The Harvard Innovation Lab will open in fall 2011 in a building on Western Avenue in Allston that formerly housed public broadcasting's WGBH. The lab will be used to foster innovative ventures across the multiple schools and centers at the University, and also to support the local business and non-profit communities in the greater Boston area.

Like the very enterprises it will house, the concept for the Harvard Innovation Lab has entrepreneurial origins. HBS Professor Peter Tufano saw the potential for the lab and said, "Student entrepreneurs don't respect academic silos, but nevertheless often found it hard to connect across school boundaries… .If we could find ways to facilitate those interactions, bringing them together in an environment that stimulates the sharing of ingenuity, knowledge, and skills, innovation and creativity could flourish. The potential of a unified Harvard could partially be realized."

The Innovation Lab will be led by a team whose job is to connect the various Harvard entrepreneurship programs - such as HBS's Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and The Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) - and to link student teams with the right people and resources to overcome hurdles, support their entrepreneurial ambitions and foster their success. Similarly, resources will be provided to help local businesses, entrepreneurs and non-profits access useful information, benefit from I-Lab programming, and leverage counseling services.