$300K NSF award to accelerate commercialization, train students

Monday, May 25, 2015

The UNC Charlotte proposal for a Ventureprise Charlotte Launch program was selected as an NSF I-Corps Site in a nationally competitive solicitation by the National Science Foundation. The selection also designates UNC Charlotte as one of 36 universities that are part of the NSF National Innovation Network.

“The NSF selection of UNC Charlotte as an I-Corps Site validates our long-standing investment in entrepreneurial support,” said Robert Wilhelm, vice chancellor for research and economic development. “The Ventureprise Charlotte Launch program will provide 90 or more UNC Charlotte students with in-depth technology commercialization knowledge that will be valuable throughout their careers.”

The Ventureprise Charlotte Launch program is designed to inspire teams whose technology concepts are likely candidates for commercialization. Teams will assess business opportunities for research and inventions primarily developed by UNC Charlotte students and faculty.

“UNC Charlotte is the first university in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia selected for NSF I-Corps designation, which validates our emphasis on the importance of customer engagement for emerging entrepreneurs,” said Paul Wetenhall, president of Ventureprise and principal investigator for the NSF I-Corps Sites grant.

During a three-year period, the NSF will provide annual funding of $100,000 that will enable up to 30 teams annually to complete the program, which will be operated by Ventureprise Inc., the UNC Charlotte-affiliated venture development organization.

Each team will have at least three members including an entrepreneurial lead, an academic lead and a business mentor. The entrepreneurial lead typically will be a student, while the academic lead will be a faculty member with relevant expertise. Business mentors will be selected based upon their entrepreneurial and commercialization experience.

Teams will participate in a 12-week program that will provide first-hand knowledge on entrepreneurship and will explore the transition of teams’ ideas, devices, processes or other intellectual activities into the marketplace. The program will use Lean Launchpad concepts and will emphasize customer discovery through direct contact with prospective customers. NSF funding will support team needs such as prototype development and customer travel.

At the end of the program, teams will be expected to make a commercial viability decision. Successful completion enables teams to be eligible for additional NSF opportunities including the $50,000 NSF I-Corps Team program.

A Ventureprise Summer Accelerator started on May 19 with an initial group of 10 teams and will continue with cohorts in the fall and spring semesters. The summer cohort is made up of five teams from the William States Lee College of Engineering, three teams from the College of Computing and Informatics and one team each from the Department of Biology and the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The Ventureprise Charlotte Launch program will be managed by an interdisciplinary UNC Charlotte team of Wetenhall and co-principal investigators Devin Collins of the Charlotte Research Institute, James Conrad (Lee College of Engineering) and Justin Webb (Belk College of Business).