UND Center for Innovation Foundation

The UND Center for Innovation Foundation is organized for the benefit of supporting innovation and entrepreneurial activities at the University of North Dakota. The Foundation owns the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, a business incubation facility that licenses space to tenants. The Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center supports commercialization activities for the State of North Dakota and the University of North Dakota. The Foundation enhances and promotes commerce and economic development in North Dakota through innovation consulting, applied learning activities, entrepreneurial activity seminars and workshops, and business coaching for innovators. Additionally, the Foundation provides fiscal management and operational support for projects primarily funded by state grants. The Foundation supports outreach programs and educational services in the field of innovation, commercialization of technologies, startup funding strategies, and business incubation and acceleration.

Student Run Enterprises (SRE) engages students from across all disciplines at the University of North Dakota in experiential learning focused on the development of entrepreneurial and innovation skills. The purpose of student run enterprises is to establish legacy small businesses for students to manage and operate so they refine and develop their entrepreneurial skills. The students are provided with weekly, dedicated mentorship from a Center for Innovation staff member as well as a UND faculty subject matter expert to monitor their progress and encourage reflective practice on their business decisions.

The Foundation owns a wholly owned subsidiary that operates the North Dakota/Minnesota EB-5 Regional Center Program. The EB-5 program is an immigrant investor program focused on business development and job creation to stimulate economic activity and improvements in regional productivity through direct foreign investment. The program is administered by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the EB5 regional center is an entity approved by USCIS as a designated place to receive immigrant investor capital with new and emerging businesses. The North Dakota/Minnesota EB5 regional center received its designation in April 2011 and there are three portfolio companies with approximately 600 investors.