Research Grants

The Center for Research in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CRIE) received seed funding from the Skandalaris Center, and is directed by Professor Charles R. McManis. The mission of the center is to generate top quality research on targeted topics in the area of entrepreneurship, with the hope that CRIE will become a premier research center for Washington University, the community, and other academic, government, and private sector entities interested in bridging the gap between research and development (R&D) in academia.

The center, located in the School of Law, has the potential to bring together academics, policy makers, lawyers, executives and innovators to study the ways that innovation, particularly university-generated innovation, can more efficiently be applied and taken to the market. It will provide a replicable model and targeted research output for use by other universities. The research sub-committee of the Steering Committee awarded the first research grants in fall of 2004 and last issued a request for grant proposals in the spring of 2006. Projects are evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• Synergy with the faculty member’s work and relation to previous work
• Significance of research and expected value of findings, including journals targeted for publication
• Overall research project plan, including references to methodology and approach
• Relationship to topics of interest to the Kauffman Foundation, including:

1. Innovation/productivity in organizations
2. Technology transfer—science, law & business
3. How entrepreneurs learn
4. Women and minorities as entrepreneurs
5. Economic development and how entrepreneurship impacts growth, wealth, and humankind

• Professor Barton Hamilton, Olin School of Business
• Mr. Ken Harrington, Skandalaris Center
• Professor Charles McManis, School of Law
• Dean Jerome Sincoff, School of Architecture
• Dean Robert Thach, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (chair)

In addition to administering the grant program, the Center hosted a conference in November, 2005, on the topic of Commercializing Innovation.