West Virginia Universitys business incubator has been bolstered with a $250,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the University announced Monday (March 21).

We are very grateful to the Benedum Foundation for their support of the WVU Business Incubator,said Dr. John D. Weete, WVU vice president for research and economic development who authored the grant.

The incubator is part of the overall University strategy of linking its research enterprise to economic development,Weete said.The Benedum Foundation has been instrumental in supporting our technology transfer and incubator initiatives, and without their support, we would not be able to operate at that current level. We are very grateful.

From its sixth floor location in the Chestnut Ridge Building on the Evansdale campus, the incubator works closely with WVU s Office of Technology Transfer, the organization that provides support for the commercialization of the technology derived from faculty and student research.

Five of the incubators seven tenants offer technologies licensed or based on technologies developed by WVU faculty, Weete said. And four othervirtualcompanies, he said, do research in cyberspace, via the incubator.

The incubator, in turn, helps its tenants with marketing, advertising, information technologies and legal and accounting matters, Weete said. Office space and equipment, conference room facilities and broadband Internet access are also offered up by the incubator.

Its biggest investment, Weete said, comes from within, in the form of a robust student internship program that employs undergraduate and graduate students in fields from finance to marketing, information technology, journalism and advertising and law.

They provide a valuable service to the incubators tenants,Weete said.Many of these students represent the next generation of entrepreneurs, and theyre gaining invaluable �€~real lifeexperience.

This most recent grant will provide funds for operational expenses for years two and three of the original grant of $169,000 which launched the incubator, Weete said. The Benedum Foundation also provided a $1.75 million grant to support the WVU Office of Technology Transfer, which Weete also authored.

All the grants are being administered by the WVU Foundation, the Universitys private fundraising arm.

The incubator will eventually move to WVU s Research Park, an 88-acre expanse under construction near Monongalia General Hospital in Morgantown that is expected to yield some 2,600 new jobs in the coming years.