A team of JSU researchers has received a three-year $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to establish an NSF Innovations-Corps Site within Jackson State University’s College of Business.
JSU President Carolyn W. Meyers, said, “This is an outstanding honor, and demonstrates that we are headed down the road to distinctiveness. This is what teamwork accomplishes.”
Combining experience and guidance from established entrepreneurs with a targeted curriculum, I-Corps is a public-private partnership program that teaches how to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research and offers entrepreneurship training to student participants. The I-Corps Sites program, in turn, enables academic institutions to catalyze teams whose technology concepts are likely candidates for commercialization.
The project, “I-Corps Sites: Jackson State University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” is under the direction of Principal Investigator (PI) Ramin Cooper Maysami, dean of the JSU College of Business. The project co-PIs are: Dr. Loretta Moore, vice president for Research and Federal Relations; Dr. William McHenry, executive director of the Mississippi e-Center@Jackson State University; and Dr. Deidre Wheaton, assistant professor of Continuing Education.
“We are excited about providing the opportunity to JSU scientists and researchers from all academic fields to pursue commercialization of their products and services,” said Maysami. “We are equally excited about contributing to the economic growth and development of West Jackson, Jackson Metropolitan area and Mississippi through this entrepreneurial initiative, which is also open to interested teams of innovators and researchers from outside the JSU family,” Maysami continued.
I-Corps Sites will provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. With the support and mentorship of the Sites, the teams will learn first-hand about entrepreneurship and explore the transition of their ideas, devices, processes or other intellectual activities into the marketplace.
For additional information and participation, contact Maysami at 601-979-2411.