The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) seeks to expand access to entrepreneurship and innovation education and experiences across the entire campus. These funds will be used as follows:

Entrepreneurship Curriculum and Education Programs:

• Develop and implement an innovation and design thinking applied learning workshop for first and second-year students to introduce them to concepts such as innovation and creativity, problem solving, customer discovery, value creation, and business modeling. Iowa JPEC will partner with various colleges and organizations across campus to deliver these workshops. Students will learn how to apply this entrepreneurial method to solve problems across disciplines and be introduced to the resources across campus to support entrepreneurship and new venture creation.

Acceleration of New Venture Formation:

• Create new entrepreneurship and innovation challenges to encourage the development of innovative solutions to address real world problems. Iowa JPEC will partner with select colleges and departments to identify areas of opportunity, and then lead the competitions. Students, faculty, and staff will submit proposals outlining the problem, their proposed solution, and how they will create value for the customer(s). Those selected will participate in existing Iowa JPEC programs such as the NSF I-Corps training program, Venture Mentoring Service, and startup incubator. Top proposals will receive seed funding for prototyping, customer discovery, go-to-market analysis, business modeling, and intellectual property assessment.