GJOVIG

Opportunities are immense. Leaders in the private sector, government, and academia recognize the need for innovation in all sectors of the economy — our future depends on it. The opportunities are not only to develop new technologies, processes and products to solve problems and meet emerging needs, but also to capitalize on research to create new industries that will build a dynamic global economy. Future leaders in most economic sectors will likely have strong backgrounds in innovation and entrepreneurship. These are exciting times.

Need- and opportunity-based entrepreneurship did well in both the “up” economy of the 1990s and the “down” economy that followed. For two decades now our economy has embraced change. The agents for change are innovators and entrepreneurial ventures. The pace of change continues to accelerate, creating more opportunity for the creative people among us in business, engineering, medicine, art, social sciences, and many other fields. The ability of our nation and state to remain productive, competitive, and a technological leader depends on our ability to foster and support innovation and entrepreneurship. This is where the UND Center for Innovation comes in.

Enter the Center for Innovation

In the main lobby of UND’s new Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, light, patterns, and colors combine to create an atmosphere that welcomes people and ideas. The structure houses a modern tech incubator with wet labs for scientists, state-of-the-art information technology to support electronic commerce, and an Idea Lab that links the local entrepreneur community with worldwide resources.

In 1984, the Center was formed to developaprivate/public partnership to foster innovation and entrepreneurship across the state. It was one of the first entrepreneur outreach programs in the nation, and it has remained a leader in the field to this day, winning five national awards for excellence. More than 400 products and ventures have been launched with the Center’s assistance, creating thousands of jobs and attracting tens of millions of dollars of investment. Ventures have grown out of the creativity and leadership of students, researchers, and innovators from across the state. The success rate has been over 90 percent as creative potential was encouraged and supported.

Last October, UND was ranked 14th on a list of “America’s Most Entrepreneurial Colleges.” The announcement on the Web by www.forbes.com/entrepreneur read: “Only a few of the nation’s more than 2,000 colleges are concentrating on producing tomorrow’s great entrepreneurs. For the first time, the Princeton Review and Forbes have identified those forward-thinking institutions. Our list of the 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses highlights the cream of the crop: schools that are teaching their undergraduates how to start their own businesses, and are supporting them with everything from mentoring to venture funds.”

UND is delighted to be ranked in the top 4 percent in entrepreneurship.

The University has developed a remarkable infrastructure over the past 20 years to support innovation and entrepreneurship, including:

• Support for entrepreneurial students with an entrepreneur major, an entrepreneur track (minor) for non-business students, entrepreneur internships and co-ops, scholarships, incubator space for student start-ups, venture funds, mentors, a campus entrepreneur club, and more. Students have tremendous access to hands-on learning with successful entrepreneurs, course work specifically connected to entrepreneurship, and coaching from UND faculty and the Center for Innovation. These entrepreneurship programs are under the umbrella of the College of Business and Public Administration, but serve the entire campus community.
  
• Solid academic leadership. Students and entrepreneurs have an opportunity to learn from one of the nation’s most outstanding educators. Jeffrey Stamp, Ph.D., the first occupant of the College’s new Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, directs the academic program (see the article at right). He previously held the Markley Visiting Professor of Creativity and Entrepreneurship at Miami University of Ohio and lectured in entrepreneurship at eight universities, including Babson College, New York University, the University of Cincinnati, Cambridge University, and the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India.
  
• Support for tech entrepreneurs, with strong programming on developing business plans, marketing plans, access to capital, developing private/public partnership on R&D, and commercializing technologies. A monthly Entrepreneur Forum brings successful and emerging entrepreneurs together in a dynamic learning and networking environment. More on the comprehensive entrepreneur programs can be found at www.Innovators.net.
  
• The Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center. Opened in January 2005, it houses a modern tech incubator with wet labs for scientists, a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for eCommerce, and an Idea Lab that connects the entrepreneur community to the world to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment. The new facility is receiving national attention for design, function, and its artistic touches. It is the first Center of Excellence for Economic Development in North Dakota, setting a high standard. Together with the Norm Skalicky Tech Incubator, more than 140 workstations are available for the entrepreneur community.
  
• Support from successful entrepreneurs. This has allowed UND to compete successfully against the best-financed programs in the Ivy League and the Big Ten. Private donors have invested more than $9 million in our entrepreneur programs since 2002, keeping UND a leader in the field. We remain on the cutting edge by integrating academic and applied innovation and entrepreneurship, both on and off campus. Because we think and act like them, some of the best entrepreneurs in the country support us. They remember what it was like in the beginning, struggling to get established. They care about the next generation of entrepreneurs and have offered their assistance.
  
• A 55-acre UND Tech Park that has grown to eight high-tech buildings with more than 400 people employed. Additional development of the Tech Park promises to create higher-paying, high-quality jobs for students and graduates of UND. There are opportunities for many private/public partnerships outside the Tech Park as well, providing a campus culture that supports employment opportunities broadly.

The Center for Innovation draws from this rich, innovative culture and infrastructure that has been developed over the last two decades. The focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment, along with exceptional student involvement and the reputation for producing tomorrow’s entrepreneur leaders, are powerful magnets that will attract more talented, ambitious people.