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The National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)

The Pratt Institute E-Team’s GROW is actually
a hybrid solar and wind panel.
Credit: Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology 

Inspiring youth to focus their education and career choices on technology and invention creates a robust pipeline of innovators who generate cutting edge technologies that fuel prosperity.

Established in 1995, with support from The Lemelson Foundation, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) supports technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education to create experiential learning opportunities for students and successful, socially beneficial businesses. The NCIIA awards grants that provide college students with instruction, mentoring, and financial support to invent, prototype, patent and market their new inventions and innovations. Through workshops, competitions and curriculum development, the NCIIA promotes invention and entrepreneurship at colleges and universities around the country.

NCIIA grants are awarded in three major categories:

  • E-Team Grants (so named because they promote excellence and entrepreneurship) enable teams of college students, faculty and industry mentors to solve real-world problems by creating and commercializing new technologies. Over 70 businesses have been launched as a result of E-Team grants, including: BullEx
, Ecovative Design
, and Keen Mobility.
  • Course and Program Grants build and improve curricular programs that foster invention, innovation and entrepreneurship at over 350 colleges and universities nationwide.


  • Sustainable Vision Grants support educational programs that develop and implement economically sustainable solutions to address basic human needs globally.
     

March Madness for the Mind and Annual Conference

The NCIIA annually hosts a conference and ”March Madness for the Mind,” a celebration of E-Team innovation and entrepreneurship in which students showcase their prototypes and commercialization plans at a science and technology museum. The annual conference brings engineering, science and business faculty together for three days of workshops, events and featured speakers to enhance science and invention education. The conference also features Venture Well, a new forum designed to connect student invention teams with investors and advisors.

Read more: NCIIA programs
Read more: Eligibility and how to apply for an E-Team grant
Read more: List of companies launched with the help of NCIIA

 

http://www.nciia.org/
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