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Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship
We empower entrepreneurial thinkers—whether you’re launching a venture, building a family business, creating social impact, or driving innovation inside an organization. Turn ideas into action.
Start your entrepreneurial journey
At Central Michigan University, the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship is more than a program—it’s where students from every major turn ideas into real impact. As Michigan’s first Department of Entrepreneurship, we’re a hub for hands-on learning, innovation, and mentorship.
Here, you’ll:
- Build an entrepreneurial mindset that sets you apart in any career path—launching ventures, shaping social missions, advancing family businesses, or driving innovation inside established companies.
- Collaborate across disciplines to create projects that matter.
- Learn from alumni, faculty, and industry leaders who’ve built their own paths.
- Gain real-world experience through workshops, hackathons, and pitch competitions.
- Compete in the New Venture Challenge, where students win up to $10,000 in cash and grants to grow their ideas.
Whether you want to start something new or transform what already exists, the Institute is your launchpad.
Take the next step!
When you’re ready to get started, stop by Grawn 164 to join the team or visit the Idea Den in Grawn 166—your space to brainstorm, build, and take the next step.
Questions?
CMU ranked for the first time in the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings which provides the definitive list of the world’s best universities, with an emphasis on the research mission. THE World University Rankings uses 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons and the overall list is accompanied by 11 subject-specific rankings.
THE World University Rankings is also the only global university ranking system to judge research-intensive universities across multiple core missions:
Teaching: the learning environment
Research environment: volume, income, and reputation
Research quality: the outputs of research
Industry: knowledge transfer
International outlook: staff, students, and research
The 2024 ranking list includes 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions. This year’s ranking analyzed more than 134 million citations across 16.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 68,402 scholars globally. Overall, the ranking collected 411,789 data points from more than 2,673 institutions.
THE World University Rankings is one of three major systems to evaluate universities; CMU is also ranked in the QS World University Rankings for the third consecutive year. Among schools in the Mid-American Conference, CMU is one of only six schools to hold ranking in multiple systems.
In 2022, CMU surpassed Western Michigan University in scholarly output. At the same time, the impact of CMU publications is at a 25-year high.
CMU’s Vice President for Research and Innovation, David C. Weindorf, Ph.D., says the new achievements are a direct reflection of its faculty, staff, and students. He said, “In addressing society’s grand challenges, CMU’s faculty, staff, and students have boldly answered the call and are driving novelty and discovery in so many ways that meaningfully touch lives. From the sciences to the visual and performing arts, the commitment of everyone at CMU has been world-class.”
This story is brought to you by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.