The UP Business Research Foundation (UPBRF) was registered with the SEC as a non-stock, non-profit corporation on November 29, 1971 by six founders including former Prime Minister Cesar E. A. Virata and Dean Jaime C. Laya, who were interested in undertaking, promoting, developing and enhancing research in the business and management operations of industry, agriculture, commercial, governmental and other sectors. It is a funding/grant-making foundation located at UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City.
Its purposes, among others, are to finance projects and programs dedicated to the pursuit of new learning, investigation and/or experiment in the management sciences leading to a better understanding of industry and other sectors of the Philippine economy. Its sources of income include interest income from endowment funds, donations, gains from stock investments, and rental income from the land properties of UPBRF in Pasig and Cebu.