Mission
UVA Innovates’ mission is to catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia by empowering students, faculty, and our broader set of stakeholders to be entrepreneurial in their efforts and, in doing so, advancing solutions to large complex societal challenges.
Vision
By 2030, UVA Innovates will help establish UVA as a fountainhead of innovation and solutions for the world. UVA Innovates will be a catalyst for transforming ideas into ventures and technologies deployed in practice. UVA Innovates will serve as a platform catalyzing a broad portfolio of spaces, services, and enrichment opportunities taking place across the schools and units of the University.
Consistent with UVA’s Great and Good Strategic Plan, UVA Innovates will help develop and inspire citizen leaders who are empowered to solve society’s most vexing challenges. To this end, we will develop the entrepreneurial skillsets and habits of mind among UVA students, faculty, and other stakeholders to give them agency in their innovative pursuits and allow them to achieve their full potential.
We will embrace a distinct and powerful approach to entrepreneurship that is differentiated from our peer universities and that positions UVA as a leader in entrepreneurial thinking and education. Whether you’re starting a new venture, looking to learn new skills, or wish to be inspired to devise solutions for the greater good, UVA will provide the tools and connections needed to succeed.
UVA Innovates will provide a leading role in thinking beyond our ecosystem on Grounds, working with others to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Charlottesville, the Commonwealth, and beyond, recognizing that innovation and entrepreneurship are catalyzed by bringing people together. UVA Innovates will be a valued partner with the Commonwealth of Virginia to help advance the state’s goals for technological leadership, economic development, and job creation.
We will ultimately measure success by the degree which we empower and enable our stakeholders to be entrepreneurial in their efforts, pursuing endeavors with agency and empathy, and developing innovative solutions to the problems they choose to focus their attention. As such, we will need to expand our success metrics beyond traditional measures such as well-received programs delivered and ventures launched that are successful in attracting support such as raising capital.
We will know we are successful, in part, when our peers and extended stakeholders recognize UVA as a leader in bringing ideas to the world through our discoveries and through our entrepreneurial students, faculty, and alumni. We will have achieved our full potential when all our people feel empowered to pursue innovative solutions to pressing challenges that are deployed in the world.
