Message from the Vice President for Research & Creative Scholarship.

• Author: Whittenburg, Scott L.
• Position: LETTER - Letter to the editor

This issue of the Montana Business Quarterly continues the tradition of examining Montana s economy in a number of areas, from craft brewing in the state to the impact of the Bakken formation. Research like this continues to thrive at the University of Montana.

This past year we set a record for the amount of research funding received--$87 million in new research awards. The local impact resulting from those grants and contracts can be extrapolated from a study done by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research in 2014, which demonstrates that UM research supports 700 direct jobs, 1,400 permanent, high-paying, year-round jobs in the Montana economy with an average earning of $64,000 and produces $180 million in annual sales to Montana businesses and other organizations.

We established the Blackstone LaunchPad, which helps take concepts from ideas to startup. To date we have over 400 people who have registered with the LaunchPad and 30 ventures have reached the startup phase. For those startups, as well as others in the region, we provide HR and financial support through our business incubator, MonTEC, which is focused on high growth and technology ventures. The purpose of MonTEC is to help start-up companies mature to a stage where they can gradate and become a successful business. The 32,000 square feet of business incubator space is now full and we are considering expansion...