NCIIA SEEKS PROPOSALS TO SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Application Deadline-May 15

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) is seeking proposals that support innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship programs in U.S. colleges and universities. Through June of each grant year, NCIIA will award approximately 50 grants of $1-50,000 each to faculty and students of member institutions.

The NCIIA is interested in proposals for courses and projects which further the concept of E-Teams. E-Teams are groups of students, faculty, and professional who join together to pursue the development of an idea, product, or invention, or to solve a problem in a way that has the promise of developing an enterprise that will generate jobs and social benefits. The "E" stands for "excellence" and "entrepreneurship."

Two types of grants are offered:
E-Team Course and Program Development Grants. Grants ranging from $2,000 to $50,000 will be awarded to the to support the development, implementation, and institutionalization of new courses and programs in which student teams will develop innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to real-world problems. Funding can be used for course planning, supplies, equipment, or expenses directly related to the project development.

Advanced E-Team Grants. Grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 will be awarded to advanced E-Teams for further development and steps leading to commercialization of their ideas.  Funding can be used for project expenses, legal fees, or student internships.

The NCIIA is interested in proposals for programs, courses, and projects in which the following criteria are met:

• Programs, courses, and projects in which students will identify and solve real problems for which answers may not yet exist and whose solutions can lead to new entrepreneurial opportunities;
• Programs, courses, and projects that are balanced and multidisciplinary, involving faculty, students, and advisors from both technical and business disciplines as well as practitioners in relevant areas;
• Projects for which commercialization opportunities are presented in a realistic and well informed context that provides a survey of the existing art, basic competitive intelligence, and

For additional information on the NCIIA and the Request for Proposals, visit their website at www.nciia.org or call 413-587-2172.

Background Material:
The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance or NCIIA is a unique interdisciplinary educational program started at Hampshire College in November 1995 with the generous support of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Foundation. The mission of the Alliance is to foster and promote the teaching of invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship at colleges and universities around the country. The NCIIA aspires to nurture a new generation of innovators by helping colleges and universities to prepare students to be inventors and entrepreneurs. This is done by facilitating and supporting collaborative learning structures at higher ed institutions of all types nationwide.

The Alliance provides support in the form of grants to faculty and students, services and information for members, and meetings, workshops and other resources designed to assist in the development of new programs focusing on commercially directed innovation. A young and growing program, the NCIIA has 61 member institutions and supports a broad variety of educational programs and student projects throughout the country.

The program had its origins in the passionate belief of its benefactors that the health and prosperity of the American economy results in large part from the creativity and ingenuity of American inventors and the unique legal and economic structures that protect and encourage the development and commercial exploitation of their ideas. They created the Lemelson National Program at Hampshire College, and subsequently, the NCIIA, to support educational initiatives in innovation.

The primary mechanism in this effort is the E-Team (the "E" stands for excellence and entrepreneurship). An E-Team is a group of students, faculty and mentoring professionals who together pursue the development of an idea, product or invention, or solve a problem in a way that is likely to result in the licensing of new products or technologies or the startup of entrepreneurial ventures.

Mr. Lemelson's inspiration for the E-Team model was the collaborative interdisciplinary development teams used during W.W. II to rapidly develop innovative technical solutions to urgent wartime needs. The strengths of a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to problem solving are embodied in this model. The E-Team serves as a interdisciplinary bridge crossing over barriers between traditional disciplines (such as engineering, business and liberal arts) and between the business and academic communities. It is intended to serve as a flexible, open model and a source of new ideas rather than a doctrine.

E-Teams were pioneered at Hampshire College a private liberal arts college in western Massachusetts as part of the Lemelson Program in Invention, Innovation and Creativity. Students participated in courses where students formed into groups to develop solutions to open-ended real world problems with commercial applications. These E-Teams were given the opportunity to apply for grants to support the development of innovative ideas. The project was highly successful in engaging students in the process of collaborative innovation and teaching about creativity and entrepreneurship. Participation in an E-Team was often a watershed experience in a student's academic career and has led to the development of products and businesses in a variety of areas.

E-Teams work best when they are linked to the community through relationships with non-academic mentors, and advisors. They can therefore foster connections between an institution's most entrepreneurial graduates and the local business and technical communities. Over the long term in collaboration with local business development and incubator efforts, we expect these relationships to lead to homegrown innovation and local economic growth.

The success of this program led to the creation of the NCIIA in November, 1995 as a national alliance to promote and support E-Teams in higher education. In the first two years of its operation E-Teams have been created at a range of institutions from large universities to small elite colleges. NCIIA grants provide support to classes where E-Teams form in disciplines ranging from engineering and computer science to business and psychology. Students led teams may also form outside of classes.

E-Teams can apply for grants of up to $X(Check NCIIA Website) to pursue the development of their ideas by building prototypes, pursuing patents, writing business plans and doing market research. The average grant is approximately $X(Check NCIIA Website) E-Team participants often become very passionate about the work they are doing and report that it was a crucial part of their educational experience. By operating essentially as entrepreneurs, they have the opportunity to develop the confidence and skills necessary to succeed as technical innovators in the real world. They manage a budget, work against a project schedule, deal with recalcitrant suppliers and make decisions all in a low risk environment. We believe these experiences will have long term effect on the way these students see themselves and think about their careers.

Some of the teams succeed in creating a product which will enter the marketplace or start a business venture. But even those whose projects never reach commercialization are far ahead of most of their peers in their preparation for a productive and successful career as innovative and economically productive members of society. We will track participants in this program over time and assess its success not only by the number of startup businesses directly generated by E-Teams, but also by the record of economic productivity of its alumni.

The Alliance serves as a resource to faculty and students at member schools, providing curriculum models, faculty development and networking opportunities, technical advice, and financial support of E-Teams in the form of grants.

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