Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) will enhance its position as a hub for the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, digital technology, and public policy thanks to a multi-year grant from the Nasdaq Educational Foundation.

SIPA will draw on the foundation’s support to engage scholars, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the public and private sectors to advance understanding of the conditions and means to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship.

The series of initiatives funded by the grant will emphasize entrepreneurship and innovation stemming from both information and communications technology (ICT) and digital technology, along with their intersection with public policy globally. Programming will begin this fall and last for three years through spring 2019.

The grant will support a variety of programs and initiatives. Most significantly, SIPA will:

• Create a global ideas forum including a University-wide seminar on entrepreneurship.
  • In partnership with Columbia Entrepreneurship, SIPA will examine the conditions that give rise to entrepreneurship and the special relationship worldwide among entrepreneurship, digital technologies, and data.
  • SIPA and Columbia Entrepreneurship will host a series of public seminars and events each year and commission papers from faculty and U.S. and international experts to anchor discussion.
• Foster thought leadership through global fellows in residence.
  • SIPA will recruit short term visiting global entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and innovators in residence to bring the latest lessons from the field.
  • SIPA will also recruit a postgraduate fellow in residence to pursue policy research and provide organizational support for the entrepreneurship program.
• Promote innovative approaches for educating the next generation of entrepreneurs through experiential learning and case study-based teaching, including
  • a new course designed to prepare students to launch a new enterprise, including social enterprise
  • enhancement of the existing Dean’s Public Policy Challenge Grant to include mentorship by global entrepreneurs and innovators in residence
  • commissioning of case studies to help students explore contemporary issues in entrepreneurship, digital technology, and public policy.

“SIPA occupies an increasingly  interesting place at the intersection of digital technology, innovation, and public policy,” said Dean Merit E. Janow of SIPA. “By adding this invaluable support from the Nasdaq Educational Foundation to the extensive resources of Columbia University, we will enhance the School’s ability to collaborate with scholars across the University and other experts to produce important new research, thought leadership, and curricular innovation on the study of entrepreneurship and the policy that supports it.”

“As a global provider of capital markets services, it is our responsibility to educate future leaders,” said Joan Conley, senior vice president and corporate secretary at Nasdaq and managing director of the Nasdaq Educational Foundation. “We are proud to support Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs as they continue to grow and enhance their programs across public policy, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

As it develops and pursues activities with the grant’s support, SIPA will engage other units at Columbia University and work in consultation with distinguished colleagues including Professor Eli Noam and Richard Witten. Noam is the Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility at Columbia Business School and the director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. Witten is a special advisor to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and director of Columbia Entrepreneurship, a Presidential initiative and umbrella group that supports entrepreneurship University-wide.