21st Century Endowment Fund

Two central objectives for the Center for Drug Design are to develop novel drugs that will benefit people, and to translate scientific knowledge into practical application. Professor Robert Vince has done just that when he developed carbovir, an antiviral AIDS drug.

From sales of the drug, the University of Minnesota receives a licensing fee and has used these resources for academic advancement. This has had a wide and positive impact on the university community as a whole.

One important area of concentration has been graduate education. There are 185 graduate programs throughout the university's Graduate School, with almost 10,000 students enrolled. Income from the licensing agreement has spurred creation of the 21st Century Graduate Fellowship Endowment. This endowment fund supports fellowship education across the entire University of Minnesota. By offering these important fellowships, it allows the university to compete with other top-notch schools, to attract and train the best graduate students. Some of the funds within this endowment are the Strategic Research Fund, Strategic Research Endowment, the Graduate Fellowship fund, and the Graduate Fellowship Endowment. These are specified as matching funds, doubling the potential of donor gifts.