OUR SPONSORS

For 40 years, America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF has helped startups and small businesses transform their ideas into marketable products and services. We focus on high-risk, high-impact technologies and each year, we award $200 million in funding to entrepreneurs across the country. Our goals are to foster innovation and help create businesses and jobs in the United States, and companies seed funded by our program have since gone on to tremendous success. We are a congressionally mandated program — Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR).

The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory and accelerates the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded, basic-research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization.

The Research Park at the University of Illinois is a leading innovation hub for technology commercialization with a unique environment that cultivates startups and increases capabilities for established companies. The mixed-use composition promotes creative collisions and interdisciplinary collaborations, strengthening the bridge between campus and community.