The National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to further develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that builds upon fundamental research to guide the output of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products, processes and services that benefit society.

The goal

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of the program is to dramatically reduce the period of time necessary to bring a promising idea from its inception to widespread implementation.

Through this solicitation, NSF is seeking to expand and sustain the network of Innovation Corps (I-Corps^TM) (hereinafter I-Corps) Nodes that work cooperatively to support the development of innovations that will benefit society.

NSF plans to build upon the established National Innovation Network (consisting of I-Corps Nodes and Sites) to further support the needs for innovation research, education and training.

The interconnected nodes of the network are expected to be diverse in research areas, resources, tools, programs, capabilities, and geographic locations - providing the network with the flexibility to grow or reconfigure as needs arise.

I-Corps Nodes will foster understanding onhow to:
1) identify, develop and support promising ideas that can generate value, 2) create and implement tools, resources and training activities that enhance our nation's innovation capacity, 3) gather, analyze, evaluate and utilize the data and insight resulting from the experiences of those participating in regional programs and 4) share and leverage effective innovation practices on a national scale - to improve the quality of life for the U. S. citizenry.

In addition, Nodes must identify andare expected toimplement plans for sustainable scaling of their efforts beyond the duration of NSF support.