What is the Center for Innovation?

Many of us have dreams, ideas, products or solutions that we would like to see in the marketplace. The Center for Innovation is here to help realize the potential of your ideas and products.

The Center for Innovation helps entrepreneurs, innovators and students launch new ventures and market new products and technologies. The Center for Innovation was founded by current lead consultant and entrepreneur Bruce Gjovig in 1984.

How is the Center for Innovation connected to The University of North Dakota?

The Center is a division of the UND College of Business & Public Administration and is located on the West side of campus next to Ryan Hall and the Hilton Garden Inn. The Center for Innovation is located in the new Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center and is also in charge of the Skalicky Tech Incubator.

What can the Center for Innovation offer UND students?

Internships

The Center has one distinctive Internship available to students. The Mueller Internship program provides undergraduate and graduate students interested in starting a venture or launching new product with an internship while they are developing their venture.

Scholarships

There are three Entrepreneur scholarships available through the Center. The Mike Marcil Scholarship worth $500 is awarded to a student involved in entrepreneur activities at UND who has demonstrated the initiative to be a successful entrepreneur. The Jack Wright Award is worth $1,000 to a UND undergraduate who demonstrates leadership in private ventures or entrepreneurship. The Robert and Myrna Kuk Scholarship is worth $750 and is given to a UND undergraduate student who is studying entrepreneurship and/or new business formation with the goal to start, own or manage his/her own business.

Loan Program

Funded through the Dakota Foundation, the University Student Entrepreneur Seed Fund is a program that assists young entrepreneurs by providing seed capital they would not otherwise have access to. The Seed Fund provides undergraduate and graduate students and recent graduates with opportunities to launch their own ventures. This is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who have little to no collateral or equity.

 Entrepreneur Coaching

The staff at the Center for Innovation is here to assist beginning entrepreneurs reach their goals. There are five professional consultants and two grant writers who offer a wide variety of skill and knowledge to the Center’s clients.

Who can be a tentant of the incubators and for how long?

The Center for Innovation operates two tech incubators on the UND Tech Park, the Skalicky Tech Incubator and the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center. There are nearly 200 university incubators in the US, and only a handful host two tech incubators. The Skalicky Tech Incubator was the first university incubator on the Great Plains when opened in 1996, followed by incubators on the campuses of SDSU, University of Minnesota, NDSU, Iowa State, Manitoba and a few others. Our two Tech Incubators offer startups and  emerging entrepreneurs unique facilities specialized for growth ventures. These new ventures include branch offices entering our region who need to build up their core staff before signing a long-term lease. Incubators offer entrepreneur coaching, a community of like-minded entrepreneurs as well as access to university talent, flexible office and lab space, entrepreneur capital, and much more. 

The Skalicky Tech Incubator was built in 1996 and has hosted over 90 ventures, over 80% already graduated. As of the first of the year 23 companies employing over 120 people populated the two incubators. The Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center was the first operational North Dakota Center for Excellence when it opened in 2005. It set the pace for seven more Centers for Excellence on the UND campus with key relationships with private donors. In our case successful entrepreneurs donated $2.4 M towards the $4.2 M incubator which helped  new entrepreneurs be close to the UND campus and be an entrepreneur laboratory for students, faculty and emerging tech entrepreneurs. Our Tech incubators are the most IT/Communications intensive multi-tenant fac ilities  in North Dakota and are especially well suited for software, SaaS, and communications companies that need extensive and  expensive IT/communications infrastructure a young company could rarely afford, and local landlords cannot afford or justify in their rental buildings.

Our Technology Incubators are for:

Technology and innovative startups that will benefit from entrepreneur coaching and being with peers in an entrepreneur community

• Entrepreneurs needing ready access to UND talent
• Entrepreneurial Branch offices locating in the region who need time to make key hires before choosing rental space in region
• Technology-intensive companies who need short-term arrangements while other lease space is under development
• Service providers who specialize in services to entrepreneurs

Thus tech incubators are primarily for tech startups and also for technology-intensive ventures who need flexibility in space and agreements to meet their initial needs as they settle into the region.  Landlords typically do not want to rent to startups because they are a high financial risk, their space needs change too often as they hire people,  and landlords are rarely well equipped to help them finding sources of entrepreneur financing, talent or expertise.  We charge rates at or above market price for our services and space, but we offer flexibility and services that typical landlords do not, and cannot offer, which makes us ideally suited for this entrepreneur population. The UND Research Foundation built and opened  a $16 M  multi-tenant facility in Feb 2009 that is for life sciences and advanced engineering ventures. REAC-1 provides animal facilities, level 3 biolab lab space, office space, and will include biofuel lab. http://www.undrf.org/ These companies are also part of the entrepreneur community in the tech incubators and on the UND Tech Park.

Out-of-area companies seeking to develop a presence in our trade area may be provided incubator space. These companies are required to pay market rate or above for space and will be provided the entrepreneur development services and programming to expand their operations and job opportunities into this market. It is anticipated that firms will graduate from the incubator within one (1) year or whenever their new space in the region is completed.   

Our two incubators are designated as Soft Landings International Incubators, meaning they are well suited sites for international firms seeking to develop a presence in our country. Soft Landings international companies may be provided space, services and programming, and cultural integration assistance as they enter US markets. 

Incubator Graduation Policy:

Entrepreneur companies cannot stay forever in an incubator, and need to move elsewhere to make room for newer ventures. A venture is ready to “graduate” once the company achieves two of the following:

• Has been an entrepreneur tenant for more than five years
• Employs more than 25 people
• Has successfully cash flowed for more than 18 months and not anticipating another round of equity financing (cash flow positive)
• Reaches annual sales of more than $2 M
• Exceeds the capacity of the tech incubator

A venture is also ready to graduate when they are acquired or merged with a large company, or when their new facility is completed construction.