Organization:VentureWell (formerly NCIIA)

Overview

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance  (NCIIA) was established in 1995. The NCIIA's mission is "to support technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education to create experiential learning opportunities for students and successful, socially beneficial innovations and businesses."

With a membership of nearly 200 colleges and universities from all over the United States, the NCIIA engages more than 5,000 student and faculty innovators and entrepreneurs each year, helping them to bring their concepts to commercialization.

The NCIIA ‘pipeline’ provides nascent student start-ups with early stage funding, helps with business strategy development, mentoring and investment. The NCIIA provides faculty with funding for courses and programs in technology entrepreneurship, opportunities for recognition and entrepreneurship education training and networking.

Products, Services or Resources

For Institutions:

• University Innovation Fellows: Leadership training for students focused on expanding the entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus.
• Course & Program Grants: $50,000 for courses or programs that support the development of market-driven, technology-based inventions and innovations.
• Sustainable Vision Grants: $50,000 for courses or programs in which breakthrough technologies are created and commercialized for the benefit of people living in poverty in the US and abroad.
• OPEN Conference: Annual convening of faculty and students focused on expanding entrepreneurship and innovation in STEM and Engineering disciplines within academia.
• Lean Launchpad Educators Training: Training for faculty to integrate customer and business model development techniques into entrepreneurship education.
• Research to Innovation: Training for research scientists to adopt skills for translating research into commercially valuable innovation.

For Student Ventures:

• E-Team Program: Up to $75,000 in grants and training for student teams with innovative technology with scaleable commercial potential and societal benefit.
• Biomedical Competitions: Up to $10,000 in prizes for student biomedical innovations.
• VentureWell: Venture development and investor readiness program intended to help NCIIA E-Teams develop their businesses to the point where they can secure their first formal round of financing.

Partnerships

• Epicenter is a partnership between NCIIA and Stanford out of which came the University Innovation Fellows Program and Lean Launchpad Educators Training.
• I-Corps is a training program provided by NCIIA under its partnership with the National Science Foundation to its grantees.
• Xcelerator is a training program provided by NCIIA under its partnership with USAID to its grantees.

Impact for Students and Campus

Since 1995 the NCIIA has:

• Funded 341 experiential courses and programs at hundreds of institutions throughout the United States
• Funded 465 E-Team (innovative product development) projects that have resulted in more than 180 new businesses
• These businesses have leveraged more than $365 million in additional funding
• Engaged 2,000 students via E-Teams
• Partnered with government agencies and corporates to advance our mission
• Gained significant coverage from national media outlets and specialty outlets

2011-12 by the numbers:

• 23 Course and Programs grants awarded ($606,640)
• 37 Advanced E-Team grants awarded ($544,623)
• 11 Sustainable Vision grants awarded ($446,774)
• $1,598,037 total grants awarded

Contact Information

To connect with the NCIIA with a general inquiry, click here. For more information, visit the NCIIA's website at http://nciia.org/.