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
Mycroft hits crowdfunding goal in hours, raises $400K for Mark II
Mycroft’s Mark II crowdfunding campaign raised eight times its goal — and the tech firm is still counting. The Kansas City-based startup set out to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter and garner support from early adopters for its voice assistant product Mark II — similar to Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Mycroft “blew through”…
Negro leagues’ only three women players inspire ‘Beauty of the Game’ by KC designer Cherry
Toni Stone, Connie Morgan and Mamie Johnson — the only three women to play in the Negro baseball leagues — remain an inspiration to female entrepreneurs in male-dominated industries some 50 years later, said Thalia Cherry. “It’s still important for us to carve out a great space for ourselves, a great niche, and do the…
Ranking: KC defies gender pay gap, again earns No. 2 for Women in Tech
Second only to Washington, D.C., in a new national ranking, Kansas City boasts a noteworthy statistic: Women in tech jobs are paid, on average, 2 percent more than their male counterparts. It’s the fourth consecutive year Kansas City has earned a No. 2 on the list of the Best Cities for Women in Tech. But…
Operation Breakthrough expansion helps give every child a chance, Mayor Sly James says
It’s the beginning of a new chapter for Operation Breakthrough, said Kansas City Mayor Sly James. The mayor joined a packed crowd of supporters on an icy Thursday morning to share the Kansas City-based organization’s formal announcement of its $17 million capital campaign and expansion project. The effort — dubbed “Big Dreams, Bright Futures” —…