The KU Future Fund was established in 2021. Its goal is to create a KU support platform that promotes scientific progress and the development of high technology by bringing together business initiatives and citizens. “We want to see the Baltic Sea Region University, creating for the future as a leader in the growth of the blue economy and innovation ecosystem,” said the founders of the Fund. In its long-term goals, the Fund is committed to strengthening KU’s competitiveness, supporting cutting-edge research and projects, attracting and retaining the most talented faculty, and promoting the most gifted students.
During the first year of its operation, the KU Future Fund signed € 170,000 support contracts. On 20 January 2022, at an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of the KU Future Fund, a decision was taken to build up an endowment capital fund of € 500,000 and to start investment management.
“We are at the beginning of the road, making the first steps. We do realize that a long-term prospect and sustainable and consistent operation of the Fund can be ensured only by building up an endowment capital fund, due to which the KU Future Fund will be able to earn a steady flow of investment income. In this way, the funds provided by the sponsors will increase the Fund’s capital, which in turn will increase the amount of investment return. During the three decades of KU functioning, over 38,000 students graduated from it, and if each of the alumni made a contribution of € 30, in 30 years, a moderate investment policy would increase the value of the support to €5 million”, says Vytautas Adomaitis, Director of the KU Future Fund.
“Having an endowment capital fund to support the university’s activities is not only a financial benefit but also a high reputation value, which evidences that the education and research institution is important both for the city and the community as a whole. This is an important indicator, reflecting the interest of business in the development of academic and scientific activities in Klaipėda in order to create conditions for cultivating young talents and promoting progress and innovations,” says prof. dr. Artūras Razbadauskas, Rector of KU.
The funds accumulated by the KU Future Fund will be used to cultivate KU talents, to fund research activities, to support projects that promote the choice of studies at KU, to promote relevant study programs, to foster student initiatives, and to purchase equipment for studies and research laboratories.
Vytautas Adomaitis, Director of the KU Future Fund, argues that the step is important not only for the KU community, but for the future of the whole city, if we want to see Klaipėda as a university city, dynamic, prosperous, and growing.
The KU Future Fund can be supported by visiting www.kuf.lt and thus contributing to the building up of an endowment capital fund of the KU Future Fund.
