The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University: Higher Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Focus

America’s colleges and universities have gotten the entrepreneurial bug. From the i6 Proof of
Concept Center at the University of Akron to the University of Wyoming’s Technology Business Center,
America’s higher education institutions are embracing the importance of innovation, commercialization,
entrepreneurship, and the creation of economic value for their communities. Most people are familiar with
the traditional centers of university-based innovation and entrepreneurship such as the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and its connection to the Greater Boston entrepreneurship ecosystem. But
over the last decade, more universities, community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HCBU), and regional state colleges have embraced innovation and entrepreneurship as critical to their
mission and role in their communities.

In 2011, 142 major research universities and associations submitted a letter to the Secretary of
Commerce renewing their commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship on campus and in their
communities, and asked the federal government to continue to work with them in these areas. This
report is the next step in a two-year effort by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National
Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) to understand exactly what America’s
colleges and universities are doing programmatically and strategically to nurture innovation,
commercialization, and entrepreneurship among students, faculty, alumni, and within their communities.

Full Report: http://www.eda.gov/pdf/The_Innovative_and_Entrepreneurial_University_Report.pdf