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Technology innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization.
From Idea to Impact
MIN-Corps is the University of Minnesota hub for technology innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization.
We provide education and coaching programs that help STEM students, postdocs and faculty develop the skills required to translate innovations into product and services with real-world impact.
MIN-Corps is a joint effort of the Technological Leadership Institute in the College of Science and Engineering, the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship in the Carlson School of Management, and Technology Commercialization office in the Office for the Vice President for Research.
We are a partner institution in the NSF I-Corps Great Lakes Region Hub.
MIN-Corps Results
Since 2014, 4750+ participants from 22 colleges within University of Minnesota and across the business community have participated in more than 110 MIN-Corps academic courses, commercialization bootcamps, value proposition design workshops, seminars and events. The 425+ innovation teams (including 36 startups) have generated about $38 million in commercialization grants and investment funding. In addition, MIN-Corps has successfully nominated 33 teams to the national NSF I-Corps Teams program, with each team receiving a $25,000-$50,000 grant to engage in intense customer discovery and business model design. For more information about the University of Minnesota's participants in NSF I-Corps Teams cohorts, click here.
The I-Corps National Teams Experience
Participating in the NSF I-Corps National Teams program is seven intense weeks of exhaustion, exhilaration and "ah-ha" moments. Each participating team emerges with a robust set of customer discovery and technology commercialization skills, as well as an assessment of their innovation's market potential and business model. University of Minnesota teams that have completed MIN-Corps program customer discovery requirements are eligible to be recommended to the National Teams program.