Beyond Academy is a program that Know Hub Chile carries out together with the APTA Hub and in collaboration with UC Riverside, whose purpose is to trigger a cultural transformation in universities, fostering a culture of innovation among researchers.

The program consists of a bootcamp and six theoretical and practical workshops, which train teams led by researchers – and composed of students, thesis students, and professionals – in the methodology of customer discovery and construction of a value proposition. This is based on the validation of working hypotheses with information from potential customers and other stakeholders (I-Corps). The objective is for researchers to validate that there is a relevant problem in a market segment and that their R&D project can be oriented towards results that are useful and therefore marketable. This is why it is beneficial to make this diagnosis as early as possible. The teams work on their own R&D&I projects, monitored weekly by a team of mentors and professionals from Know Hub Chile.

In 2020, the corporation decided to teach the iCorps-based methodology outside its meetings, offering it as a program for its partners as a way to reach more researchers. A Beyond Academy pilot program was conducted between November and December 2020 in conjunction with the APTA Hub and led by UC Riverside.

After having gained experience, Know Hub Chile and Hub APTA decided to jointly carry out this initiative under the name Beyond Academy, in 2021, with the support of mentors from UC Riverside.