Tufts Helps Lead NSF Innovation Corps New England Hub

Tufts University is a founding partner for the recently announced National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Hub: New England Region. The regional Innovation Corps Hubs, part of a national network of 13 such groups, help provide entrepreneurial training to researchers across all fields of science and engineering, working to build and sustain an innovation ecosystem accessible to researchers.

The NSF I-Corps Hub: New England Region is a partnership of eight universities, led by MIT. As one of the founding partners, Tufts is on the leadership team for the hub and will connect researchers from schools across the university to the New England Hub programming as well as running programming locally across the university, focusing on helping researchers take the first steps towards exploring the translation of their research results into innovations that can help society. 

Given the focus on applied innovation, the newly created Auster Center for Applied Innovation Research at the School of Engineering’s Gordon Institute will take the lead on implementing the I-Corps programming across all Tufts schools, and will partner with the Derby Entrepreneurship Center to assist commercialization of research findings.

“Tufts is proud to be a part of the founding team for the NSF I-Corps Hub for the New England region, which will add a new dimension to Tufts’ thriving innovation ecosystem and further amplify the impact of our research on the world,” said Caroline Genco, provost and senior vice president. 

“The research conducted across our institution leads to innovative solutions to some of the world’s most complex challenges, and the funding and programming provided by the NSF I-Corps program will help bring those solutions to life,” Genco added. “I look forward to collaborating with the other founding universities to accelerate the translation of research to societal impact across our region.”

Tufts faculty and students have already taken advantage of the I-Corps efforts. While a graduate student in the Master’s in Innovation and Management program at the Gordon Institute, Jean Pham, EG21, co-founded the company Cellens with Igor Sokolov, a Tufts professor of mechanical engineering. 

Leveraging research by Sokolov, Pham recognized the opportunity to introduce a non-invasive test for bladder cancer that is significantly more accurate than current methods. Pham and Sokolov participated in the national NSF I-Corps program in the summer of 2021, connecting with over 100 patients, clinicians, and scientists to further validate their venture concept, which contributed to their success in raising seed funding. 

“The I-Corps program helped us validate our opportunity to transform the bladder cancer testing market,” Pham says. “With the additional insights gained during the program, we were able to formulate our go-to-market strategy.”

“By bringing the NSF I-Corps program to Tufts,” said Kevin Oye, executive director of Tufts Gordon Institute and the Tufts NSF I-Corps faculty lead, “we’ll be able to bring the value of the NSF I-Corps program to more Tufts researchers. Moreover, to help underserved communities and universities that may have limited access to commercialization programming, Tufts and the New England Hub will be aiming to provide NSF I-Corps programming to tap the talent and ideas from across the region, beyond the eight partner institutions.”

More information, including a full list of the new Northwest and Southeast NSF I-Corps Hubs, is available in the National Science Foundation announcement.