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Rep. Lipinski Praises NIH Commitment to I-Corps Entrepreneurship Training for Researchers to Help Spur Medical Advances (June 19, 2014)

Congressman Dan Lipinski (IL-3) is praising a new collaboration between the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will use the best entrepreneurial minds from Silicon Valley and venture capitalists to teach entrepreneurship to NIH researchers.  This will help turn lab research into medical innovations that save lives and save money while leading to economic growth, job creation, and a greater return on taxpayers’ investment in scientific research.  As the top Democrat on the Research and Technology Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Rep. Lipinski has played an important role in bringing these organizations together and using his leadership position to encourage program participation.

Congressman Lipinski was an early supporter of the I-Corps program and was responsible for including language in two NSF authorization bills before the House Science Committee that specifically authorized the activities of I-Corps.  In addition, Rep. Lipinski wrote a letter last April to NIH Director Francis Collins asking him to direct NIH to participate in the I-Corps program.

“Working with the I-Corps program just makes sense,” said Rep. Lipinski.  “The expense is modest, especially compared to its potential to save lives and money while putting people to work.  With the struggle for federal research dollars getting more competitive with each passing year, I-Corps increases the likelihood that tax dollars invested in research lead to medical advances.”  

I-Corps teaches the “Lean LaunchPad” method for starting a business.  This method focuses on talking to as many potential customers as possible, pivoting quickly in response to the resulting insights, building low-cost prototypes to get customer feedback, and constantly adapting.

Four NIH institutes will participate in the initial phase of this collaborative effort: the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.