A $3.5 million gift has allowed the University of Notre Dame to establish the Irish Innovation Fund as a component of ESTEEM, the school’s interdisciplinary graduate program. Money from the fund will be awarded annually to undergraduate or graduate students who are attempting to start a business.
Prospective business plans will be reviewed by students in the ESTEEM program, who will then recommend worthy projects to the Irish Innovation Fund’s advisory board.
Notre Dame graduate and current trustee Philip J. Purcell III will be chairman of the advisory board, which will also include other trustees and David Murphy, director of the ESTEEM program and associate dean of entrepreneurship for the Colleges of Science and Engineering. Funding decisions must also be approved by the provost. To receive money, a business plan must have a high probability of success and be consistent with the mission and values of Notre Dame as a Catholic university.
Purcell, the former chairman of Morgan Stanley, said the fund will bolster Notre Dame’s mission and support students in reaching their full potential.
“At the same time, it will provide a unique opportunity to make a significant economic impact by investing in companies that have developed out of the cutting-edge science and engineering research that is being explored and nurtured at Notre Dame,” he said in a statement.
The $3.5 million gift was made by John Jeuck, the former dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, in recognition of his friendship with Purcell.
The Irish Innovation Fund fits hand-in-glove with the Engineering, Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship Excellence Masters (ESTEEM) program. Notre Dame’s first interdisciplinary graduate program, ESTEEM is a collaborative undertaking by the school’s College of Science, College of Engineering and Mendoza College of Business. The yearlong Master of Science program provides engineering, science and technology students with the business background necessary to become successful entrepreneurs.
Through such programs, Notre Dame is able to “help create and advance an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation that drives the long-term creation and commercial success of new ventures,” Murphy said in a statement.
