Campus Prioritizes Entrepreneurship, Innovation in “The Next 150”

Entrepreneurship and innovation are central to the new five-year strategic plan unveiled by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Friday in a town hall at the Illini Union.

Called “The Next 150,” the strategic plan renews the campus commitment to four goals, including

• Fostering scholarship, discovery and innovation

• Providing transformative learning experiences

• Making a significant and visible societal impact

• Stewarding current resources and generating additional resources for strategic initiatives

The Next 150 twice references the university’s commitment to invest more resources in the Research Park, specifically as they relate to entrepreneurship and innovation. 

The first mention comes under the first goal, “fostering scholarship, discovery and innovation.”

A pillar of that goal is “Develop a strong infrastructure, policies, and practices to support scholarship, innovation, public engagement, and entrepreneurship across disciplinary lines.”

The plan states the university will “grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem, research translation, and new venture creation through investments in EnterpriseWorks, Research Park, and Carle Illinois College of Medicine.”

The other specific mention is under the goal, “making a significant and visible societal impact,” where the report states that the campus will “accelerate the growth of the Illinois entrepreneurial ecosystem to establish Champaign-Urbana as the best university-based entrepreneurship and innovation hub in the Midwest.”

The plan states the university will “invest in new facilities in the Research Park to grow our resources and services in support of new business creation, economic development, and prosperity in the region, across the state, and beyond.”

“The Next 150 really lays out our collective vision and our bold goals for the future,” Chancellor Robert Jones said. “It’s the framework for how we will continue to serve the 21st-century needs of our community, our state, our nation and our world. We’ve been transforming the way the world lives, thinks and learns since 1867. This plan positions us to do that for the next 150 years.”

To read the entire strategic plan, go here.

To read the Illinois News Bureau’s article on the plan, go here.