In his inaugural address on September 20, President Phil Hanlon ’77 announced the founding of the Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator for Dartmouth students. The new center will provide flexible work space and an environment where students have access to the resources, connections, experiences, and capital to put ideas into action and start business ventures and social entrepreneurial initiatives. It is expected to open in early 2014.

“Student innovation is a well of unlimited creativity and potential on this campus, and one we must nurture,” Hanlon said in announcing the new center. “Whether students are interested in social ventures or business, the goal is to provide experiential learning opportunities and give them a world-class entrepreneurial competency, delivered by faculty and staff from across the campus as well as Dartmouth alumni around the world.”

The new Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator will be student-designed and managed. Guidance and oversight will be provided by the recently established Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer (OETT), which is led by two experienced technology entrepreneurs: Tillman Gerngross, associate provost for entrepreneurship and technology transfer and professor of bioengineering; and Trip Davis ’90, executive director of OETT.