Elevate Ventures awards entrepreneurship grants

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures has awarded a total of $200,000 in grants to four higher education institutions to help support entrepreneurship curriculum. Ball State University, Indiana Institute of Technology, Indiana University School of Medicine and the University of Evansville each received $50,000 to help the schools launch and improve programming to support growth of Indiana startups.

This was the third round of founding through the Elevate Nexus program, distributing a total of $600,000 during the three-year program.

“In the last three years, we have seen some exceptional proposals—all of which foster entrepreneurship and innovation across the campus and in the communities they serve,” said Landon Young, executive director of the Elevate Nexus program. “We are seeing the successful execution of programs, the building of cross-campus ecosystems, and high-potential companies starting and growing.”

Proposals submitted by the universities include:

Ball State University: Develop an elective cross-disciplinary course connecting Computer Science and Entrepreneurship & Innovation majors, enabling student-led ventures to move from ideation into prototyping and end user-testing.
Indiana Institute of Technology (Fort Wayne): Expand entrepreneurial programs and initiatives through the Center for Creative Collaboration (C3), a multidisciplinary entrepreneurship center with focus on connecting business clients with the university.
IU School of Medicine: Launch a web-based innovation platform to evaluate student and clinician business ideas.
University of Evansville: Create MakerspACE, a three-pronged entrepreneurial program providing access to innovation for K-16 students.

Elevate Nexus Higher Education Grants are made possible through a partnership with the U.S. Economic Development Administration.