Tucked away in this year’s motley special session package at the Legislature was a bill authorizing the creation of Launch Minnesota, a $5 million public-private program to grow the state’s innovation economy.
Amid partisan sniping over proposed increases to public education funding and the state gas tax, Launch Minnesota’s relatively modest investment drew low-key support from both sides of the aisle, emerging from the legislative gantlet with the broad strokes of Gov. Tim Walz’s original proposal intact — albeit with a slimmer budget.
Image: This past February, the University of Minnesota announced the formal launch of a startup incubator designed to help companies based on university research succeed in bringing their discoveries beyond the lab and into the marketplace. It’s one of a number of business incubators that have set up shop in recent years. (Submitted photo: University of Minnesota)
