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December 15, 2006
Contact: Deborah Baum
(401) 863-2476

Brown Awarded $2 Million to Expand Entrepreneurship Programs

Entrepreneurship education is about to get a boost at Brown. The University has been awarded a $2-million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to broaden entrepreneurship education, scholarship and activity across campus. The award is part of the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which is providing a total of $35 million to colleges and universities across the country.


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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University has been awarded a $2-million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand entrepreneurship scholarship, curriculum and activity across campus. The $2 million award is part of the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which is providing a total of $35 million to a select number of colleges and universities across the country.

“This generous grant from the Kauffman Foundation will help to strengthen important efforts underway to foster entrepreneurship on our campus,” said Brown President Ruth J. Simmons.

Brown’s plans for the Kauffman Foundation grant include implementing a curriculum development fund to encourage faculty to develop new courses and modules on entrepreneurship; establishing research grants to improve entrepreneurship scholarship; designing a multidisciplinary faculty forum to study how entrepreneurship is embedded in classes and in the liberal arts environment; and creating an online community to cultivate and develop entrepreneurial ideas while engaging alumni and leveraging their experience.

The grant will allow Brown to build on its strong foundation of entrepreneurship education, which currently includes the Program in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (COE) and other entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship courses for undergraduates; the Program in Innovation, Management and Entrepreneurship Engineering (PRIME) for graduate students; the student-run Entrepreneurship Program (EP); Brown Technology Partnerships; and initiatives within the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service. The endowment for COE, including a recent commitment from the C.V. Starr Foundation, raised under the Plan for Academic Enrichment, will serve as the University’s match for the Kauffman Foundation grant.

“The spirit of entrepreneurship is everywhere on the Brown campus – from students discussing their next big idea at Starbucks, to the classrooms, to the boardroom – it is inherent to the Brown culture,” said Gregory Crawford, dean of engineering. “The Kauffman funding will enable us to expand the ‘lens’ on the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Brown’s central focal points will be: the advancement of personal knowledge, skills and values; continuous professional development; the promotion of human and societal understanding, creativity, and innovation; and a lifelong commitment to learning – all wholly congruent with the rich liberal arts tradition of the University.”

The Kauffman Campuses Initiative began in 2003 with $25 million in funding to eight schools that provided entrepreneurship education within liberal arts, engineering and other non-business programs. In June 2006, Brown was one of 19 colleges and universities invited to participate in the second round of the initiative and received a $50,000 planning grant to develop a proposal outlining plans to encourage entrepreneurship across campus.

Brown University, along with the other new Kauffman Campuses schools, will empower all students on campus to access the skills, orientation, and networks that can lead to greater individual opportunities and to the creation of jobs, innovation, and prosperity for America,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation.

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth. The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Information about the Kauffman Foundation is available at www.kauffman.org.

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.

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