The University of Connecticut has joined the National Science Foundation I-Corps Hub Northeast Region, a prestigious appointment that will allow the university to serve more entrepreneurs seeking to develop scientific and technological innovations.<\/p>\n
The I-Corps Hub Northeast Region is a coalition of universities that provides programs to help faculty, researchers, and graduate students develop tech and scientific discoveries into businesses that can benefit society. UConn will be in a division with Yale, Princeton, and eight other colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe School of Business welcomes this opportunity to expand entrepreneurial development in such compelling areas,\u2019\u2019 said Dean John A. Elliott<\/strong>. \u201cThe innovations from the scientific community offer profoundly important medical, health, and societal benefits, while new technology produces access to exciting and vital tools for almost every avenue of life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things we do exceptionally well at UConn is to guide entrepreneurs on their journey to success, and I\u2019m pleased that we will now be able to serve even more aspiring business leaders,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n The I-Corps program, housed in the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI), offers training, mentoring, and resources to startup hopefuls. Initially, teams attend a four-session program to identify whether their innovation meets consumer needs. After finishing the course, those teams may apply to attend NSF\u2019s more advanced programs and receive a $50,000 small-business funding grant.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are excited to grow the Hub\u2019s capacity to nurture the next generation of innovators and business leaders in collaboration with UConn and its ecosystem,\u2019\u2019 said Rodney Priestley<\/strong>, co-director of the I-Corps Hub Northeast Region and the Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University. \u201cThis expansion will bring I-Corps training to greater numbers of researchers, including individuals traditionally underrepresented in entrepreneurship, who are making discoveries in healthcare, materials, energy, and many other areas that are critical for our future.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n The NSF launched I-Corps to develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that builds upon fundamental research to facilitate the application of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products, and processes that benefit society.<\/p>\n In 2014, UConn was among the first universities to be identified as a partner in that effort, which soon led to the creation of Accelerate UConn, a program that supports entrepreneurs and serves as UConn\u2019s NSF I-Corps site. Some 200 startup teams have graduated from that program. With this new Northeast Hub affiliation, UConn has the resources to mentor scientific and technology innovation and commercialization both locally and across the Northeast.<\/p>\n Jennifer Mathieu<\/strong>, the executive director of the CCEI, a part of the School of Business, noted that CCEI has had tremendous success in supporting new entrepreneurs through the I-Corps programming over the last nine years.<\/p>\n \u201cCCEI has created a substantial infrastructure for new venture development and an environment in which these teams receiving I-Corps training have clear next-step opportunities post program,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cWe know that this new partnership will allow us to support more entrepreneurs and provide them with additional opportunities for success. This is a truly exciting and significant development for our entrepreneurs, and for those who will benefit from their ideas.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Caroline Dealy<\/strong>, a professor at UConn Health, agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a UConn faculty member and founder of a tech startup myself, I found UConn’s I-Corps program, Accelerate UConn, invaluable for moving my technology forward,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cNow, as faculty liaison for the program, I’m committed to sharing its benefits with others at UConn, so they can learn how best to advance their own technologies to the benefit of health and society through commercialization.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n In addition to UConn, Princeton and Yale, the Northeast the hub includes Rutgers University, University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Lehigh University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University, Temple University and Drexel University.<\/p>\n If you are interested in learning more about the NSF I-Corps Program at UConn, or joining an upcoming cohort, please contact Jennifer Mathieu at jennifer@uconn.edu<\/a> or Alycia Chrosniak at alycia.chrosniak@uconn.edu<\/a> or visit ccei.uconn.edu\/accelerate-uconn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In addition to UConn, Princeton and Yale, the Northeast the hub includes Rutgers University, University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Lehigh University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University, Temple University and Drexel University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":209625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1862],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-209619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-busn"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-04 16:36:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235358,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209619\/revisions\/235358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/209625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209619"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=209619"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=209619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}