In the weeks following New Years, and with the financial meltdown’s rippling effects still taking a toll on industries across the world, 2010 was deemed the year of the entrepreneur.

We have had the pleasure of covering hundreds of these entrepreneurs and their budding businesses in the Boston area since, and area colleges with student demand have been making moves to build environments for these entrepreneurs to grow and thrive. This year, 5 Boston area schools made exciting venture accelerator and incubator program announcements to help connect their aspiring student entrepreneurs with the resources they need to take their concepts to the next level:

Babson College | Babson Venture Accelerator

Announced just last week, the Babson Venture Accelerator operates out of their Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, a 6,000 foot facility at the heart of the campus. The accelerator will support and advance student entrepreneurs in each phase of their startup venture, which they describe as from “Exploring” opportunity to “Pursuing” that opportunity with research and prototyping to “Launching and Growing.” Whatever phase of their startup venture, the Babson Venture Accelerator has matched one of their top ranked entrepreneurship professors to those specific stages of growth. This #1 ranked school for entrepreneurship also runs a 10-week long summer incubator program for its students out of the Blank Center.

Boston University | Business Incubation & Kindle Mentoring Program

While BU’s Business Incubation program was founded in 2000, their Kindle Mentoring Program was announced this year and both live under the umbrella of BU’s Technology Development Office. The Business Incubation program operates out of their Charles River Campus and hosts fifteen tech startups, financed by leading VCs, angels, corporations or government grants. These companies take advantage of BU resources to accelerate product development and commercialize. The Kindle Mentoring Program works to take the discoveries that come out of BU’s $400 million in research awards and transfer these into successful products in the market. Entrepreneurial mentees affiliated with BU are matched with mentors to facilitate early stage businesses.

Harvard University | Harvard Innovation Lab

With help of $50 million from India’s Tata Group, Harvard’s innovation incubator was announced two weeks ago. The Harvard Innovation Lab will open in fall 2011 in Allston, where HBS will fund, develop and connect the lab to the rest of Harvard’s campus and bridge academic divisions. Students will have co-working space at the lab, access to top-tier recently announced Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, faculty, and feature a program of related activities. The teams working in the building will come from academic courses, current centers across campus, teams entering their annual business plan competition, and more.

Northeastern University | IDEA

Launched in the Spring of 2010, Northeastern University’s venture accelerator program IDEA is short for Inter-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship Accelerator. IDEA provides space, mentors, alumni access, and access to financial capital to help student entrepreneurs develop their ideas and ultimately launch these ventures into the real world. IDEA also works to connect their entreprneurs with students in the Northeastern community from other disciplines to build a core team. IDEA is primarily student-run, and helps entrepreneurs through three distinct startup stages it has branded as “Ready,” “Set” and “Go.” Currently

University of Massachusetts Boston | Venture Development Center

UMass Boston’s Entrepreneurship Center was launched in the Spring of 2010. The Center complements their recent curriculum addition of a specialization in entrepreneurship, and lives within The Venture Development Center — an 18,000-foot facility launched in 2009. The VDC was launched as a “stage for UMass-Boston to shout its ambition to be more of a major research university” and provides emerging technology and life sciences companies top-tier mentors, connections, and affordable space. Currently 34 companies are incubating in the VDC.

You can read more stories on Boston startups, technology and innovation at https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno