About the Workshop

This Platform Technology Assessment Workshop is designed for innovators who have developed breakthrough and/or early-stage technologies that could be developed for multiple market applications, and who now need to determine a starting point and trajectory to achieve their vision.

This program is primarily intended for teams accepted into the 2025 Fall National I-Corps cohorts. In addition to your Technical Lead, Entrepreneurial Lead, and Industry Mentor, we recommend that you include your technology commercialization manager. Past or current participants in local and regional I-Corps programs are also welcome. As a group, you will:

• Refine your understanding of the unique, differentiating capabilities of your technology.
• Identify an effective starting point for customer discovery in the NSF I-Corps Teams program.
• Identify real-world problems their technology has the potential to solve better than available alternatives.
• Identify a lower risk path to high impact commercial innovation.
• Assess and prioritize the feasibility of potential application opportunities based on level of uncertainty, risk, and potential market size.
• Design an overall development roadmap, including their initial “lily pad” applications and risk-mitigation strategy

Through this course, you will:

• identify a lower risk path to high impact commercial innovation
• inform your use-inspired research agenda
• identify an effective starting point for customer discovery in the NSF I-Corps Teams program
• Upon completion of the workshop, you will have identified a logical starting point for your commercialization journey as well as a longer-term roadmap of innovation opportunities to guide your research and strengthen your case for commercialization funding.

Workshop Dates

Mondays, July 21 & July 28 from 10am-1pm ET (9am-12pm CT)