On Nov. 7, Brandeis’ International Business School announced that it received a $2.5 million dollar donation from Alan Hassenfeld—the great-grandson of one of the University’s founding donors, Henry Hassenfeld—and followed up this week with an announcement about how it plans to use the gift. Thanks to the family’s donation, IBS will be unveiling the new Hassenfeld Innovation Center soon.

This editorial board is pleased to hear about the planning for the center and looks forward to what it will bring to the University’s intellectual climate. 

Entrepreneurship combines the critical thinking and problem solving liberal arts character of the University with the vocational concept of business, and a center devoted to entrepreneurship fits right in on campus.

The center will operate in conjunction with the Office of Technology Licensing, using research by faculty, students and post-doctoral fellows to increase outreach within professional and corporate spheres. Newly appointed Provost Lisa Lynch will be in charge of overseeing the center, which will be run through IBS and existing OTL offices.

Having a hub for innovation of ideas on our campus that will connect people and resources that the Brandeis community already has in place, and especially one as accessible as the center will be, is a wonderful asset for Brandeis.  

We are optimistic to begin seeing the impact of several specific features that the center plans to offer. For example, the center will integrate the Sprout Grant Program, which currently dispenses grants from $5,000 to $20,000 to students and post-doctoral fellows for entrepreneurial activities. The center will also provide opportunities for students to learn about the process of patenting and the business implications that follow, including creating business and marketing plans for ideas that could reap commercial success. 

The center will also be exploring the possibility of new internships and fellowships for students.

Beyond the exciting new opportunities that the center promises to bring to campus, we are pleased to see it as a representation of a strong relationship with one of the University’s oldest and greatest benefactors, the Hassenfeld family. We look forward to the opening of the center, and how it will foster an opportunity to create connections between the innovation and startup culture that already exists at Brandeis and the greater professional sphere beyond the University.