CUNY Secures Historic $15 Million National Science Foundation Grant To Lead Coalition of Institutions in Development of ‘Innovation Corps’ Regional Hub

The City University of New York will lead a coalition of colleges in the development of a $15 million federally funded program to provide real-world entrepreneurial training and mentoring to local academic researchers. The goal of the New York Region Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Hub, one of five networks established around the country by the National Science Foundation, is to help 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.

The $15 million grant to oversee the New York Region is the largest award ever conferred by the NSF to CUNY. It is the culmination of the University’s decade-long embrace and implementation of the NSF’s I-Corps model — a program that integrates federal funding, local, regional and national workshops, and professional mentoring to translate scholarly research to the marketplace.

“This generous award from the NSF is a clear recognition of the meaningful efforts that CUNY and its partners have made in the past decade to build a framework that nurtures and develops the entrepreneurial spirit of its academic researchers,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We’re especially looking forward to advancing the talents of our faculty, whose expertise in deep technology and commitment to commercializing discoveries will drive the local economy and energize New York’s recovery.”

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