The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the addition of five new NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) Hubs that will scale the NSF-led National Innovation Network, accelerating the translation of discoveries into new solutions that benefit society. Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) will help lead the expansion of this network as part of a new regional collaboration, the Southwest I-Corps Hub.
With a total award of $15 million for the next five years, the regional alliance will work collaboratively among eight institutions to provide experiential entrepreneurial training to academic researchers in science and engineering. I-Corps Hubs serve as the operational backbone of the National Innovation Network — a network of universities, NSF-funded researchers, local and regional entrepreneurial communities, and other federal agencies — helping researchers translate fundamental research results to the marketplace and generate economic value.
“This award will empower TEES and The Texas A&M University System as a whole to further establish a foundational program toward building an innovation ecosystem around key technology areas developed by our students, researchers and faculty,” said Dr. John E. Hurtado, interim dean and vice chancellor for engineering at Texas A&M and principal investigator. “We are proud to implement the I-Hub across the A&M System and look forward to playing a leading role in hub management.”
As a founding partner, Texas A&M Engineering and its partners across Texas A&M bring significant experience in managing, delivering and sustaining deep tech innovation programs. Efforts include assisting 47 teams in successful national I-Corps grant proposal submissions and establishing more than 150 teams through NSF I-Site, leading to the creation of multiple startups that have raised significant outside capital to advance product development from the laboratory to market. Being part of the new Southwest I-Corps Hub provides an opportunity to scale these efforts across the Texas A&M System.
“For the past 10 years, the Texas A&M team has successfully identified opportunities to effectively and efficiently commercialize innovative products, services and systems at the university level,” said Dr. Saurabh Biswas, associate professor of practice in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, executive director for commercialization and entrepreneurship at Texas A&M, lead partner faculty and co-PI. “With successful NSF I-Corps and I-Site creation, and Partnerships for Innovation and Convergence Accelerators initiated, we have demonstrated our commitment to engaging in technology transfer and building a deep tech innovation ecosystem. As partners of this hub, we are positioned to leverage expertise in support of new ventures seeking commercialization to support economic growth.”
TEES will manage the day-to-day operations of the Texas A&M hub, and recruiting and training of teams across the Texas A&M System, while working closely with fellow hub partners to identify and recruit business mentors to enable a deep bench of student and teaching teams within the Southwest region of the U.S. This innovation ecosystem will be implemented around key technology areas developed by students, researchers and faculty.
Within the first year, at least 250 regional teams in the Southwest region will be trained and a minimum of 30 teams will attend the national program. The number of teams attending the national training is expected to increase annually as new partners — from fellow institutions within the hub as well as the broader Southwest region — are added.
"I am delighted the I-Corps Hubs that we are awarding today will expand the footprint of the National Innovation Network, harnessing the innovation potential that exists all across the country by establishing clear pathways for researchers to engage with NSF’s lab-to-market platform," said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for technology, innovation and partnerships. "Each regional I-Corps Hub provides training essential in entrepreneurship and customer discovery, leading to new products, startups and jobs. In this way, the I-Corps program will open up new economic opportunities throughout the United States."
In addition to Hurtado and Biswas, the Texas A&M team comprises Dr. Astrid Layton, Dr. Cynthia Hipwell, hub research lead, and Magdalini Lagoudas from Texas A&M Engineering; Blake Petty from the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship at Mays Business School as hub lead instructor and Dr. Sharmila Pathikonda from the Texas A&M System.
Fellow institutions include The University of Texas at Austin (hub lead), Louisiana State University, New Mexico State University, Oklahoma State University, Rice University, The University of Texas at El Paso and The University of Texas at San Antonio.