UMaine teams with MIT, Harvard, other schools to launch hub for science innovation
File photo / Courtesy, University of Maine
Research and development expenditures at UMaine have grown significantly in recent years, helping the school achieve designation as a top-tier research university.
The University of Maine and seven other New England universities are launching a partnership that could speed up the conversion of scientific research into products, technologies and treatments.
The partnership, called the New England Region Innovation Corps Hub, or I-Corps, will be eligible to receive up to $15 million for that work from the National Science Foundation. Spread over five years, the aim of the funding would be to advance entrepreneurship, workforce development and economic growth throughout New England.
I-Corps is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to UMaine, other partners are Brown University, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of New Hampshire.
The regional hub is part of an effort to expand the National Science Foundation’s National Innovation Network.
“As an R1 university, our faculty, staff and students are creating innovations that are transforming our heritage industries, addressing environmental sustainability, solving health care challenges and more,” said John Volin, UMaine’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“We will leverage these new resources to get those innovations to market.”
An "R1" designation is the highest tier a doctoral research university can achieve in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, signifying "very high research activity by a doctoral university," according to Carnegie.
UMaine received the designation in 2022.
The foundation created the I-Corps program to foster innovation and entrepreneurship by providing faculty, staff and students with the tools and guidance needed to identify the market opportunity for their research, according to a news release.
UMaine already has experience with the I-Corps program, in which it has been participating on its own since 2018.
“I-Corps has been a critical element of UMaine’s efforts to increase the commercialization of research in Maine,” said Renee Kelly, associate vice president for strategic partnerships, innovation, resources and engagement and director of UMaine’s I-Corps initiative.
As part of a regional hub, Kelly said, UMaine will be able to scale its efforts to serve more researchers at UMaine and other Maine-based educational institutions, nonprofit laboratories and companies. The hub will also be able to connect them with a network of mentors and resources throughout New England.
UMaine’s participation in the regional hub will focus on entrepreneurial training for researchers in science and engineering, with a goal of helping them identify opportunities to convert their discoveries and innovations into new products, technologies and health care treatments.
"The goal of the I-Corps program is to deploy experiential education to help researchers reduce the time necessary to translate promising ideas from laboratory benches to widespread implementation that in turn impacts economic growth regionally and nationally,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF’s assistant director for technology, innovation and partnerships.
Regional hubs provide training in entrepreneurship and customer discovery, leading to new products, startups and jobs.
“In effect, we are investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs for our nation,” said Gianchandani.
The New England hub is one of 13 I-Corps partnerships in the U.S., which together form a nationwide network that enables collaboration among universities, researchers, entrepreneurs, local and regional communities and federal agencies.
Since its creation in 2011, the NSF I-Corps program has supported over 3,600 teams in translating scientific and engineering breakthroughs into commercial ventures.
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