Synergiiize is led by the Empowered STEM Entrepreneurship Collective
The Empowered STEM Entrepreneurship Collective is a collaborative effort among WEPAN, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, AISES: Advancing Indigenous People in STEM, and Graduate Fellowships for STEM Diversity, and supported by funding from the Small Business Administration and Qualcomm.
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Synergiiize Innovator Program
Timeline:
The Synergiiize Innovator Program applies an evidence-based framework that integrates critical research about access to support, resources, and critical knowledge for innovation. We welcome all who are interested in applying.
Innovator Program participants will receive free registration and travel support to attend the Synergiiize Summit in April.
Prior entrepreneurial experience is not required for acceptance into the program.
Frequently Asked Questions
Each month from March to September 2025, participants will engage in a new topic from the program curriculum, with a live and recorded virtual session complemented by applied skill-building activities, action planning, open office hours, community building, networking, mentoring, and access to funding opportunities. Topics include: values and vision, market research, customer discovery, business model, finance, intellectual property, pitching, and more!
The time commitment involved in the Synergiiize Innovator Program is anticipated to be at least 5 hours per month. We aim to be good accountability partners, helping you advance your goals on a timeline that you set. We recognize that competing priorities are a part of life and encourage you to engage with the program sessions, activities, and opportunities as best you can. As a participant, the more intentional you are about your engagement, the more you’ll benefit from the program.
In addition to virtual programming, in April 2025 we will come together in Chapel Hill, NC, for the Synergiiize Summit. The Synergiiize Summit gathers innovators together with funders and other key constituents to share resources, engage in professional development, build community, and advance promising practices for inclusive STEM innovation ecosystems. Synergiiize Innovator Program participants will have their travel expenses and registration covered by the program.
Nothing! Thanks to funding from the Small Business Administration, participating in the 2025 Synergiiize Innovator Program is free of charge.
While we do not currently provide seed money, participants are funded to attend the 2025 Synergiiize Summit in Chapel Hill, NC on April 3-5. In addition, participants gain access to and support in pursuing funding opportunities, including $10K grants available through our partnership with the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready program.
Synergiiize Gatebreaker Program
Additional Information:
Typically known as gatekeepers, these key actors include entrepreneurship support organization leaders, angel investors, venture capitalists, technology transfer professionals, SBIR/STTR grant program leaders and reviewers, patent examiners, and more. We empower gatekeepers to wield their power responsibly as accountable agents of change, activating them instead as gatebreakers who dismantle barriers, improve trustworthiness, and build thriving innovation ecosystems.
The Synergiiize Gatebreaker Program provides virtual and on-site workshops, training, consulting, action planning, and events to equip decision makers with the tools they need to cultivate organizational policies and practices that advance their missions and goals.
The Synergiiize Gatebreaker Program is grounded in research and tested through engagements with incubators, accelerators, funders, and tech transfer offices across the country, including programming for the Angel Capital Association, National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, and the New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective.
Accelerator Archive
View the agenda from prior years of the WEPAN Accelerator Program Days.
2023 WEPAN Accelerator Program Days Agenda
2024 WEPAN Accelerator Program Days Agenda
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