Upcoming Programs for researchers:

Michigan I-Corps is a new, statewide effort to commericialize technology in Michigan. Based off the the NSF I-Corps Program, Michigan I-Corps is launching May of 2013. I-Corps seeks to foster and grow the talent that we have here in Michigan, through rigorous teaching on how to move technology from the lab to the marketplace. For more information, visit here. For questions, email info@michiganicorps.com.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Innovation Corps Program (I-Corps) takes the result of NSF funded research out of the lab to determine its commercial potential. The teams are carefully constructed, consisting of a NSF Principal Investigator (PI), a Entrepreneurial Lead (EL) (such as a post-doc or a PhD student), and an Industry Mentor (IM). They receive training, acceleration support, and funding to launch them towards a successful market entry,  SBIR/STTR project award, or risk capital. The program also imparts an entrepreneurial mindset and new venture creation skills to the PI and EL that they can take back to their university and integrate into their work or pass on to others.

The University of Michigan's Master of Entrepreneurship program offers students a world-class education in techonology entreprenuership. After interviewing countless technology entrepreneurs, we found that most of them began working on their ventures without ever enrolling in classes or pursuing business degrees. Many false starts and redirections could have been avoided with more complete instruction and mentoring, yet the cirriculum and comprehensive skill set they needed did not exsist in the college classroom. The Master of Entrepreneurship was designed to fill the gap; providing students with the understanding of the fundamental principals underlying technology translation so that they will be prepared not just for their first launch, but a future rich in new ventures.

Other Commercialization Programs

The Center for Entrepreneurship is committed to collaborating with all of our colleagues around the University of Michigan that help researchers commercialize their technologies. Below is a map of the programs currently available at U-M, divided by project stage. Projects in the funding category are funding only, while the training category contains programs that teach and train commercialization. 

If you are aware of other programs across campus that are not included below, please contact Jonathan Fay at jpfay@umich.edu.

In the future, this map will be interactive in order to engage further collaboration throughout the U-M community.