The NSF I-Corps Mid-Atlantic Hub hosted its third annual meeting on June 11, 2024, in Washington, D.C. 

This year's meeting was held after the NSF National Innovation Network Meeting, enabling directors from other Hubs to join and provide their perspectives.

The meeting focused on sharing upcoming challenges and opportunities for the Hub. As the NSF has continued to expand, the Hub needs to continue elevating its success stories and deepening/broadening its regional impact to make sure that I-Corps retains an integral role in technology commercialization.

So far, the Mid-Atlantic Hub has exceeded its goals in sending regional participants to National I-Corps Teams cohorts and broadening participation to more universities.

Last year, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a leading institution dedicated to serving diverse populations and catering to the Charlotte region, joined the Mid-Atlantic Hub. 

The Hub migrated its I-Corps Prep course, designed to asynchronously train more entrepreneurs before they enter regional I-Corps Programs, to a more open platform. Additional Hubs and many more universities now leverage the platform. To date, more than 600 learners have accessed the Prep program across the country.

The Hub also launched the Operations and Evaluation Committee and added a new Evaluation Lead to bolster data tracking and evaluation efforts, as well as to help program managers across the Hub deliver programs, manage reporting requirements, and better track their outcomes.

Next year, we will expand our I-Corps Prep model to universities outside of the Hub, experiment with a rolling cohort model for community teams, enhance our news engine, and broaden our impact.

Thank you to everyone who makes it all happen!