Advancing Innovation 
The Kauffman Foundation has begun working with several universities and other partners to better understand the complexities of innovation in entrepreneurship.
Advancing Innovation Along the Long Tail
Laura Dorival Paglione, Director, Kauffman Innovation Network, discusses moving away from narrow markets ruled by "the tyranny of the hit" (the old
focus on best-sellers) to focus on the "long tail" markets where non-hits and specialty goods can
flourish as well.
Beyond Licensing and Incubators
After years of studying how
innovation works (or fails to work) in and around universities, says Lesa Mitchell, Vice President, Advancing Innovation, the Kauffman Foundation is finding
emerging new solutions to accelerate innovation and commercialization at universities.
Casting A Wide Net: Online Activities of Small and New Businesses in the United States
The Internet's profound effect on how U.S. businesses operate is even more pronounced among young companies, according to a research report released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The study, "Casting a Wide Net: Online Activities of Small and New Businesses in the United States," reveals that new businesses have a higher propensity to use websites, email, and to sell online, and that these inclinations have an impact on capitalization and longevity.
Department of Energy Announces Inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today the inaugural
"ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit" to take place March 1-3, 2010 at the
Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in Washington, DC.
Energy Innovation Network
Knowing that entrepreneurs can accelerate the clean energy revolution if given access to the right networks, the Kauffman Foundation launched the Energy Innovation Network.
Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows Program
With the aim of cultivating entrepreneurs from among the postdoctoral community, the Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows program educates and trains scientist-founders who will create the high-growth technology companies of tomorrow.
Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT
A Kauffman Foundation study Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT demonstrates the critical
role universities play not only in fostering innovation and
entrepreneurial growth, but in stimulating the much-needed recovery in
regional and global economies.
Eureka! Ranch
Eureka! Ranch applies scientific methods to address the
challenges of achieving meaningful uniqueness and help business owners find, filter, and fast-track their
innovations.
Federal Technology Funding Guide
Companies seeking funding for technology work now can access the latest
version of the most comprehensive resource on government-facilitated
programs for R&D, the 2008-2009 Federal Technology Funding Guide.
From a Trickle to a Tidal Wave: New Kauffman Paper Outlines Potential Solution for Filling Drug Pipeline and Protecting U.S. Global Dominance in Biomedical Products
A new Kauffman Foundation paper released today claims the United States
could speed the flow of new therapeutic drugs into thirsty industry
pipelines by creating a new model for drug discovery and development.
From Lab to Bench to Market: House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Improving Commercialization
Lesa Mitchell, the Kauffman Foundation's Vice President of Advancing Innovation offered testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology on how improving technology commercialization of government-funded research can drive economic growth and job creation. Mitchell spoke on several policy proposals and the Kauffman Foundation's current thinking on best practices in advancing technology commercialization.
Gender Differences in Patenting in the Academic Life Sciences
Male academic scientists in the life sciences secure patents at more than twice the rate of their female colleagues, according to the study Gender Differences in Patenting in the Academic Life Scientists.
Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy
Science and engineering doctoral students, post-docs, and research faculty spend a week learning to recognize, develop, and bring to market green businesses built on their research.
How a Dose of Reality Can Make Science More Visionary
E. A. Fitzgerald, Professor of Materials Engineering, MIT, asks How do we know that university scientists are working on the best
possible research projects to begin with? The ones with the greatest chances of
bearing the most fruit?
Innovate VMS
Innovate VMS, launched in May 2007 as a community-based program, is
building out the MIT VMS program in the St. Louis region, recognizing
that even cities with a rich history of economic strength need to
continually reinvent themselves if they want to prosper.
Innovation Measurement: Tracking the State of Innovation in the American Economy
In its report, the Advisory Committee outlines its recommendations to
the Secretary of Commerce for steps to be taken by the government, the
business community, and government and private sector researchers to
foster and improve the measurement of innovation in the economy.
Innovation: Catalyst or Consequence of Fast Growth?
Michael Levin, CEO of Titan Steel and Kauffman Entrepreneur-in-Residence, asserts that the plain answer to this question is that growth
and value emerge from technology and process in a cycle of innovation.
Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation
Getting new treatments and cures to patients more quickly is the goal
of a unique life science proof-of-concept model that draws support from
higher education, philanthropy and industry experts to move medical
innovations from the lab to the market.
Institute for Pediatric Innovation
The Kauffman Foundation provided the seed funding for the
Institute for Pediatric innovation (IPI) to develop
pediatric pharmaceutical reformulation initiatives that ultimately will
result in products for follow-on commercial funding.
Kauffman Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows' Inaugural Class Embarks on Intensive Training Program
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today welcomed its inaugural class
of Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows for its fall program workshop, the
first in a series of workshops planned over the next year. As part of
the new Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation initiative, the Fellows
program will tap the entrepreneurial potential of 13 brilliant
postdoctoral researchers.
Kauffman Foundation Analyzes New Approach to Moving University Innovations to Market and Filling Seed-Stage Funding Gap
An emerging approach to identifying, funding and commercializing university-based innovation is proving quite effective at seeding new companies, according to research conducted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Max Planck Institute of Economics.
Kauffman Foundation and Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health Fund Fellowship for Innovation in Pediatric Devices
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today that it is partnering with the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
in awarding a grant to create a Pediatric Medical Device Innovation
fellowship team at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The team
is comprised of two fellows, an engineer and a surgical resident, who
will explore innovative ways to bring pediatric medical devices to
market.
Kauffman Foundation and National Postdoctoral Association Awards Recognize Entrepreneurship as a Valued Career Path for New Scientists
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association have announced the call for applications for the 2012 Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur and Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur awards, which recognize exceptional postdocs who are working to commercialize research.
Kauffman Foundation Announces First Class of Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Fellows
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today that it has
selected 13 leading scientific postdoctoral researchers to become the
first class of Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellows. The yearlong fellowship
program will use entrepreneurship education and mentorship to equip the
Fellows to commercialize their scientific discoveries.
Kauffman Foundation Announces Opportunity for Scholars to Gain Global Experience
Through a unique pilot program in collaboration with a university in
Singapore, selected scholars with backgrounds in engineering, science,
or technology will have the opportunity to better understand and excel
in the global marketplace.
Kauffman Foundation Experts' Solution for University Technology Licensing Reform Named to List of 'Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010' by Harvard Business Review
Creating an open, competitive licensing system for university innovators is one of Harvard Business Review's
"Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010" and the brainchild of researchers at
the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The free agency solution is one
of the 10 ideas that HBR says "will make the world better."
Kauffman Foundation Honors Promising Scholars for Ground-Breaking Research in Entrepreneurship
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today the 2011 recipients of the Kauffman Emerging Scholars Program. This program recognizes the achievements of young scholars who are making significant contributions to research in entrepreneurship. The awards were presented Saturday, Jan. 8, at the Allied Social Science Associations' annual meeting in Denver, Colo.
Kauffman Foundation joins with NSF and the Deshpande Foundation to form Innovation Corps Program
Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a new effort to help develop scientific and engineering discoveries into useful technologies, products and processes.
Kauffman Foundation Launches Entrepreneur Fellows Program to Increase Number of High-Growth Startup Founders
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today a new fellowship
program that will increase the number of experienced founders for
startup companies and help the Foundation better understand the
dynamics of firm formation, or what the Foundation calls the "science
of startups."
Kauffman Foundation Launches Online Energy Innovation Network to Help Scale New Energy Economy
With more than $80 billion already invested in U.S. clean energy development and another $150 billion being proposed, this emerging industry has been tagged as essential to jump-start the economy and create new jobs. Yet significant barriers plague this highly regulated, complex sector that prevent it from making the kind of progress that such high expectations demand.
Kauffman Foundation Researchers Offer New Approaches in Speeding Transfer of Technology From University Labs to the Marketplace
The emphasis among universities to reap big financial rewards through licensing and patenting innovation developed by research scientists is actually impeding the development of new technologies and may be masking the importance of other means of knowledge transfer, according to researchers at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Kauffman Foundation Study Finds MIT Alumni Companies Generate Billions for Regional Economies
A Kauffman Foundation study released today demonstrates the critical
role universities play not only in fostering innovation and
entrepreneurial growth, but in stimulating the much-needed recovery in
regional and global economies.
Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Will Connect Research, Innovations to Entrepreneurship
Twelve top-tier postdoctoral researchers will have the opportunity to
turn their research and ideas into an entrepreneurial venture. The
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is now accepting applications for its
new Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellowship program, which will train
researchers with a penchant for entrepreneurship to commercialize their
innovations into startup businesses.
Kauffman Symposiums on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Data
The Kauffman Symposiums on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Data are a multi-year series of workshops focused on the important and growing body of data collected on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Kauffman-Singapore Scholars Program
The Kauffman-Singapore Scholars Program, created through a grant
from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, will begin in May 2009 and
offer a unique opportunity to study commercialization and
entrepreneurship at the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center, Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
Moving Innovations to Market
A great deal of promising research consistently fails to be developed and brought to market for practical use, as it could be. This includes basic research in the life sciences that could lead to vital new drugs and medical therapies. It includes research in computing and engineering that could lead to useful new products and job-creating new firms. In short, despite rampant commercialism, what we often have is a failure to commercialize.
Multi-Million Dollar Grant to Advance Medical Innovations in Life Sciences
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today announced an $8.1 million
grant to the University of Kansas to establish the Institute for
Advancing Medical Innovation, a unique life science proof-of-concept
model that draws support from higher education, philanthropy and
industry experts to move medical innovations from the lab to the market.
National Bureau of Economic Research Seeks Papers
The National Bureau of Economic Research’s Innovation Policy
and the Economy Working Group is seeking paper proposals for a 50th
anniversary conference in honor of The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity.
New Kauffman Foundation Award Recognizes Leaders in Commercialization
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today announced the designation of three universities – Carnegie Mellon University, University of Missouri System and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – as "Kauffman Commercialization Leaders." The award recognizes the selected universities for their creative approaches to help to accelerate the process of bringing student and faculty innovations to market. The Foundation is awarding each university a $100,000 grant for their selected programs or initiatives.
New Standard Licensing Agreement Expedites University Startups, According to Kauffman Foundation Paper
A new licensing process for commercializing university research will support American universities' startup companies and enable long-term economic growth, according to a new paper released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. As universities are debating how best to expedite commercialization of research, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has developed the Carolina Express License Agreement, a standard licensing agreement to commercialize academic discoveries that promises to ease the formation of new companies and maintain American competitiveness by promoting new firm formation.
Nominations Open for Award Recognizing Scientific Entrepreneurs
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral
Association (NPA) announced today that nominations have opened for the
inaugural Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award,
which recognizes and celebrates a scientific researcher who has
successfully commercialized his or her discoveries through
entrepreneurship.
Open Innovation: Rx for Improved Human Health
John Wilbanks of Science Common explains how the principles of Open Innovation, that encapsulates
the power of the informed user to drive innovation in new product design, can transform the field of human health.
Proof of Concept Centers: Accelerating the Commercialization of University Innovation
This analysis provides valuable insights into how proof of concept centers can facilitate the transfer of university innovations into commercial applications.
Replicating the MIT Venture Mentor Program
The Kauffman Foundation and the Uncommon Individual Foundation (UIF)
have joined forces to build systems and support models to replicate
MIT’s mentoring program in other cities.
Science Commons
Science Commons, an organization that designs strategies and tools for faster, more efficient Web-enabled scientific research, identifies unnecessary barriers to research, crafts policy guidelines and legal agreements to lower those barriers, and develops technology to make research data and materials easier to find and use.
Student and Faculty Entrepreneurs Face Unique Challenges, Conflicts in Taking Innovations from University Lab to Market
New technology innovations – and the startup companies formed to commercialize them – increasingly have their beginnings in university research labs.
The Distributed Partnering Model for Drug Discovery and Development
The major contributors to therapeutic innovations in the 20th century have been the pharmaceutical companies, with biotechnology companies adding significantly over the last twenty-five years. However, these models increasingly have failed in translating the advances of biomedical sciences into innovative products. We suggest a modern-day paradigm for efficiently advancing new therapeutic products.
The Future of Innovation: Insights from a Kauffman Foundation Leader
Conversations podcast features Lesa Mitchell discussing how universities can transform innovations from idea to product.
The iBridge Network
This Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc. site provides access to university research and innovations to industry representatives, entrepreneurs, and other universities' researchers.
The Importance of Networks
Professor Toby Stuart, recipient of the 2007 Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, discusses his research into how the social and business networks in which would-be entrepreneurs and early-stage firms are immersed influence entrepreneurial processes and outcomes.
The MIT Venture Mentor Service Outreach Program
Founded in 2002, the MIT Venture Mentor program supports innovation and entrepreneurial activity throughout the MIT community by utilizing mentors to educate early-stage innovators.
The Rosalind Franklin Society
The interdisciplinary, international Rosalind Franklin Society recognizes, showcases, and supports the
accomplishments and careers of women in the life sciences and
affiliated disciplines.
Translational Medicine Alliance
For medical innovation and treatment breakthroughs to reach patients, several stakeholder groups in the biomedical research and drug development worlds need to collaborate.
Translational Medicine Alliance Forum 2009: Seeding Collaborations that Foster Commercialization
The second annual Translational Medicine Alliance Forum drew interest
from a diverse mix of organizations and leaders interested in moving
medical discoveries from the lab to the market. Founded by the Kauffman Innovation Network and the Translational Medicine Alliance, the 2009 Forum took place May 13-15 in Philadelphia.
University Scientists as Entrepreneurs: The Link to Economic Growth?
David B. Audretsch, Director, Max Planck Institute of Economics and Scholar-in-Residence, Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation, believes that by becoming an entrepreneur or working with entrepreneurs, scientists are
providing a vital force for economic growth.
University-Industry Demonstration Partnership
Connecting universities and industry to bring innovations to market Kauffman Foundation funded research indicates the importance of university industry collaborations as a driver of innovation.
USC Global Innovation Challenge Summer Program
The Kauffman Foundation's Global Innovation Challenge Summer Program
focuses on teaching students to develop innovative skill sets that will
promote entrepreneurship in developing countries.
White Paper on New Models for Accelerated Drug Discovery and Development Is Released
Five leaders in the medical innovation field released a white paper today titled The New Role of Academia in Drug Discovery and Development: New Thinking, New Competencies, New Results. This white paper reflects key recommendations from a July 2010 town hall meeting in Kansas City hosted by Friends of Cancer Research, Kansas Bioscience Authority, The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Council for American Medical Innovation.
Winner Named in Global Desktop Factory Competition
The inventor of a machine that turns plastic pellets into affordable filaments for low-cost 3D printers is the winner of the first Desktop Fabrication Competition, a global contest sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, Maker Education Initiative and Inventables.
