Catalyzing U.S. Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Approaching the Evaluation of the National Science Foundation's I-Corps Program.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program was created to stimulate innovation and benefit society by training academic entrepreneurs to participate in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. Defining outcomes and measuring the impact of a national initiative such as I-Corps is complex for many methodological and practical reasons. This study describes the ICorps program structure and highlights the role that regional I-Corps Nodes play in training and evaluation activities. Interviews with Node administrators highlight the diversity of approaches to evaluation activities and the existence of key evaluation challenges. They also offer insights into how these challenges could be overcome with more support and coordination nationally and across regional ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]