Outreach Services
Our non-academic units, the Center for Innovation and the ND Small Business Development Center (SBDC), continue our outreach by further connecting our faculty and students to the business community.
ND Small Business Development Center
Since its inception in 1986, the North Dakota Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has evolved into a strong statewide network of eleven centers. The SBDC functions under the administration of the University of North Dakota College of Business and Public Administration and the state director who is located in Bismarck at the Department of Commerce.
The SBDC provides one-on-one consulting services to small businesses across the state and CoBPA is proud to be a partner with this program. This year, the SBDC program served over 1200 clients, providing over 7,500 hours of assistance. The SBDC reports that 650 full time jobs were created and 689 retained in North Dakota, many of which are at small businesses that access SBDC services.
The Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota was among the first entrepreneur outreach centers in the nation when formed in 1984, and is currently celebrating 28 years of innovation!
The Center provides assistance to innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers to launch new ventures, commercialize new technologies, and secure access to capital from private and public sources.
The Center manages two tech incubators in the UND Tech Park, provides SBIR outreach to the state's tech community and has formed three angel networks in Grand Forks, Fargo and Bismarck. It is also home to the only student managed venture fund in the nation where students make the actual investment decisions, the Dakota Venture Group. The Center has fostered over 400 start-up companies, which employ more than 4000 people and have attracted over $110M in investments.