§1862s–8 Innovation Corps

Summary

The Director of the National Science Foundation must set simple rules and run a program that gives grants for teaching entrepreneurship, commercialization, and mentoring. The program must fund education and training to help turn federally funded research into real products, jobs, and companies. The Director must support the I‑Corps model and can make agreements with other federal science agencies so their researchers, students, and institutions can join I‑Corps or get help creating a similar program. If the Director makes an agreement with another agency, that agency must pay for training and for the regional or national sites it picks for entrepreneurship support. The Director must also offer competitive grants for prototype or proof‑of‑concept work and for building local, regional, and national entrepreneurship infrastructure, but only for projects that are too early for the Small Business Innovation Research Program or the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (as defined in title 15, section 638). The Director may partner with states, local governments, economic development groups, and nonprofits to expand access. Every two years the Director must report to Congress on how well the program works, and participating federal agencies must help provide information. Congress finds that I‑Corps helps move research to market, builds useful networks, creates jobs, and should keep supporting and expanding the program, including extra support for female entrepreneurs.