A new initiative designed to help University of Wisconsin students, staff and faculty create, support and sustain new companies was announced Friday.

The New Business Start-Up Initiative, which is sponsored by the UW Office of Corporate Relations, establishes nine components that will work to improve the already strong record UW has of new business formation, according to OCR Managing Director Charles Hoslet.

“We think by putting in place the elements of the initiative, we can create even more start-up companies, which creates more jobs for the state,” Hoslet said, adding the initiative uses several methods that help companies move to the next level of success and profitability.

“If you go back 50 years, we can track about 175 companies that were either started by UW staff or students, or were based on technology that was developed at [UW],” he said.

The initiative makes it easier for students, faculty and staff to figure out if an idea is good enough to build a company around, according to Hoslet.

The nine components are organized into three areas, which are assistance, events and publications, according to a UW release.

Assistance includes aspects such as CEO mentoring, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and micro-grants that will be awarded to early-stage UW company developers, according to the release.

“The Entrepreneur-in-Residence … will serve as a resource to students who are interested in starting a company,” Hoslet said. “[Students can] get direct assistance by being put in touch with appropriate [business] service providers.”

Planned events include a CEO Breakfast series, which will provide peer-level networking and support and Venture Capital Roundtables, which Hoslet said will help business creators with access to advice.

“One of the biggest issues in starting companies … is the lack of access to funding to help them grow and become profitable,” he said. “One of the things we want to do is provide an opportunity [for entrepreneurs] to talk about their business and business strategy with local venture capitalists, who will help them in how they can position their company.”

Several new publications will also be created under the initiative, which will include a highlight of key steps to starting a company and act as an information source, according to the release.

Hoslet said that, although faculty and staff start many more companies, UW students often have ideas that are produced from business competitions within the School of Business, School of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“Over the last several years, many of these student ideas are turning into Wisconsin companies, [which] have a tremendous amount of potential.”

Rob Krecak, a UW senior in the School of Business, said the initiative sounds like a great opportunity for students who plan to start their own companies.

“I think that a lot of students have a lot of good ideas; they just don’t know how to implement them,” Krecak said. “[The initiative will] give students new insight as to what [starting a company] entails.”