Berkeley-Haas Expands Student Entrepreneurship Services Through State Grant

Haas undergraduate and MBA students will gain expanded entrepreneurship offerings as part of a new $2.2 million grant from the State of California.

The grant, aimed at supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, was awarded last month and will be administered through UC Berkeley’s Office of the President. The funds are earmarked for six Berkeley centers and programs, including about $200,000 for the NSF I-Corps Bay Area Node, located at Haas and managed by the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program (BHEP).

As one of seven Innovation Corps “nodes” across the US, the NSF-I-Corps Bay Area Node teaches the Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship method to support commercializing science and technology.

The state grant money will be distributed over three years to the NSF I-Corps program and includes:

• $15,000 per year ($45,000 over three years) to create a LAUNCH cohort specifically for undergraduate students. LAUNCH is a four-month accelerator designed to transform early-stage startups into fundable ventures.

• $50,000 per year ($150,000 over three years) to hire a Startup Marketplace coordinator. Startup Marketplace matches MBA students with top faculty/researchers at UCB, UCSF/QB3, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab & government agencies for short consulting projects. These projects have led to continued paid or advisory work, and entry into the Immersive Short course as well as the national eight-week Lean Startup course.

Read more about the grant.