The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 41,000 students, 14,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes two Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 60 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.9 billion operating budget and secures $560 million annually in external research funding.    

     UMD is the principal institution of the Node and has laid launched many pilot programs for NSF I-Corps that have become staples of the National Innovation Network, including introduction of the Abridged I-Corps Curriculum for regional I-Corps programs, and expansion of I-Corps to agencies and partners beyond NSF.

       The George Washington University (GW) is the largest research university in the nation’s capital. Led by GW’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), GW has been an I-Corps Node leader and runs an I-Corps Site. OIE has been a leader in many I-Corps curriculum innovations, and has also led many International I-Corps and other International Lean Startup initiatives to bring evidence-based entrepreneurship to researchers around the world.      

    GW has an annual R&D budget of over $245 million annually and leverages the unique strengths of the university's schools in the nation's capital to serve society at large. GW runs a top 10 entrepreneurship collegiate competition in which students have the opportunity to compete in three tracks, Tech, Social, and New Venture, and bring an idea to the table, work with mentors to craft and pitch a stellar idea, and vie for cash and non-cash prizes equaling $500,000.

    Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has consistently been a national leader in university R&D. As the first American research university, Johns Hopkins University was founded in the spirit of innovation. From pioneering the use of rubber gloves in surgery in 1889, to making municipal water safe to drink, to recent efforts from teams of researchers and undergraduates to develop the next generation of personal protective equipment for health workers treating deadly viruses like Ebola, Johns Hopkins’s research has had a real and tangible impact.
    JHU joined the DC Node in 2014 becoming the first school to be added to a Node grant. They maintain numerous entrepreneurship and research facilities including Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, and the FastForward program which is the university’s home for startup activity. As a part of the Node, JHU’s seeks to advance the knowledge and understanding of the commercial potential of life and basic science research while providing access to the life science expertise of JHU to include translation, partnering, and entrepreneurship for the greater National Innovation Network.

    As a founding member of the DC I-Corps Node, Virginia Tech (VT) has helped the Node accelerate thousands of teams to create businesses, license technology to larger companies and changed the way thousands of faculty and students think about building businesses and the scope of work for university research.  
    Virginia Tech manages a research portfolio of $522 million, and VT’s College of Engineering has been ranked sixth among engineering schools at U.S. public universities. At Virginia Tech, successful technology transfer is regarded as an imperative, stemming from its service-oriented mission as a land-grant university. Moreover, technology transfer is central to multiple major initiatives, including the university’s new $1B Innovation Campus in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area, the expansion of programs at its Blacksburg, and the university’s leadership role in Virginia’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative.