The National Science Foundation has awarded Penn State $1.5 million to participate in its I-Corps program for the next five years under the leadership of the University of Maryland. Penn State is one of eight other schools in the Mid-Atlantic region to receive this prestigious appointment, along with Carnegie Mellon University, George Washington University, Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, and Virginia Tech. 

The National Science Foundation is a governmental agency which was created by an act of Congress in 1950. According to the NSF website, the agency was created to “promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense.” According to their website, the NSF has funded and supported scientific research in the non medical sciences in the United States for the past 70 years. 

According to the National Science Foundation, the I-Corps program was created in 2011. The I-Corps program has five main objectives. According to the National Science Foundation’s website, these objectives are creating and implementing tools and programs to enhance the United States’ capacity for innovation, identify and create opportunities for economic development, providing opportunities for a diverse group of innovators, and using innovation to improve the quality of life for all Americans. The I-Corps system is intended to create a National Innovation Network made up of Sites, Nodes and Hubs, in ascending order of hierarchy. I-Corps Hubs are selected every five years and are intended to serve as innovation leaders within their regions and carry out the NSF’s mission of greater innovation and opportunity.

Participation in the I-Corps Program as a Hub signifies Penn State’s growing prestige as a research institution and will, aside from serving as a symbolic boost in prestige for Penn State, result in a greater number of opportunities for research and more federal dollars flowing to the university.