Batten Institute

The Batten Institute for entrepreneurship and innovation is one of the Centers of Excellence at the University of Virginia's (UVa) Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. It was founded in 1999 with a $60 million gift to the Darden School from UVa alum Frank Batten, chairman of Landmark Communications and founder of The Weather Channelcite news |url=http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/1999/40/batten.html |title=Largest gift ever to a graduate business school: Alumnus Frank Batten Sr. gives $60 million to Darden for entrepreneurial institute |date=1999-12-10 |last=Giaramita |first=Phillip |work=Inside UVA ] .

Mission

The Batten Institute advances the study and practice of entrepreneurship and innovation by uniting (1) thought-leading research, (2) student-centered teaching, and (3) hands-on learning. The Institute invests in applied research and outreach programs to achieve thought leadership and academic preeminence.

Currently, projects sponsored by the Institute aim to illuminate best practices in entrepreneurship and innovation. Its four major areas of field research include: corporate innovation to achieve internally-generated revenue growth; sustainable business practices; economic development in emerging regions through entrepreneurship; and the growth of new industries, with a focus on life sciences.

The Executive Director of the Institute is Michael Lenox, Associate Dean and Samuel L. Slover Research Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School cite web |url=http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/LenoxM/index.htm |title=Michael Lenox |work=Darden: Faculty Directory |accessdate=2008-05-20] .

Programs and events

Batten Institute programs and events include hands-on experiences for students such as the Business Concept competition, the Business Plan competition, the Innovation Challenge, the Venture Capital Bootcamp, and the Darden Incubator. In addition, the Batten Fellows Program brings prominent thought leaders to the school to conduct research and interact with students cite web |url=http://www.darden.edu/html/standard.aspx?menu_id=208&styleid=3&id=149 | title=Entrepreneurship at Darden |accessdate=2008-05-20] .

References

External links

* [http://www.virginia.edu/ The University of Virginia]
* [http://www.darden.edu/html/default.aspx, The Darden School of Business]
* [http://www.darden.edu/html/area.aspx?styleid=3&area=batten The Batten Institute]