T
he National Science Foundation recently selected a new consortium of NYU, the City University of New York, and Columbia University to establish a regional node for its groundbreaking Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program that prepares academic researchers to become entrepreneurs and speeds the commercialization of their research.
The NSF awarded the consortium $3.7 million to form the New York City Regional Innovation Node (NYCRIN) to develop scientific and engineering discoveries into economically viable products and startup ventures. The node will educate the academic technologists and connect them with entrepreneurial and business partners.
The first NYCRIN cohort of 25 teams will come to New York in April for the kickoff of an eight-week-long curriculum. Kurt Becker, NYU-Poly associate provost for research and technology initiatives, is a co-principal investigator for the group.
Members of the instructional team will include university faculty, university-affiliated incubators, the New York City Investment Fund, Columbia Technology Ventures, the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, as well as members of the NYC venture capital community. Among the NYU and NYU-Poly members of the teaching teams will be NYU Innovation Venture Fund Managing Director Frank Rimalovski, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute Programs Director Lindsey Marshall, and NYU-Poly Director of Incubator Initiatives Micah Kotch.
The NYCRIN will embrace a “learn by doing” philosophy of entrepreneurship training and emphasize ideas central to the “lean startup” methodology, whose aim is to found frugal, capital-efficient organizations with a low burn rate.
The NYCRIN received one of three NSF awards in February, which totaled $11,239,921 to university consortia. The other two are the NSF Bay Area Regional I-Node Program and the I-Corps Node: DC, Maryland, Virginia Region.