The Ideas Empowered Program supports groundbreaking projects emerging from USC research that, with mentoring, other programmatic support, and a small amount of grant funding, could “spin out” of the university within a year or two and make significant impact. The program grants help identify the most exciting and game-changing ideas at USC, reduce the risks, and bring together the pieces necessary to translate the discoveries to market.  Successful projects could spin out in a number of ways: attracting investment to establish a high-growth start-up company, licensing to a corporation that turns the invention into a new product or service, establishing a non-profit, or scaling a new model for organizational change. The program bridges the gap between ideas and the marketplace by supporting both the idea and the innovator through mentoring and coaching, connections to resources, and grants of about $50K for validation of technical feasibility through proof-of-concept experiments and prototype development. The program is open to teams lead by full-time tenure-track or non-tenure track faculty. Teams can include USC faculty, student researchers and staff members. This two year pilot program serves to help advance the most promising USC innovations, integrates students into translational research projects, and further develops USC students and faculty as lifelong innovators. USC innovators that desire to participate in the Ideas Empowered Program submit a pre-proposal that is evaluated by a review committee conformed by industry experts. After an interview process, eight to ten teams are selected and invited to become part of that year’s Ideas Empowered Class. The Ideas Empowered Class is required to participate in a mentoring and idea feasibility analysis process before any granting of funding is considered. Through a combination of lectures and exercises, the participants advance their ability to develop a commercialization feasibility plan, and to communicate potential opportunities arising from their research. Each team is matched with one or two industry mentors, is assigned an MBA student and receives one-on-one support from the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation. The teams develop compelling milestone-based final proposals and feasibility analysis presentations that they deliver to a granting committee. After the granting committee identifies the recipients of the grants, the funds are distributed and the teams execute their plans with the ongoing guidance and support of USC Stevens. Download the Ideas Empowered brochure by clicking here.

Download the Ideas Empowered Program Presentation - Workshop 1, September 13, 2011

For more information, please email: IdeasEmpoweredProgram@stevens.usc.edu Or, contact: Juan Felipe Vallejo  jvallejo@usc.edu 213-821-5000

USC faculty, students and staff can apply for the Ideas Empowered Program, but the team leader must be a faculty member. One of the goals of the Ideas Empowered Program is to integrate students into translational research projects. The participation of students in the project must align with their overall academic interests at USC. Teams that leverage USC students, and with at least one devoted champion that will focus on the project, are encouraged.

For more information, click here.