NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies Awarded Kauffman Foundation Grant 

New York, NY – November 30, 2005 – The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded New York University Stern School of Business’ Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies a three-year, $735,000 grant to support and stimulate research on innovative entrepreneurship.

This prestigious grant will fund the NYU Stern Berkley Center/Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurial Project, to be led by William J. Baumol, Academic Director of the Berkley Centerand renowned economist known for his research on entrepreneurship in economic renewal and growth. Baumol, along with the support of other researchers at NYU and Stern, will use the grant to expand their current research efforts, to create rich databases for use across the University and other academic institutions, and to produce useful results for practitioners.

“I would like to thank the Kauffman Foundation for its generous grant and support of entrepreneurial research,” said Professor Baumol. “Entrepreneurship, especially when paired with innovation, is a major stimulant of economic growth, and a powerful instrument for raising living standards and eliminating poverty. With our research we hope to fill the gap in entrepreneurial research and inspire further work on this topic.”

What sets apart this grant is Baumol’s distinctive three-pronged approach to research. While it is common for researchers to present their finished (or nearly finished) works in seminars, Baumol and his team will convene peer workshops to discuss early drafts with the intent to resolve issues as a working group. This early touch point will foster a collaborative environment designed to elicit a creative discussion and inspire additional research. The group also plans to develop a comprehensive curriculum for entrepreneurship students that it hopes will be a model for others initiating a teaching program in the field.  Finally, the group plans to follow a guiding principle that Baumol calls “Middle Think”: a mid-point between esoteric, niche research and grand generalizations that will yield useful, and defensible, knowledge.

NYU Stern’s Berkley Centerwill award individual researchers smaller grants from the larger Kauffman Foundation grant. The grants, which will be allocated by a committee comprised of Professor Baumol and his colleagues at the Berkley Center, will be evaluated on the quality and promise of the research proposals submitted and the manor in which the funds are applied.

“The Kauffman Foundation is committed to deepening understanding of how entrepreneurs impact our country and our world,” said Carl Schramm, Kauffman’s president and CEO. “Central to this is engaging the best minds to study entrepreneurship and innovation. We’re thrilled to have a scholar as accomplished and renowned as Will Baumol leading this important work.”

“At NYU Stern, we are continuing to build a robust research faculty, a community of scholars whose research creates new knowledge and shapes effective teaching,” said Thomas F. Cooley, dean, NYU Stern.  “We are pleased that the Kauffman Foundation has recognized our efforts and potential and has awarded Will and the Berkley Centersuch a generous grant.

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas Cityis a private, nonpartisan foundation that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in Americaand improve the education of children and youth. The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Information is available at www.kauffman.org.

About NYU Stern

New York University Stern School of Business, located in the heart of Greenwich Village , is one of the nation’s premier management education schools and research centers.  NYU Stern offers a broad portfolio of academic programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, all of them informed and enriched by the dynamism, energy and deep resources of the world’s business capital.

Press Release, Contact: Jessica Neville, 212-998-0666