Entrepreneurship Innovation Grants Accelerate UMKC Programs

First round of funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation supports seven initiatives

The UMKC Entrepreneurship Innovation Grant Program announced its first seven grant recipients this week. These recipients were awarded a total of $250,000 to develop new ways of approaching community challenges.

The Entrepreneurship Innovation Grant Program is a joint effort by the UMKC Innovation Center, the Regnier Institute at the UMKC Bloch School of Management and the UMKC School of Law to increase entrepreneurial activities across UMKC.

“This grant program was designed to create direct incentives to stimulate additional collaboration and growth on campus,” says Laura Moore, program coordinator for the Regnier Institute. “One of the real advantages of this program is that – in addition to the funding – we offer support programs to recipients to accelerate their success.”

"This grant program was designed to create direct incentives to stimulate additional collaboration and growth on campus." – Laura Moore

This year the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation donated $400,000 to stimulate on-campus innovation through entrepreneurial initiatives over the next two years. Twenty-one organizations responded to the call for proposals in February. Kansas City Explores Earth and Environment (KC E3) is one of this round’s recipients. An initiative from the Earth and Environmental Sciences department, this program provides support to students of color to pursue STEM degrees and enter the workforce. Participants will partner with high school students from the Kansas City Teen Summit (KCTS) community program to use STEM expertise to explore plans to tackle local environmental hazards and develop solutions for urban climate change.

The program would have looked very different without the grant funding.

“We would have had minimal activities if the program were run by myself and two graduate students,” Alison Graettinger, assistant professor of geosciences, says. “Funding will allow us to achieve a solid UMKC peer mentor to KCTS student ratio and provide additional equipment so student participants don’t have to share. This will enable stronger engagement and genuine practice collecting and managing real world data. We will also be able to bring Black business owners in the environmental sector to come talk to the KCTS students.”

Angela Cottrell, Ed.D, director of research and institute programs, says the funding was equally critical for her team at From Seed to Table to research education and infrastructure investment as she develops a training program for military veterans to receive workforce development and hands-on experience learning urban architecture.

“Without this funding the project would not have existed. Based on this funding our research team will receive an additional $600,000 award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture program. This will extend the project for three years and allow us to provide more military veteran participation.”