UAF, partners receive $15 million to form innovation hub

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is one of eight universities jointly awarded $15 million by the National Science Foundation to support and train academics to turn their research outcomes into entrepreneurial accomplishments.

With the funding, UAF's Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship will provide focused instruction, support for customer discovery, practice pitch sessions, office hours and mentorship. The goal is to position teams to discover the commercial potential of their research, accelerate their innovations and drive economic growth.

UAF is a partner in the NSF I-Corps’ new Northwest Region Hub. University of California, Berkeley leads the hub. Other partners include the University of Washington, Oregon State University and the University of California campuses in Davis, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Irvine.

“I am proud that UAF is a member of the Northwest Region Hub,” said UAF Vice Chancellor for Research Nettie La Belle-Hamer, who will lead UAF’s participation. “This will provide our researchers entrepreneurial training to help launch their ideas into the marketplace.” 

Center ICE is led by Interim Director Professor Peter Webley, who will serve as co-investigator on the project at UAF. 

“I-Corps is a unique program that provides training and support for academic innovators to understand their customer and stakeholder needs so they can determine the feasibility of bringing their innovations to life and the viability to scale and growth,” Webley said. 

Created in 2011, the NSF National I-Corps program has supported more than 1,300 teams and more than 640 startups that have raised $300 million. The new Northwest Region Hub is one of three grantees this cycle and joins 10 existing regional I-Corps hubs.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Peter Webley, pwwebley@alaska.edu, 907-474-1542

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