I-Corps Hub West: Adaptation, Scale, and National Impact

This year, I-Corps Hub West tells the story of a 2025 shaped less by linear growth and more by adaptability. What began as an ambitious plan at the start of FY2025 evolved into a period of adjustment, resilience, and strategic focus; one that ultimately strengthened the Hub’s role in the national innovation ecosystem.

Since launch, I-Corps Hub West has supported more than 1,300 teams, helped form 170 startups, and contributed to over $170 million in follow-on funding. But the numbers, while significant, only tell part of the story. This past year underscored a recurring reality across the region: demand for entrepreneurship training continues to outpace available capacity at the national level. Rather than slow momentum, the Hub responded by expanding regional pathways, diversifying program formats, and strengthening institutional and ecosystem partnerships.

“This isn’t just about tallying outputs,” said Stacyann Russell, Executive Director of I-Corps Hub West. “It’s about transformation. Every team we train represents scientists and engineers learning how to bring their ideas out of the lab and into the world.”

Throughout 2025, Hub West delivered training across 147 cohorts, working with 11 partner institutions and engaging thousands of participants through regional programs, showcases, and events. Regional participation continued to rise year over year, reflecting sustained interest in commercialization support across the West. At the same time, national program constraints reinforced the importance of flexible, regionally driven programming that ensures promising teams can continue advancing—even when national slots are limited.

For Russell, the story is about both the numbers and the people behind them.

“Every startup that comes through our program is proof of what happens when you invest in talent and potential,” she said. “These are solutions with national significance, and the West is showing the country what’s possible. We’re just getting started.”

Beyond training volume, Hub West’s impact is increasingly visible in the types of technologies moving through its pipeline. Teams are advancing innovations aligned with national priorities, including artificial intelligence, quantum information science, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, space technologies, natural resources, and semiconductors. Many have gone on to secure competitive federal funding, with Hub West teams receiving more than $21.9 million in government awards through SBIR and STTR programs alone.

Several teams reached major national milestones this year. Among them, a CU Boulder–led team received a $39 million ARPA-H award to advance regenerative therapies for osteoarthritis, while a UCLA-affiliated team secured $35 million to develop next-generation radiopharmaceutical technologies. These outcomes illustrate how early-stage customer discovery can translate into technologies with real national relevance; across healthcare, defense, energy, and beyond.

Partnerships remain central to Hub West’s strategy. In 2025, more teams than ever progressed into highly competitive accelerators and post-research programs such as Y Combinator, Techstars, Activate, and national laboratory fellowships. At the same time, the Hub continued building new pathways through conversations with organizations like NSF Engines, national labs, clean-tech incubators, and defense innovation programs; ensuring teams have options well beyond their first cohort.

Technology Scouting emerges as a defining focus for Year 5 and beyond. This new activity will create a structured approach to identifying high-potential research, assessing technical and market readiness, and routing promising innovations into the right programs and partnerships. Alongside expanded regional training and deeper ecosystem collaboration, Tech Scouting positions Hub West not just as a training provider, but as a connector; bridging research, markets, and national priorities.

The past year reflects a shift from growth for growth’s sake to sustainable scale, grounded in evidence, informed by evaluation, and driven by the needs of both regional innovators and the nation as a whole.

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