Industry impact and entrepreneurship

We will expand McKelvey’s capacity for industrial impact and entrepreneurship by dedicating resources to our industry and community partnership strategy. Our partnership strategy will focus on increasing industrially and societally impactful research, as well as increasing opportunities for students’ development. We will cultivate partnerships with companies, government, and local organizations such as the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center of St. Louis, Cortex, and/or BioSTL, and national entities such as the National Geospatial Agency. By expanding our partnerships, we will expose our faculty and students to industry and advance the University’s strategic commitment to innovative economic and social development.

Our Commitments

We will:

• Expand the Office of Industry Relations, with additional emphasis on developing new industry partnerships and scaling existing collaborations.
• Identify common barriers to faculty innovation and entrepreneurship and expand incentives and infrastructure to help overcome those barriers.
• Foster a culture of entrepreneurship and industry focus by developing programs and structures to encourage and track entrepreneurial and partnership activities (e.g., develop an approach for bringing McKelvey faculty expertise to partners and sourcing their extramural research needs, such as online portal forums or an industry advisory board).
• Partnering with startups, corporations, government agencies, and other organizations on commercialization and student career development initiatives.

Why:

• We will enable our faculty, postdocs, and students to develop technologies and solutions that have a broad impact on society. To do this, we need to develop infrastructure and support systems that facilitate commercialization and entrepreneurial activities.
• Creating a comprehensive partnership strategy will support a shift in McKelvey’s culture and further develop the St. Louis region’s investment in research and industrial base.
• Strengthening our partnerships with local and national companies and organizations will allow McKelvey to facilitate career-focused experiential learning opportunities for our students.