Programs and Centers

The MIT Enterprise Forum is just one of a number of organizations at MIT devoted to entrepreneurship and the growth of new business ventures.

MIT Entrepreneurship Center

The MIT Entrepreneurship Center team provides content, context, and contacts that enable entrepreneurs to design and launch successful new ventures based on innovative technologies. We help MIT students, alumni, and colleagues access an array of educational programs, networking opportunities, technologies, and resources, both at MIT and around the world. Members of the MIT E-Center community form a global network to actively advise and assist each other for mutual benefit, enabling them to set and meet their highest expectations.

Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation

MIT has a long tradition of nurturing innovation, providing the technology for new companies, and of building successful relationships with larger corporations that fund research. But historically, obstacles remained in the innovation process, between initial concepts and commercialization. Unproven ideas had little opportunity to advance beyond their theoretical stages. And younger companies lacked ways to discover and fund new ideas. But today, the Deshpande Center is working to change all that, and connect MIT's innovators with the marketplace.

MIT Venture Mentoring Service

Developed under the auspices of the Provost's Office, VMS is one of several MIT educational programs for entrepreneurs. It is based on the belief that a fledgling business is far more likely to thrive when an idea, a good business plan and an entrepreneur are matched with proven skills and experience. Through active support of entrepreneurship at MIT, VMS believes it contributes to the education of MIT students and alumni, strengthens MIT's role as a leader in innovation, and broadens MIT's base of potential financial support.

MIT Legatum Center for Developmental Entrepreneurship

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship is a collaboration between Legatum and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which Legatum has made a significant endowment towards the establishment of fellowships that will result in innovative businesses promoting sustainable economic growth in developing countries.

Lemelson-MIT Program

Dedicated to honoring the acclaimed and unsung heroes who improve lives through invention, the Lemelson-MIT Program encourages tomorrow's inventors through outreach programs. The cornerstone of the program is the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, the world's largest single cash prize for invention.

MIT Technology Licensing Office

This office manages the patenting, licensing, trademarking and copyrighting of intellectual property developed at MIT, Lincoln Laboratory and the Whitehead Institute and serves as an educational resource on intellectual property and licensing matters for the MIT community.

Industrial Liaison Program

The Office of Corporate Relations' Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) promotes MIT/Industry collaboration, encouraging the flow of knowledge and resources between the Institute and innovation-driven companies for their mutual benefit. The exchange of ideas and capabilities resulting from ILP-facilitated interactions often speed the incorporation of new technologies into products and services - helping MIT research make its way to the marketplace and out to the global community.

Cambridge-MIT Institute

The University of Cambridge (CU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have established the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), funded by Her Majesty's Government and private industry, to create a new form of academic enterprise.

MIT Center for Digital Business

The MIT Sloan School of Management created the Center for Digital Business at MIT to provide leadership for faculty, students, and industry interested in Internet-enabled business. Developments in this field are transforming the economy, while creating new opportunities and challenges.

Center for Innovation in Product Development

A joint effort between MIT's School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management, CIPD links the best ideas of academia with the best experience of industry. Our team members share our dynamic vision-MIT faculty, students, and staff join with industrial partners to research the process of product development (PD) from engineering concept to management practice; from product design to market delivery.

Center for Biomedical Innovation

The CBI mission is to transform the discovery, development, manufacture and distribution of cost-effective therapeutics and devices. CBI is a collaboration among the MIT Schools of Engineering, Management, and Science and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST). Research focuses on four action areas : Safety Assessment, R&D Redesign, Manufacturing and Distribution Systems, and Economic, Financial and Risk Management.

The Capital Network

Formerly the Technology Capital Network at MIT, TCN is a not-for-profit service/educational organization with a mission to bring entrepreneurs and early stage investors together for the purposes of raising capital, networking and education.

Local Innovation Systems Project

The Local Innovation Systems Project, an international research partnership based at the Industrial Performance Center at MIT, is addressing a central issue now confronting industrial practitioners and economic policymakers throughout the world: How can local economic communities survive and prosper in the rapidly changing global economy?