Generally, it is aimed at research, alternative educational programs, the development of innovative start-ups, and entrepreneurial initiatives related to academic activities.
When academic centers are founded by higher education institutions based on the results of a research group with commercial objectives, this is also called a spin-off.
The name goes back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded around 386 BCE in the olive grove garden of Akademos, north of Athens, Greece.
[5] The meaning of the word "center" as a building or organization dedicated to a specific activity arose in the United States in the 1880s.
In 1910, Professor Abraham Flexner wrote a report about the state of American medical schools that fostered the development of Academic Health Centers over the next decades in the USA.