What is NSF I-Corps?
The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program uses experiential education to help researchers gain valuable insight into entrepreneurship, including how to start a business and face current industry challenges.
The program helps researchers of diverse backgrounds bring their scientific and engineering discoveries to the marketplace as commercial ventures that spur economic growth and narrow long-standing racial and gender disparities in the STEM workforce.
UAlbany’s NSF I-Corps program can help you:
- Explore the market need for your research
- Define the broader impacts of your work
- Strengthen your next grant application’s commercialization plan
The University at Albany is proud to be a part of the New York Region I-Corps Hub.
Who can participate in I-Corps?
I-Corps offers training and guidance to students, researchers, faculty and entrepreneurs looking to progress existing scientific or engineering research into a business venture.
Startup ideas can originate from funded or unfunded research, student work, or institutional or industrial projects.
How does I-Corps work?
This highly interactive course begins with two kickoff sessions where participants learn how to:
- Identify their top customer segments and the benefits they value
- Form testable hypotheses about their potential customers and their value propositions
- Find and effectively interview customers to make data driven decisions about their venture
During the weeks that follow the kickoff, teams speak with at least 20 potential customers. Teams also have two mandatory office hour consultations with instructors to check-in, share progress and receive coaching.
The program concludes with a lessons learned report-out where teams present what they have learned, receive additional coaching and learn about their options for moving forward with their ideas.
After completing the course, teams may be eligible to apply to the National I-Corps Teams Program and receive up to $50,000 to support their participation, including expenses related to conducting further customer discovery.
Join Our Next Cohort
This is a free, 3.5-week course held at various times throughout the year.
apply
Eligibility
Eligibility
Individuals and teams must be working on a project based on new, innovative and differentiating technology that could be a candidate for a future proposal to the federal non-dilutive funding program for small business technology development, including the Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs.
Individuals and teams must also be either current faculty, postdocs, students or staff at any university in the United States or other individuals working on serious STEM-related technology.
Information Sessions & Listserv
Information Sessions & Listserv
Information Sessions: Information sessions are offered on the first Tuesday of every month and are held at noon on Zoom. Registration is required. Register to attend an information session.
Listserv: Join the I-Corps at UAlbany listserv! Send an email to [email protected] with a blank subject and the command "subscribe <UALBANY_ICORPS>" in the body. (Note: Remove quotation marks before sending.)
Spring 2026 Cohort
Spring 2026 Cohort
The Spring 2026 I-Corps cohort will run as part of the Research and Innovators Startup Exchange (RISE) Spring 2026 program. (Interested in a standalone I-Corps cohort instead? Submit the I-Corps inquiry form.)
RISE is a collaborative entrepreneurship program that takes research from concept to commercialization, while building a business development team, in nine months.
Researchers and students interested in participating should complete the Spring 2026 RISE Cohort Interest Form. Specific dates will be announced; learn more about the general program timeline.
Please visit the RISE webpage for more information.
Questions? Please contact Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Director Kelly Reardon at [email protected].