Guide shows how nursing schools can build, scale nurse-led innovations

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing released a guide for academic institutions to launch an Innovation Accelerator to scale and commercialize nurse-led ideas. For early-stage solutions to succeed, academic institutions should provide dedicated funding for program administration and pilot funding for winning teams to develop and test solutions. Nursing faculty and students developing solutions need access to expert coaches to provide advice over a 12-month development period. Nursing schools also should offer sessions on essential business skills, including intellectual property, market strategy and budget management. The guide outlines a three-part competitive application process entailing an online application, interviews and a pitch event. Interested schools can use the guide’s recruitment flyers, pitch deck templates and detailed implementation timelines. The Bedford Falls Foundation sponsored the guide. (Newswise news release, 7/16/26)