The Unexpected Benefits of Customer Discovery for Research, Teaching, Economic Development, and Innovation

The Innovation-Corps™ (I-Corps) program was created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2011 to help translate NSF-funded academic research to market. Working with coordi- nating partner VentureWell, the NSF offers select participants from U. S. academic laboratories the opportunity to immerse themselves in a process to test and explore the opportunities and value of their ideas in the marketplace. Participants talk to potential customers, partners, and competitors to refine their research ideas into viable products using an entrepreneurial approach to meet the challenges and uncertainty of creating successful innovations. This paper summarizes panel content that was planned for the NAI Ninth Annual Meeting, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns and restrictions. The purpose of the panel was to provide a range of uniquely different perspectives; thus, we have opted to maintain the question and answer format. The panelists first examine the real and perceived, or intended and unintended, outputs of I-Corps projects and then discuss the I-Corps process as the catalyst for refining and/or scaling promising research idea into a product to meet a customer need. The panelists then describe the importance of customer discovery as relevant to invention and to culturally conscious entrepreneurship and how this first step can aid basic research. The panelists highlight the opportunities and challenges of teaching a customer discovery approach in an academic setting by charging learners to ask open-ended questions to acquire a 360-degree perspective of a technological innovation. Lastly, the panelists provide a viewpoint on the execution of academic customer discovery during the current COVID-19 challenges and the potential for economic development.

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The 2011 National Science Foundation Political Science Awards

Political Science and Politics ◽

10.1017/s1049096511001892 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 45 (01) ◽

pp. 124-126

Keyword(s):

Political Science ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Research Training ◽

Basic Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Fiscal Year ◽

The Political ◽

Science Program ◽

Political Processes ◽

National Science

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2011. The Program funded 25 new projects and 44 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. The Political Science Program spent $5,234,470 on these research, training and workshop projects and $483,822 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually —Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, September 16 and January 15— and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.

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An Approach to Polar Research

ARCTIC ◽

10.14430/arctic3532 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 151

Author(s):

T.O. Jones

Keyword(s):

International Cooperation ◽

Research Program ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Basic Research ◽

Upper Atmosphere ◽

Common Interest ◽

The Arctic ◽

National Science

Discusses role of the National Science Foundation in U.S. research in the Arctic and Antarctic. For the latter NSF has fostered a coordinated basic research program. Some features of it and techniques developed might be utilized in a bipolar program on problems of common interest, e.g. conjugate phenomena of the upper atmosphere, international cooperation, etc. Proposals for basic research in the Arctic are welcomed.

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Origin of Ferromagnetism in Cyano-Bridged Compounds Containing d1 Octacyanometallates Financial support by the Belgian National Science Foundation and Flemish Government under the Concerted Action Scheme, the ESF programme on molecular magnets, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 01-02-32210), and the INTAS Grant 00-00565 are gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Professor Silvio Decurtins and the members of his group for stimulating discussions and for sending us the structural data on the niobium compound prior the publication, and Dr. Høgni Weihe for useful discussions. We also thank Ken Somers for the help with the Figures.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition ◽

10.1002/1521-3773(20011203)40:23<4429::aid-anie4429>3.0.co;2-b ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 40 (23) ◽

pp. 4429 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Liviu F. Chibotaru ◽

Vladimir S. Mironov ◽

Arnout Ceulemans

Keyword(s):

Financial Support ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Basic Research ◽

Structural Data ◽

Molecular Magnets ◽

Concerted Action ◽

National Science ◽

Basic Research Grant ◽

Research Grant

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About Emergency Managers and Their Tools

International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management ◽

10.4018/ijiscram.2016100101 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 1-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cynthia Marie Nikolai ◽

Chelsea Treboniak ◽

Page Heller ◽

Gregory Madey

Keyword(s):

Business Model ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Academic Research ◽

Emergency Managers ◽

Emergency Manager ◽

National Science ◽

Industry Professionals

This paper presents findings emerging from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. The aim of I-Corps is to aid in transitioning academic research into commercialized technology. Through this program, the authors developed and tested hypotheses in search of a sustainable and scalable business model for a potential future company. An element of the rigorous I-Corps curriculum included 133 interviews with emergency manager practitioners from around the country to determine the root of their immediate problems. The unbiased feedback from the industry professionals determined the outcome of our hypotheses, while validating our proposed business model.

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Language Acquisition and Language Change: Japanese Numeral Classifiers11The research on which this paper is based was supported by National Science Foundation Science Development Grant, GU-1598-26-3320 administered by the University of Texas. This paper is part of a longer monograph on Japanese numeral classifiers soon to be completed that will describe in detail the data and theoretical points raised here in addition to the methodology involved. A previous version of this paper was presented at a symposium on the acquisition of culture at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, 1970, San Diego, California.

Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change ◽

10.1016/b978-0-12-107450-0.50010-3 ◽

1977 ◽

pp. 51-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

MARY SANCHES

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Annual Meeting ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Language Change ◽

American Anthropological Association ◽

Numeral Classifiers ◽

University Of Texas ◽

Previous Version ◽

National Science ◽

The University

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2009 National Science Foundation Political Science Program Awards

Political Science and Politics ◽

10.1017/s1049096510990938 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (01) ◽

pp. 159-162

Keyword(s):

Political Science ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Research Training ◽

Basic Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Fiscal Year ◽

The Political ◽

Science Program ◽

Political Processes ◽

National Science

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2009. The program funded 56 new projects and 34 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. (Additional program funds were spent on continuing grant increments. These result from awards that were made in previous fiscal years, but where funds are being disbursed on a yearly basis instead all up front.) The Political Science Program spent $10,461,799 on these research, training, and workshop projects and $383,238 on dissertation training grants for political science students. In addition, the program contributed $345,000 to support three Graduate Research Fellowships. The program holds two grant competitions annually (Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, January 15) and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.

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Up Close: Center for Micro-Engineered Ceramics at the University of New Mexico

MRS Bulletin ◽

10.1557/s0883769400055135 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 66-67

Author(s):

Toivo Kodas

Keyword(s):

New Mexico ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Chemical Engineering ◽

Basic Research ◽

Cooperative Research ◽

University Of New Mexico ◽

Major Interest ◽

National Science ◽

Research Problems ◽

The University

The Center for Micro-Engineered Ceramics (CMEC) recently established at the University of New Mexico is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. It is supported by the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Research and Development Institute, and the ceramics industry.The CMEC is unique in that it combines the resources of two universities (University of New Mexico and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) and two national laboratories to attack ceramics-related basic research problems of industrial significance. An essential part of the effort is the strong interplay between the basic scientific disciplines, particularly physics and chemistry, along with engineering; the work is interdisciplinary with members from chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, and geology.The goals of the CMEC are to1. Aggressively attack ceramics-related basic research problems using university/national laboratory/industry collaborations;2. Transfer technology between the universities, national laboratories, and industry; and3. Train a new generation of ceramic scientists and engineers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.At present, the areas of major interest are novel powder synthesis and processing schemes for controlled morphology powder compacts, and coatings and porous films. In addition, both laboratories and universities have programs on ceramic superconductors.

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