MidYearSurvey

NSF's Convergence Accelerator Mid Year Survey (Revised)
Background
Participation in this survey helps the Convergence Accelerator adapt to your team's
needs and evaluate our progress as a program. This will help us improve, and in turn
help every team we serve. Your participation and responses will not be attributed to
you without prior consent, and will not influence any current or future funding
award decisions made by NSF. Your participation is also entirely voluntary. We are
still very grateful for your help.
You can skip a question if you don't know the answer, but please try to answer
everything you can.
Thank you! We value your time and appreciate your participation!
OMB Control No. 3145-XXXX
* 1. What is your name?

2. What is your team's number? Ex: X123

* 3. What type of organization is your primary employer?
Research university
Teaching university
Non-profit
Industry
Other (please specify)

* 4. Briefly, what are your fields of expertise?

5. What are your current primary roles on the Convergence Accelerator project?
Leadership
Technical
Research
Outreach/Partnership
Support
Sales
Program Manager
Other (please specify)

* 6. During the last year, on average, how many hours a week did you spend on the
Convergence Accelerator project?

* 7. Overall, how satisfied are you with your experience with the Convergence Accelerator?
Extremely satisfied
Mostly satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied
Mostly dissatisfied
Extremely dissatisfied

* 8. Please explain why you chose that answer, with all the details you think are important for
us to know.

* 9. How could the Convergence Accelerator have better supported you in your goals? Please
provide all the details you think would be helpful for us to support you, and improve.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Team Functioning
10. Overall, how successful do you think you have been when it comes to effective
collaboration and good relationships on your team?
Extremely successful
Mostly successful
Somewhat successful
Slightly successful
Not at all successful

11. How could we have done more to help you with effective collaboration and good
relationships on your team? Please provide all the detail you think would be helpful for us to
support you, and improve.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Organizational Sustainability
12. In your project's current state, do you expect your project to become a:
For-profit company
Non-profit organization
Open source project
Don't know yet
Other (please specify)

13. How much would you agree that you have a fully completed business plan / sustainability
plan?
Completely agree
Somewhat agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Somewhat disagree
Completely disagree

14. How much would you agree that you have a written and agreed upon contract, licensing
materials, or other documents, specifying who controls your intellectual property (IP) / stock /
organizational ownership?
Completely agree
Somewhat agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Somewhat disagree
Completely disagree

15. Overall, how successful do you think your team has been when it comes to preparing for
organizational sustainability?
Extremely successful
Mostly successful
Somewhat successful
Slightly successful
Not at all successful

16. How could we have done more to help you, with preparing for organizational
sustainability? Please provide all the detail you think would be helpful for us to support you,
and improve.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Product Development and User Testing
17. Which of the following answers best describes the current state of your project?
1. Basic principles considered
2. Technology concept formulated
3. Experimental proof of concept
4. Technology validated in lab-like environment
5. Technology validated in relevant environment
6. Technology demonstrated in relevant environment
7. System model or prototype demonstration in operational environment
8. System complete and qualified for use
9. Actual system proven in operational environment

18. Which of the following answers best described the state of your team's project when you
first started at the Convergence Accelerator?
1. Basic principles considered
2. Technology concept formulated
3. Experimental proof of concept
4. Technology validated in lab-like environment
5. Technology validated in relevant environment
6. Technology demonstrated in relevant environment
7. System model or prototype demonstration in operational environment
8. System complete and qualified for use
9. Actual system proven in operational environment

19. Approximately many interviews has your team completed with people who will use the
solution themselves (not just who are affected by it)? For example, if you are developing a
curriculum, these are the teachers.

20. Does your solution currently envision a separate user population, who might not use the
solution themselves, but are still directly affected by it? For example, if you are developing a
curriculum, these are the students.
Yes
No
Not sure

21. IF YOU ANSWERED YES, approximately how many interviews has your team completed
with people who will be directly affected by the solution (but not use it themselves)? For
example, if you are developing a curriculum, these are the students. If you answered NO or
NOT SURE, you can skip this question

22. Currently, and overall, what proportion of your time is spent on exploring what you should
do (such as basic research, market research, experimental prototyping, etc), and what
proportion is spent on implementing things you’ve decided are good ideas (such as building
the solution, adding features, or installing systems for users)? Choose the one that fits best.

100% exploration, 0% implementation
75% exploration, 25% implementation
50% exploration, 50% implementation
25% exploration, 75% implementation
0% exploration, 100% implementation

23. Overall, how successful do you think you have been, when it comes to product/solution
development and user testing?
Extremely successful
Mostly successful
Somewhat successful
Slightly successful
Not at all successful

24. How could we have done more to help you, with product/solution development and user
testing? Please provide all the detail you think would be helpful for us to support you, and
improve.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Partnerships
25. Overall, how successful do you think you have been, when it comes to getting the
partnerships you need to succeed?
Extremely successful
Mostly successful
Somewhat successful
Slightly successful
Not at all successful

26. What kinds of partners does your team currently have? Please select all that apply.
Academic
Industry
Non-profit
Government
Community / Users
Funders / Investors
Other (please specify)

27. What kinds of partners does your team currently need most? Please select all that apply.

Academic
Industry
Non-profit
Government
Community / Users
Funders / Investors
Other (please specify)

28. How could we have done more to help you, with partnerships? Please provide all the
detail you think would be helpful for us to support you, and improve.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Impact and Outcomes
29. Three years from now, approximately how many people do you estimate will be
direct users of your solution?
10s
100s
1,000s
10,000s
100,000s
1,000,000s (millions)
1,000,000,000s (billions)

30. Three years from now, approximately how many people do you estimate will be directly
affected by your solution?
10s
100s
1,000s
10,000s
100,000s
1,000,000s (millions)
1,000,000,000s (billions)

31. On average, how much do you think your solution will change the lives of those affected
by it?
An enormous change to their quality of life
A large change to their quality of life
A moderate change to their quality of life
A small change to their quality of life

32. Please briefly describe the ways in which you believe your solution will affect their lives
positively, and why that's important.

33. How helpful would it have been to have training in the Convergence Accelerator Phase 1
curriculum that helped you evaluate the impact of your project?
Extremely helpful
Somewhat helpful
Slightly helpful
Not at all helpful

34. If any, how many papers have you submitted for a publication or conference that are
related to your Convergence Accelerator project?

35. If any, how many patents, invention disclosures, or other forms of IP have you applied for
that are related to your Convergence Accelerator project?

36. If any, how many partners do you have for your Convergence Accelerator project?

37. If any, how many investors / financial contributors do you have for your Convergence
Accelerator project, that are not the Convergence Accelerator?

38. If any, approximately how many users do you currently have?

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
Convergence
39. By “convergence”, we mean a project that deeply integrates diverse expertise, sectors,
and disciplines. Using this definition, how much would you say the Convergence Accelerator
has contributed to your change in convergence, since you started?
It has increased our convergence by a large amount
It has increased our convergence by a small amount
It has neither increased nor decreased our convergence
It has decreased our convergence by a small amount
It has decreased our convergence by a large amount

40. Specifically, how much did the “track integration” efforts contribute to your convergence?

A lot
Somewhat
A little
Not at all
We were not involved in track integration efforts

41. Overall, did the track integration efforts feel like they were a valuable use of time?
Extremely valuable
Mostly valuable
Somewhat valuable
Not at all valuable
We were not involved in track integration efforts

42. Please explain why you chose that answer, with all the detail you think it is important for
us to have.

NSF's Convergence Accelerator End of Year Survey (Revised)
The Innovation Ecosystem
43. Overall, how do you think the Convergence Accelerator has impacted your project,
compared to other opportunities you might have had in its place?
Much better than other opportunities would have been
Somewhat better than other opportunities would have been
Neither better nor worse than other opportunities would have been
Somewhat worse than other opportunities would have been
Much worse than other opportunities would have been

44. Please explain why you believe this, using as much detail as you think will be helpful for
us to support you, and improve the program.

45. Are you one of the first people in your department or division to found an organization
that delivers a product/solution? (In other words, this does not include organizations that
might only host speaker series, for example).
Yes
No
I don’t know

46. Do you think your participation in the Convergence Accelerator has influenced your
institution to consider or better acommodate more entrepreneurial approaches to their
work?
Yes
Maybe
No
I don’t know

47. Do you think your participation in the Convergence Accelerator has influenced other
people in your field to consider more entrepreneurial approaches to their work?
Yes
Maybe
No
I don’t know

48. In the future, do you plan on teaching any new courses on subjects you learned about in
the Convergence Accelerator's curriculum?
Yes, a course on Team Science
Yes, a course on Human Centered Design
Yes, a course on Communications, Pitching, or Story Telling
Yes, a course on some other aspect of entrepreneurship
No, I will not teach in any of these areas
No new classes, but I already taught at least one of these topics

49. Do you have any ideas about how we might bring the Convergence Accelerator’s
entrepreneurial approach to a larger number of teams and institutions?

50. Do you have any comments on other aspects of the Convergence Accelerator, such as the
phase structure, funding amount, program requirements, coaching structure, etc? We take
your feedback very seriously, and welcome whatever information you can provide.

* 51. Would you be willing to have a more in-depth discussion to expand upon your answers in
this survey?
Yes
No

That's the end of the survey -- thank you so much for your time and contribution!