Innovations
The Greenhouse Business Incubator (gorp.uark.edu) will train and support regional entrepreneurs focused on outdoor recreation-oriented hospitality, service and experience businesses, as well as outdoor industry product design and development start-ups. Entrepreneurs seeking scalable ventures will have the opportunity to apply for an intensive 12-week product-incubation program — Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program — which will be operated twice per year. GORP participants will be eligible for support and admission into the university’s Venture Mentoring Service.
The University of Arkansas is working with a coalition of partners to develop and connect researchers, clinicians, engineers, entrepreneurs, and other project participants across the region to create business solutions for emerging health care problems. The Collaborative will host an intense 10-month program that will provide interdisciplinary teams with high-quality instruction and deep access to research community clinical environments, delivering outsized impact in the development of new healthcare technologies and medical devices.
The program will also develop entrepreneurial health care professionals with the ability to identify clinically relevant problems, create intellectual property, and extend their expertise to practical applications. This program will fill a gap in the development of new healthcare innovations with the power to increase economic resiliency.
As an extension of McMillon Innovation Studio in Fayetteville, the Collaborative will host advanced teams pairing students with industry partners and mentors to develop software and SaaS products in Bentonville. In addition, teams will gain access to the Data Visualization Lab and additional university research and development resources.
The electric future of vertical flight is landing in Bentonville. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, transporting both product and people, will transform the air traffic ecosystem. Early research and development are already taking place in and around Bentonville addressing the challenges of aerial transportation and developing aerial and e-mobility technologies. The University of Arkansas can play a key role in the eVTOL evolution.
Bentonville will soon be home to the Whole Health Institute and the Whole Health School of Medicine and Health Sciences. These independent, nonprofit organizations will take a transformative approach to health and well-being while placing Bentonville as a major pipeline for medical professionals trained in conventional medicine and whole health aspects.
Discussions are underway for ongoing collaborations with the Whole Health Medical School and UAMS to facilitate medical research, commercialization of technologies, and workforce development to support the whole health sector as an emerging economic development driver for our region.
Technologies and service providers supporting the rapid evolution of omni-channel retail and e-commerce will play a major role in our local economy. Omni-channel retail is a multichannel approach to sales that focus on providing seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, laptop, in a brick-and-mortar store. The University of Arkansas can leverage data science, computer engineering, and our innovation ecosystem development resources to help retail industry partners and local retail tech startups create better customer experiences, increase sales and traffic, boost customer loyalty and perform better data collection.