By Steven Allan Adams, Parkersburg
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University is using its R1 research university status to come up with ideas that can help grow the state’s economy and support entrepreneurs.
Economic research was a topic of the WVU Academic Media Day Monday. WVU is the state’s only R1 university, a classification by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education that denotes the number of doctorates and the amount spent by WVU in research expenditures.
Members of the media from around the state heard presentations on how the arts can help spur population growth, the need for cybersecurity experts in West Virginia, retaining college graduates in the state and more.
Javier Reyes, Milan Puskar dean of the John C. Chambers College of Business and Economics, talked to attendees about Start-Up West Virginia, where Reyes also serves as vice president. Start-up West Virginia is part of the financial gift from John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco System. The business school at WVU was renamed after Chambers last year.
“We’re going to talk a little bit about what we’re trying to do with innovation economy,” Reyes said. “How do we use resources from WVU to actually activate the innovation economy across the state in West Virginia and not just stay within our region? What does it mean to become a start-up state?” …
