The University of Missouri’s push to commercialize more intellectual property bagged it a $100,000 grant from the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the country.
The Kauffman foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship, awarded the grant to help MU advance student entrepreneurship. As part of the grant, the Reynolds Journalism Institute will document how student entrepreneurs develop and commercialize their ideas. The grant will also support a student venture capital fund.
“The University of Missouri exhibits a strong commitment to bringing the innovations developed on campuses into the commercial marketplace, which benefits society and ultimately enhances economic growth,” Carl J. Schramm, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO, stated in a release.
The grant stems from the university’s recent change in its policies for student ownership of intellectual property. The winning team of RJI’s 2008-2009 student competition to develop iPhone apps negotiated with the university to retain ownership of its winning app, NearBuy, which is still a top-rated program.
Those negotiations prompted the university to amend its policies on student intellectual property rights. At the time, its rules for undergraduate ownership were unclear. Here’s a story we did on that case a few months back.
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Research.
