Opportunity Newark - Initiative for a Competitive Inner City

The Newark Alliance, partnering with the Newark One-Stop,
will take the lead role in implementing this effort. A technology
training consortium Task Team will be formed to
guide this initiative. The Task Team will include human
resources representatives from technology companies,
educational institutions, community organizations, and
the Newark Workforce Investment Board.
Entrepreneurial Programs
The EKC Action Team also recommends that Newark pursue
a Kauffman Foundation Campuses Initiative grant to
improve Newark universities’ capacity to educate future
entrepreneurs.
• Actively pursue a Kauffman Foundation Campuses
Initiative grant
One of the central features of universities currently
positioned as centers of technological innovation and
commercialization is their high-quality entrepreneurial
education and training programs that employ a combination
of academic instruction, research, hands-on
assistance with the creation of new ventures, business
competitions, mentoring and business-university collaborations
to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Campuses Initiative is a
major effort to grow entrepreneurial initiatives at universities
throughout the country. The Foundation believes that,
in light of increasing global competition, the United States
and its universities must sharply increase the rate of new
business formation. At the same time, the Kauffman Foundation
recognizes that many students and faculty do not
consider entrepreneurship to be a viable career option.
The Kauffman Foundation has made significant investments
in order to increase the number of students in
entrepreneurship programs, accelerate the transformation
of intellectual assets and research into enterprises that
generate value, and help higher education institutions
become centers of incubation and entrepreneurial study.
In 2003, the Foundation awarded eight universities $2 to
$5 million each for a total of $25 million. The recipients
more than matched these amounts to make significant
investments in their entrepreneurial capacity.
A second competition will begin in April 2006 for which
the Kauffman Foundation plans to invite a select number
of universities to apply for grants. They are requiring that
these proposals come from multi-institutional collaborations
whose efforts will reach a large number of students,
including those in the humanities, social sciences, liberal
arts and fine arts, in addition to graduate students in engineering,
life sciences, and technology.
Newark’s key universities should actively pursue a grant from
the Kauffman Foundation. By pressing forward now, Newark
will be in a solid position to receive an invitation to compete
for one of the Kauffman Foundation’s future awards.
Measures of Success
The measures of success for these initiatives will be:
• Increase in the number of Internet users in Newark;
• Growth in the number of technology companies recruited
to Newark;
• Increase in the number of start-up technology companies;
• Number of students enrolled in science, math, technology,
and engineering programs; and,
• Number of workers trained for technology-related jobs.
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