OXFORD, Miss. – Before turning ideas into innovations, the University of Mississippi Insight Park first must turn the ground. UM officials conducted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday (June 9) for the university’s Insight Park. 
Construction on the first Insight Park building, which will be north of Highway 6 behind the Gillom Sports Center, is scheduled to be complete next summer. The state-of-the-art facility, which aims to help businesses benefit from the intellectual environment of the university, includes a 12,000-square-foot built-out incubator.
“The university’s Insight Park is a place where the best thinkers in business and the university will come together, work side-by-side and share ideas and innovative thoughts on how to create unique technologies, valuable services and new jobs in Mississippi,” said Syd Spain, executive director for the new UM Research Park.
The university has been committed to the development of a world-class research park for more than a decade, and the investment in the state’s economic future could not come at a more critical time, Spain said. Together with the UM Innovation Center, the research park will help turn ideas into innovations.
To better connect ideas and people who have the entrepreneurial drive and resources to make things happen, the research park will capitalize on four clusters of existing research expertise at UM: health care, information management, defense/security and remote sensing technologies.
“The purpose of Insight Park is to ensure research outcomes are put into action – transforming what we know and how we do things,” said Alice Clark, vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs.
To learn more, visit http://www.research.olemiss.