Rice Alliance named top global university business incubator

Rice University’s Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has been named the top global university business incubator of 2013, according to the first in-depth study by the University Business Incubator (UBI) Index, based in Sweden.

The UBI Index reviewed 550 university incubators around the world and performed a study of 150 university business incubators in 22 countries.  Incubators were measured on a unique assessment framework with more than 50 performance indicators. The analysis of this assessment framework shows the value participating incubators create for their ecosystem and their clients, according to a press release from the UBI Index.

“Rice Alliance’s exceptional overall performance, contribution to the ecosystem, especially through high job creation and outstanding value to their clients propelled it to the top spot in the ‘global’ category,” read the UBI Index press announcement.

“It is a great honor to have Rice University’s entrepreneurial efforts ranked as the No. 1 university business incubator in the world,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance. “This recognition is a tribute to our model of cross-campus collaboration among the Rice Brown School of Engineering, Wiess School of Natural Sciences, Jones Graduate School of Business and Office of Research and Technology Transfer that has been fostered since inception. We are humbled to receive this global recognition.”

The Rice Alliance is host to the Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest business plan competition with more than $1.5 million in prizes. The Rice Alliance also hosts the flagship Technology Venture Forums (venture capital conferences) and is a supporter of the Rice OwlSpark Accelerator, a student-led startup accelerator, along with many other programs.  Over the past 13 years, the mission of the Rice Alliance has consistently been to support technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies. During this time, more than 1,400 startup companies have benefited from Rice Alliance programs, and these companies have raised more than $2.7 billion in funding

For more information, visit http://ubiindex.com/rice-alliance-is-the-worlds-top-university-business-incubator/.