The University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center has established the J. Dolores and Alfred P. Maurice Prize for Innovation Fund, UNH announced Wednesday.
Alfred P. Maurice donated $150,000 to create an endowed gift to benefit undergraduate student innovation.
“This prize will help the ECenter continue to build the growing innovation culture on campus whether the student idea is a product, social venture, or service,” said Ian Grant, the center’s director.
The ECenter is open to all UNH Durham students from all the university’s colleges. This is the third such fund created at a university by Alfred Maurice.
“The purpose of this fund is to encourage and foster innovation, creativity, originality, ingenuity, and resourcefulness in undergraduate students enrolled at the University,” Alfred Maurice said in a statement.
The fund is expected to award its first prize of approximately $5,000 in 2018. Visit unh.edu/ecenter for more information.
Small business optimistic
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — More than half of business owners surveyed by Citizens Bank expect both the national economy to improve, the bank reported Wednesday.
Of the more than 1,200 small and medium business owners and decision makers surveyed, 51 percent said they expect significant improvement in the national economy. Expectations of improvement in the regional economy was more tempered, at 46 percent.
“We’re seeing a general optimism about the economy among our longtime customers and businesses in general, fueled by recent changes on the national stage. Interestingly, this confidence isn’t driven by expectations for specific policy changes,” said Jack Murphy, president of Business Banking, Citizens Bank, in a statement. “This optimism is translating into growth in terms of capital expenditures as well as hiring, with three-quarters of businesses telling us that they plan to hire staff in the near future.”
Source: NH Business Newsreel: UNH creates innovation fund | New Hampshire
