DETROIT – Researchers and entrepreneurs are invited to apply for the I-Corps Energy and Transportation training program developed by NextEnergy in partnership with the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship. Applications will be accepted through April 3.
The 2016 I-Corps program will kick-off at NextEnergy May 18-20 and come to a close on June 23-24. Modeled after the robust National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, I-Corps Energy and Transportation is a commercialization training program that equips researchers and engineers with tech to market skills to move their ideas out of the lab and into the market.
“As an incubator, we work with remarkable research teams all over the country. Many of their innovations have stemmed from federal research funding programs and are often the best energy and transportation technologies our nation has to offer,” said Dan Radomski, I-Corps instructor and vice president of industry and venture development at NextEnergy.
“The problem is very few reach commercialization milestones because they fail to find a customer. These are creative, intelligent, research teams, but they often lack a true understanding of the customer and what the customer values, versus what the technology provides. I-Corps focuses on teaching researchers to adopt a customer discovery process in order to identify customer needs, pain points, product development process and supply chain dynamics. Learning this is the foundation of the I-Corps program.”
Not only will participants learn to understand and explain the value proposition of their technology, they will also have an opportunity to network with industry leaders, investors, and start-up veterans to help build an effective business model – something unique to I-Corps.
“In addition to making valuable connections with real-world industry players, one of the biggest takeaways for participants is the appropriate language and tech-to-market focus to connect their research priorities to real world challenges,” said Jean Redfield, I-Corps instructor and president and CEO of NextEnergy. “As a result their technology is more likely to be commercialized if it’s ready for that, or the research team is better positioned to write effective research proposals to win the funding required to continue until the technology is ready for commercialization. In either case, the odds of getting over the ‘valley of death’ that is so common for energy and transportation technologies is improved.”
Since its inception, 33 teams have benefitted from the I-Corps program including 2015 alumnus University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Solid-State Batteries project, led by faculty researcher Jeff Sakamoto. Utilizing the skills learned in I-Corps, the project recently received a $3.5 million award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and matching funds from the NextEnergy MATch Energy Grant to further develop new lithium-ion battery electrodes and manufacturing processes for solid-state electrolyte/ceramics that will significantly improve energy storage.
“The I-Corps program at NextEnergy felt like it compressed six months of MBA knowledge into six weeks,” said Sakamoto research fellow Travis Thompson. “Participating in the program helped me climb the commercialization learning curve more quickly and gave me the tools to discover our first market. Having market insight, from interviews during the I-Corps program, strengthened the Tech-to Market section of our next proposal and now we have funding to build a prototype.”
For more information about I-Corps Energy and Transportation and to apply online, visit www.nextenergy.org/icorps.
