what it takes to commercialize technology and barriers to adoption.
• Discover a market for your technology that you had not previously considered.
• Expand your network as you have priceless contact with teachers, investors customers and inventors.
• Ability to identify increased commercial potential for your technologies by using the Business Model Canvas methodology.
• Increased probability of grant success.
• Increased visibility within your institution.
• Save years and money by accelerating your understanding.
• Contribute to an innovation ecosystem that will change the future of the State of Missouri and the Midwest

https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17083/nsf17083.jsp