Coming UMKC innovation center to serve students, entrepreneurs
May 13, 2015 | Bobby Burch
![NixonPressConf[4]](https://startlandnews.tinythunder.dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NixonPressConf4.jpg "NixonPressConf[4]")
With funding shored up from private and public donors, the University of Missouri-Kansas City is planning to move ahead with its plan to build the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center to support students and entrepreneurs.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon shakes hands with UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton. Photo by Janet Rogers/UMKC.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced Tuesday that the state is allocating $7.4 million to the center, which represents half of the funding for the new $14.8 million building that will be built at 215 Volker Boulevard. The Robert W. Plaster Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation offered the initial private funds.
“The Free Enterprise Center at UMKC will provide greater opportunities for creativity and collaboration among students, faculty and businesses, and strengthen the Kansas City region’s position as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship,” Gov. Nixon said in a release.
The prototyping and product development center will serve students, entrepreneurs and the larger business community with a variety of resources, including a lab, rapid prototyping equipment, 3D printers and a business incubator.
“This facility will support education and economic development across the board,” UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton said in a release. “It will help entrepreneurs, inventors and small business be more successful in their ventures. And students from middle school to graduate school will get a first-hand taste of entrepreneurship and become grounded in the discipline of innovation.”
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
‘Class reunion’ collides with newer generation at Top VC-Backed Companies celebration (Photos)
It was a night of old school collisions, said Adam Arredondo, bringing together founders, executives, investors and a curated group of younger startup leaders for Startland’s Top VC-Backed Companies celebration. “The energy in the room was palpable. Many people said it felt like a class reunion, which in a way it was,” added Arredondo, CEO…
Techweek KC addition: Smart City Innovation Workshop builds bottom-up brainstorming
Kansas City residents, entrepreneurs, corporate partners, and city officials plan to come together during the Smart City Innovation Workshop at Techweek KC to brainstorm solutions to day-to-day challenges using smart technology. The workshop pulls into Union Station Oct. 8 — the first day of Techweek KC, which runs through Oct. 12 and is presented by…
Plexpod offers sneak peek at new women-centric Herspace concept (Photos)
Herspace — a freshly renovated wing at Plexpod Westport Commons, part of the KC-based Plexpod coworking community — is designed for women, said Gerald Smith, and it’s a long time coming. “This is front and center. It isn’t tucked away in some far away corner of an upper floor,” said Smith, noting 90 percent of…
Former DST execs launch EDZ Systems tool to centralize law office data
A quartet of former DST Systems executives who went on to launch EDZ Systems are hoping to streamline law offices’ operations with the help of their new software. The Overland Park-based startup recently released Intelligent RMS, a software platform designed to centralize law firms’ and corporate legal departments’ data, affording clients more strategic information, said…