UM curators approve fund to help Missouri startups pass through ‘valley of death’

The University of Missouri System wants to invest in entrepreneurs and startups, and it wants to cultivate that venture capital in Missouri. On Thursday, the UM System Board of Curators voted to allocate money from the university’s general pool — with a $5 million cap — to the Accelerator Fund, run by the Missouri Innovation Center […]

Rice to invest $150 million in tech research initiatives

Rice University President David Leebron announced a $150 million investment in strategic research initiatives last week. The three-part investment will fund Rice’s molecular nanotechnology research, establish a program in data sciences and promote a broad range of research competitiveness across the university, Leebron said. The investment draws from a combination of endowment, philanthropy and reallocation […]

MIT and Imperial launch seed fund to support ‘risky’ research

David Matthews is a reporter covering research, links between universities and businesses, higher education in South America, universities in the south of England, as well as Oxford, Cambridge Imperial College London and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in supporting “risky” research that might otherwise not be funded. […]

Yale, UConn Get $10 Million To Spur Biotech Ventures – Hartford Courant

Yale and UConn are collaborating to launch a new initiative to spur the creation of biotechnology companies in Connecticut. With a $10 million grant from Connecticut’s Bioscience Innovation Fund, the new effort will be called Program in Innovative Therapeutics for Connecticut’s Health or “PITCH” and will be created by the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery […]

U Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative fund, Oculus, team on new fund

The University of Maryland is working to establish itself as the premier virtual reality research center in the nation, and on Thursday it received a huge public sector vote of confidence. The Department of Computer Science at UMd will have all of the private donations it receives of at least $500,000 for endowed professorships doubled […]

University of Wisconsin FluGen snaps up $12 mln Series A

FluGen Inc., a biotechnology company developing a novel “universal” influenza vaccine, has completed a $12 million Series A financing. Venture Investors LLC, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and other new investors participated in this first institutional financing of the company, along with many of FluGen’s existing investors led […]

Indiana University to fund $300M in research

Indiana University will invest at least $300 million during the next five years in a new research program designed to develop transformative solutions to world problems. Titled the Grand Challenges research program, it will fund up to five large-scale research projects that will be selected through a competitive review process, the university announced Wednesday. Applications […]

The United States needs a research investment fund to compete with China

America may no longer be able to boast, “We’re No. 1!” In their 2011 bestseller “That Used To Be Us,” Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum compellingly suggested the mantra no longer applies. And about a year ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made it official: China has overtaken us as the world’s largest economy. China […]