– Paul Clark
Would you like to better understand what the market or stakeholders think about your innovation or your research?
I-Corps Lite is a condensed version of the DOE Energy Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program designed to help early-stage teams explore the potential market impact of their technologies or research. Offered by Berkeley Lab’s Intellectual Property Office, it provides entrepreneurial training, including customer discovery and business model development, for researchers and innovators looking to commercialize their ideas. I-Corps Lite empowers and teaches participants to assess their innovation’s commercial viability and build pathways from lab to market.
Past participants of I-Corps and I-Corps Lite programs have highlighted its role in transforming their approach to research and innovation. For example, Peter Frischmann, a former scientist in the Energy Science Area and now co-founder and CEO of Sepion Technologies, credits his ARPA-E award to the program, and noted:
“What I learned in I-Corps was absolutely essential to understanding and effectively articulating the business opportunity of our battery technology. It significantly altered our outlook on the technological demands necessary to gain market traction.”
Deepti Tanjore, director of the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU), said that every scientist should take I-Corps training, and also praised I-Corps’ effectiveness in bridging the gap between scientific research and market needs.
“It’s important to understand that users and decision-makers are different and may have different interests. Identifying these stakeholders and their needs is key.”
One project that was started with the help of I-Corps Lite was Tianzhen Hong’s R&D 2022 winner “CityBES,” from the Lab’s Energy Technologies Area. With help from I-Corps Lite training to find proposal and research partners, his team was able to successfully conduct collaborative projects with major U.S. cities, the California Energy Commission, the California Strategic Growth Council, and more.
I-Corps Lite will give you tools to become a successful entrepreneur or savvy grant writer by understanding the potential market impact of your work. Past participants have been able to further their entrepreneurial development with admission to other programs, such as the DOE Energy I-Corps, Cradle to Commerce, and Cyclotron Road. Others have focused on improving internal processes or grants proposals, through feedback from relevant peers and opinion leaders. If you are interested in joining the next round of I-Corps Lite or want to learn more about the program, please contact Jeremy Greeter, jgreeter@lbl.gov or visit the IPO entrepreneurship website.