It is well known that university-based research is responsible for some of the country’s most profound discoveries, spurring breakthrough products and technologies that have markedly improved the way we live. A key to our nation’s long-term success and our ability to remain competitive in the global economy is ensuring that all of universities’ promising research makes it into practical use.

As the only foundation in the United States to focus on entrepreneurship as its major field of interest, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation works to catalyze an entrepreneurial society in which new, high-impact ventures, job creation, and the economy flourish. With this emphasis, the Foundation continually looks at the natural cycle of innovation to see where and how it can work to make the greatest difference. These observations brought Kauffman to study the process of more efficiently moving discoveries out of university laboratories.

With this background and with the goal of advancing innovation, the Kauffman Foundation initiated a separate not-for-profit organization, the Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc. The Network continues to add programs, the most of established of which is the iBridge Network. Studies indicate that the types of relationships that the iBridge Network helps to facilitate are a critical component in advancing new discoveries and may lead to even more ideas and inventions. In turn, generating greater innovation potential and collectively fueling more entrepreneurial ventures around the country.