Closing of the 2019 Cohort of the University Binational Innovation Node

 

The Binational Innovation Nodes is a program formed by the National Council of Science and Technology, CONACYT, through the Fund for International Cooperation in Science and Technology (FONCICYT). Created through a parallel call with the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America, they are called binational because they collaborate with their counterparts in the United States.

The Binational Node of University Innovation is formed in its 2018-2019 cycle, by 4 educational institutions: The Mexico´s National Autonomous University (UNAM), The Anáhuac University, The Technology and Innovation Council of Hidalgo (CITNOVA) and the Mexico´s National Technological (TECNM), which aims to accelerate the process of commercialization of technologies developed in the institutions that comprise it through the implementation of the I-Corps program of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

In a Cohort, the teams propose their business thesis and validate the necessary hypotheses to carry out the process of marketing their technology. For 121 hours over 7 weeks, they participate in training activities by the instructors that make up the teaching team. The fundamental part of the program is that teams really leave their laboratories and talk to customers, potential partners and people in their value chain who can give them real data on each section of the business model. The objective of the Cohort is to take program participants through a learning process about what it is to successfully convert their knowledge and technology into products, services, and processes that can benefit society.

The teams were made up of an Entrepreneurial Leader (EL), a Principal Investigator (PI) and a Business Mentor (BM), in some cases, the teams also had an Entrepreneurial Co-Leader (E-CL). As part of the program methodology, the teams had to complete 100 interviews with key clients for the development and implementation of their technology, in addition to attending 10 classes, face-to-face and distance learning, with the teaching team and completing an approximate 200 minutes of personalized advice called Office Hours.

The closure of the 2019 Cohort of the NoBI U University Innovation Binational Node program was held on April 10 and 11 with the final presentation of the 23 teams in which they proposed their final business thesis and validated the necessary hypotheses which helped them make the final decision to go or not to go in the development of their technology, which can mean:

 

GO:

• Ready to start a company.
• Spend significant time in marketing the project in the coming months.
• Change your daily expectations to devote yourself fully to the project,

NOT TO GO:

• They are not ready to start a business.
• Return to the laboratory to continue doing research.
• Search for another customer segment.
• There is no customer segment for the value proposition.

 

At the end of the course in the closure of the cohort, the teams determined the scope of their technology, the commercial viability of their project and bringing the technology to the market, in case the team decides based on the discoveries made during the interview period and hypothesis validation.

NoBI U 2017-2018 Numbers

• 32 received applications.
• 23 participating teams in the 2017-2018 Cohort.
• 1937 Interviews.
• 11 Go, teams.

NoBI U 2018-2019 Numbers

• 65 received applications.
• 24 participating teams in the 2017-2018 Cohort.
• 5231 Interviews.
• 11 Go, teams.

 

The teaching team of the 2019-2019 Cohort of the NoBI University Binational Node U participant was made up of ten instructors; Luis Alfonso Quero Rodríguez, Lead Instructor; Patricia Rubio Solorio, Core Instructor; Todd Morril, Director of the NSF I-Corps Faculty; Nanghelly Silva Anzaldúa, Deputy Instructor; Ramón Bacre, Attached Instructor; Abraham Trigueros Salazar, Assistant Instructor; and a team of 4 teaching assistants; Mayté Jiménez Fierro, Raúl Barrón Pérez, Jorge Aburto and Rogerio Canales.

The event ended in a ceremony with the recognition of the participants, in which the authorities of the member institutions of the University NoBI such as; Juan Manuel Romero Ortega, Innovation and Development Coordinator of UNAM; Eduardo Urzúa Fernández, Director of Business Incubators and Technology Parks and Technical Manager of NoBI; Ofelia Ángulo Guerrero, Subsecretary of Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Government of Mexico City; José Alonso Huerta Cruz, Director of the Council of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Hidalgo (CITNOVA), Laura Iturbe Galindo, Director of the Institute of Business Development of the Anahuac University and Director of IDEA Anahuac; Alfredo Nava Govela, Director of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the Anahuac University; and Guillermo Hernández Duque Delgadillo, Secretary of Linking and Extension of the National Technological Institute of Mexico.