CI² attacks foundational questions in electrochemical interface science that has broad technological relevance. To facilitate translation of scientific discovery to innovations that impact society, CI² has partnered with Dr. Judy Giordan and ecosVC to implement a Lens of the Market training program for CI² students.

There are two primary objectives to the CI² innovation program. (i) Provide all CI² students, postdocs, and faculty with the skills to determine a potential business case for translating research into commercial innovations and in communication, leadership and teamwork to aid in building resilient careers. (ii) Facilitate translation of CI² research into commercial solutions across markets either as new ventures or licensed technologies.

Stage I of LoM is a one or two day research-to-innovation workshop for CI² participants that provides a rapid introduction to the vocabulary, skills, tools, and road mapping needed to successfully translate research into innovations. Stage II is a 3-6 month commitment by a subset of the CI² team that provides the tools, templates, and skills to define and rank research innovation opportunities related to IIT for commercial potential. Participants will thus be capable of informing their early-stage research with societal needs. and assess in detail technology/market application pairs via the two-stage LoM market validation process.

Stage I LoM educational outcomes

• Determine options for CI2 research to aid in addressing global challenges
• Align a preliminary set of innovations with markets into which the research outcomes can be applied (platform diagram)
• Create a means to test the value of an innovation (product offering) within a selected market (a market-application pair) based on a value proposition and market-defined value chains
• Generate a list of direct and indirect competitive products to the proposed product offering aligned with a market

Stage II LoM educational outcomes

• Construct a market hypothesis consisting of a value proposition and value chain analysis for testing the need in the market for a selected application of research
• Work in a team to develop a script and protocol to conduct interviews, collect data aligned with specific market-aligned questions and determine if there is a potential business case for developing a technology for a market
• Collect, summarize, and build grounded assumptions from data
• Create a product-market-gap analysis to define the specifications for a minimum viable product
• Update the R&D and aligned intellectual property plan for developing the minimum-viable product aligned with market requirements and CI2 research