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By ANN RICHARDS

This past August, the Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIIE), a University of Michigan (UM)-led partnership among the state’s 15 public universities, made its first round of 20 grants totaling $1.3 million to boost the state’s struggling economy by strengthening ties between academia and industry.

According to Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at UM, Michigan’s public colleges and universities attracts more than $1.5 billion in research and development funding each year. Forrest, who recently was interviewed in metromode, a Web site that posts daily reports on job growth and development in Southeast Michigan, noted that MIIE offers these institutions the opportunity for peer learning and technology transfer that can speed the commercialization of their research and promote a culture of entrepreneurial risk-taking.

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Jeff Wilcox/Flickr

“We're trying to create, as we speak, the context for that type of open interchange of ideas and best practices,” Forrest said of MIIE, which over the next decade hopes to create 200 new business start-ups in Michigan.

To spur its home state’s transition from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy, the Mott Foundation granted $2 million in planning support for UM’s Michigan Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which funds MIIE. Mott’s funding also supported the first round of grantmaking, which included a wide-range of proposals from all participating colleges and universities.

“The pipeline of opportunities created by these partnerships appears to be expanding networks within the venture capital community,” said Neal Hegarty, director of the Mott Foundation’s Flint-Area grantmaking program. “This broad-based initiative –- with momentum, leadership, collaboration and outreach -– should enable a new and ambitious economic development strategy to take root at multiple levels throughout the state.”

Learn more about MIIE