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Educational programs to accelerate technology commercialization
MIN-Corps, an I-Corps site
MIN-Corps is the University of Minnesota site for the National Science Foundation I-Corps program. We provide commercialization education and coaching programs that help STEM students, postdocs, research scientists and faculty develop the skills required to translate their innovations into product and services with real-world impact. To learn more about MIN-Corps leadership and how to contact us, click here.
MIN-Corps Results
Since 2014, 3000+ participants from 22 colleges within University of Minnesota and the business community have participated in 85+ MIN-Corps academic courses, commercialization bootcamps, value proposition design workshops, seminars and events. The 380 innovation teams (including 28 startups) have generated over $21.5 million in commercialization grants and investment funding. Also, congratulations to the 22 NSF I-Corps National Teams participants, which each received a $25,000-$50,000 grant to engage in intense customer discovery and business model design. For more information about NSF I-Corps Innovation Teams, 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.