BROADENING OUR IMPACT: BECOMING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY IN CANADA

Transcription

1 BROADENING OUR IMPACT: BECOMING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY IN CANADA Strategy Recommendations developed by the Advisory Committee on Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the Vice President Research Spring 2015 Document date: 13 March 2015 As the University of Calgary moves toward realizing its Eyes High vision to be among the top five research universities in Canada by 2016, we believe it s time to set an additional ambitious goal, to become Canada s Entrepreneurial University by This goal is a refinement and extension of the community engagement and impact focus of the strategic plan, and a natural development given our place as a leading Canadian agent of innovation in the country s most entrepreneurial city. This concept of the Entrepreneurial University is more than just our courses and programs it permeates every aspect of what we are and what we do. It offers not only opportunities for academic entrepreneurship options, but for entrepreneurship to be embedded into the very DNA of the institution and it s operations. At its core, its founded on entrepreneurial thinking a definition that extends far beyond traditional commerce and the marketplace. It s using new ideas and innovation to improve systems, processes, performances and relationships as well as products and services to add social, cultural and economic value. Becoming Canada s Entrepreneurial University is a worthwhile and logical goal. The university s considerable innovations through research, knowledge engagement, teaching and learning, leadership and governance have the potential to transform individuals, communities and societies. Encouraging entrepreneurial thinking complements the university s goals to advance research. It supports disseminating research, technology transfer and commercialization. Increasing our entrepreneurial thinking will help the university students, faculty & staff and

2 increase our impact across a broad spectrum of enterprises some of which will be motivated by pursuing social good, others will focus on economic benefits: Traditional Nonprofit Nonprofit with Income- generating Activities Social Enterprise Socially Responsible Business Corporation Practicing Social Responsibility Traditional For- Profit Mission motive Economic motive By further embracing and embedding entrepreneurial thinking within our campus we will most certainly increase our impact beyond it. We have the power to turn research into impact. IMPROVING OUR IMPACT To become Canada s Entrepreneurial University, we believe the university has to change its culture to enable, support and reward faculty and students for problem- driven research, entrepreneurship and innovation. This will also allow us to attract more industry and partner funding in support of research and teaching activities. We need to align academic and professional development training while providing even more internship opportunities to focus on engaging students, faculty and professionals in academic courses and programs. We need to develop a new model for internships for undergraduate and graduate students that allow them to pursue entrepreneurial activities and create a bigger forum to engage students with successful entrepreneurs & innovators. We need spaces on campus that support and encourage collaboration and innovation not just in labs, but in an incubator and designated clinics. And perhaps most importantly, the university must support this activity through a change in culture reflected in its policies and procedures. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking must not be limited to the business school 1,.. Entrepreneurial thinking is the pursuit of new and different ideas. By turning ideas into action 1 NOTE: with all academic courses/programs, it is important to distinguish between what is happening in the Haskayne School of Business and what is available to students across campus.

3 whether it s inventing a better mousetrap, helping victims of violence or preventing osteoarthritis we can and will improve lives. More entrepreneurial thinking across our campuses will also increase and strengthen our collaborations and partnerships with organizations across Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the World. In pursuit of becoming Entrepreneurial U, the Advisory Committee on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI) proposes: introducing innovative academic options for all undergraduate and graduate students; instituting robust professional development & training options for students, faculty and staff; extending our networks and activities with industry and the community; creating an infrastructure and culture that encourages, supports, recognizes and rewards entrepreneurial thinking. These measures will reap many rewards. We will attract new types of students and faculty and retain this talent in new ways. We will provide opportunities and outlets for entrepreneurial behaviors that are, at present, largely unseen, unrecognized and unrewarded. We envision infrastructure and initiatives that will encourage and improve academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer and innovation beyond the university. The committee sees entrepreneurial approaches as an alternative not mandatory path in pursuing the academic enterprise. We expect students and faculty who choose to pursue creative entrepreneurial ventures and innovation activities for social change, the marketplace or somewhere in between will have a clearer path and the necessary supports to develop transformational technologies, products or services. The University of Calgary will have more successful startups and see more graduates from any discipline equipped with enterprising skills and knowledge that are highly valued in government, industry and community organizations. Both populations are to be served in the development of academic programming, and ideally, we are able to create opportunities to integrate students from diverse disciplines in academic courses and programs.

4 AECI has developed this recommendation document with the help of much stakeholder engagement. ACEI members presented initial ideas to all faculties. Roundtables on the main campus as well as the foothill and downtown campus elicited feedback from a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A draft version of the document was circulated to the campus community for feedback. Feedback received was discussed by the committee and integrated in the final version. In this document, we address challenges to, and opportunities for, generating entrepreneurial motivation and attitudes, competencies and skills, as well as support for business startups, transferring and commercializing research and strengthening cooperation between the university and outside partners. ACEI s offers strategic recommendations in six areas: Undergraduate Student Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programming Graduate Student Entrepreneurship & Innovation Learning Professional Development & Training for the Campus Community Collaborative Research and innovation (knowledge translation) Organizational Culture & Capacity Performance Metrics STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 1.0: UNDERGRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION PROGRAMMING Provide a continuum of options From the point of admission through to graduation, undergraduate students from all disciplines should have access to experiential courses and programs in entrepreneurship and innovation. The Haskayne School of Business has introduced a course in Entrepreneurial Thinking as a foundation. The school is discussing an entire concentration in entrepreneurship. For non- commerce students, the minor in Management and Society and the minor in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (MEED for the Schulich School of Engineering) provide a foundation for discussion about creating more opportunities for access and more contemporary nomenclature for such programming. Programming dedicated to social entrepreneurship could be added.

5 Academic Training & Skills Development The university needs to develop a core curriculum in entrepreneurship and innovation that provides common knowledge and experience for all students, accessible to students in commerce and any other first degree program on campus; The university should support the development of collision courses designed for students from disciplines across campus that focus on developing new ventures, or social enterprises and providing new opportunities for students to engage in commercialization work with research active faculty through experiential and project oriented courses. Non- Business Faculty- specific courses in aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship can augment and extend core courses offered by the Haskayne school. The university should develop a new model for undergraduate internships that relate to innovation and start up activities. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 2.0 GRADUATE E&I LEARNING Provide a continuum of options A continuum of options should be offered to graduate students in research- based and professional programs. We need to support students that enter the university with an entrepreneurial- oriented research goal as well as those who may want to take advantage of mid- program opportunities. We need to create a rigorous entrepreneurial thesis option that demonstrates a deep understanding of how research can convert new knowledge into innovation products, services and policies for economic, social and cultural benefit. Entrepreneurial training opportunities will provide a responsive rather than prescribed path for graduate students. Ideally, the entrepreneurial components will comprise part of the scholarly work and not be extra to the thesis to maintain reasonable times in program. Academic Training & Skills Development Like the undergraduate recommendation, but tailored to the unique needs of graduate students in professional and research based programs at the masters and PhD levels, a core curriculum in entrepreneurship and innovation that provides knowledge and experience for all students. The development of a new, rigorous option for students to complete an entrepreneurial thesis. The re- thinking of a combined MBA/PhD degree option with a focus on entrepreneurship.

6 Develop problem- driven internship opportunities for a wide scope of disciplines across campus to allow graduate students and their supervisors to work with outside partners from the day a student starts on Campus on defining thesis topics based on real- world issues. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 3.0 PROFESSIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT & TRAINING Engaging through access to entrepreneurs and non- academic training Calgary has a rich ecosystem to support entrepreneurial activity. There are a variety of programs and support systems that would benefit students and faculty. Building collaborative relationships with key players to deliver training programs on campus, in addition to providing a forum for local entrepreneurs to share stories and apply their wisdom (learned through successes and failures) for the benefit of our aspiring entrepreneurs amongst our student, faculty and staff populations. Entrepreneurs Forum Speaker Series Collaboration with grassroots organizations to host events on and off campus for benefit of campus community Workshops, seminars and programs non- credit or certificate Functional focus IP Policy, financing, marketing etc. Experiential options Competitions, Startup Weekend, Innovator s Toolkit etc. Entrepreneurs on Campus Facultypreneurs Downtown entrepreneurs

7 STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 4.0 COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION Supporting problem- driven research Curiosity- driven research is woven into the fabric of research universities. It s intrinsically motived and can lead to crucial discoveries and innovation. Problem- driven research is extrinsically motivated and can also require to solve fundamental problems and lead to more discovery. Both approaches are hugely valuable. And they are often deeply entwined. Problem- driven research is an alternative not a mandatory approach to research and teaching. It augments the curiosity- driven approach and faculty should be enabled and allowed to opt in. Recognizing and celebrating problem- driven, collaborative research as well as knowledge and technology translation will promote its validity and encourage entrepreneurship. As such, we were exploring policies and practices at other universities that encourage entrepreneurial activities as well as commercialization and technology transfer. We suggest creating two support systems: Network of Connectors: Developing a network of community members that will help open doors to finding the right partner(s) and opportunities for collaborative research activities. Business Development Support: Once collaborations are identified, business development support will ensure the process is smooth and help with timelines, scheduling and proposal development. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 5.0 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE & CAPACITY Changing our culture Perhaps the most pervasive aspect of our recommendations is that of our ability to support and develop the vision of the Entrepreneurial University. Developing an entrepreneurial culture will include recognition and reward for developing experiential programming in the classroom, formal and informal lab experiences, incubator- style spaces and work experience opportunities that link research with real problems in the community and industry, connecting students with start- ups and providing opportunities for knowledge sharing. 5.1 Encouraging Faculty to be engaged in entrepreneurship

8 Entrepreneurial thinking and activity needs to be valued and seen as an optional part of a professor s job, not an extra- curricular activity. For this shift to occur, aspects of entrepreneurship will need to be rewarded in tenure and promotion processes as well as the collective agreements that determine them. Successes need to be celebrated, academics need to be rewarded for entrepreneurial activities and senior administrators need to promote it as worthwhile. Details need to be negotiated between the university and TUCFA (the University of Calgary Faculty Association). Indeed, TUCFA is encouraged to be a partner in this initiative. Recognition & Awards: Institute an annual recognition event and other awards recognizing the value of entrepreneurial & innovation endeavors. Merit & Promotion: Traditionally, academics are mostly rewarded for research and teaching. Faculty who translate ideas into innovation need to be rewarded as well by aligning merit and promotion processes to include such endeavors. For students, evaluations for university- level scholarships need to include recognition for innovations. For faculty, this could, for example, be implemented by additional merit points focused on knowledge engagement and entrepreneurial activities as well as enhancing current reporting processes for highlighting such activities. Peer Network: Creating a peer network of academics from all faculties with experience and interest in entrepreneurship and innovation will help move entrepreneurship beyond its traditional home in the Haskayne School of Business into every faculty and department across campus. 5.2 Focusing on technology and knowledge transfer & innovation Incentives & Time: Technology and knowledge transfer activities take a lot of time and effort, therefore we will need to create opportunities to trade time for such endeavors against other academic activities. For example, giving a professor teaching relief for lending his/her expertise to help a startup grow or substantially engaging in collaborative research and knowledge engagement activities. This needs to be implemented without shifting extra burden on colleagues. Streamline Processes: We will streamline business and management processes to make it easier for academics and partner organizations to engage in technology and knowledge transfer and innovation activities. Improve Linkages: We will link people who want to pursue innovation with the organizations and individuals that can provide financing such as angel investors, startup accelerators and incubators. We don t want to reinvent the wheel on campus, rather we want to ensure the university has good connections to existing organizations that provide such funding.

9 5.3 Going beyond Intellectual Property: For technology transfer, we typically talk about intellectual property and licensing it to an outside organization or startup. We aim to broaden this and use the knowledge we have on campus in other ways. We want to make expertise as well as IP accessible. University of Calgary Consultancy: Creating a university- run consultancy would allow the outside community industry, government agencies and others to access experts on campus by hiring them as consultants. To address concerns that this consultancy is subsidized and, hence, able to underbid commercial competition, we would expect its pricing structure to be at the high end of the market. This consultancy would employ a profit sharing model between the university, its faculties, departments and the individual experts. The main purpose is not generating profit, but generating impact and knowledge translation by getting our expertise into the community. Working for this consultancy is following an opt- in approach and should be part of the agreed work hours of the academic. Revenue generated by the consultancy using teaching relief to faculty should be used to create new faculty positions. Service Startups: Going beyond traditional IP- based startups, the university should support faculty and students that want to start their own service companies based on their research expertise and help to get them going quickly and effectively. Work for these startups should be considered as outside professional activity. Outside Professional Activity (OPA) for merit: As OPA activities can be used to translate expertise from campus into societal impact, capturing such activities will help demonstrate the impact our expertise has on society. The university should appropriately recognize such activities in merit and promotion processes, independent of any financial benefits received by the individual. While the APT manual requires that OPA is used in these processes, the actual impact on rewards varies widely across faculties. Clarification and guidance is needed on how OPA translates into merit and promotion. 5.4 Creating an entrepreneurial environment: Entrepreneurial universities not only have training programs, academic courses and a culture of entrepreneurship, they also include collaborative spaces to support entrepreneurs on campus and help build ventures, a flexible infrastructure to support and encourage innovation in teaching & learning, and policies that encourage commercialization activities Hatchery/Incubator type spaces that allow to collocate like- minded people New Venture Advisory Clinics (such as the new one opened up in the Faculty of Law) Flexible administrative systems and policies relating to diverse areas such as course scheduling, course- buy- outs;

10 Clear Intellectual Property (IP) policies and processes 5.5 Funding Innovation: Start up ventures require capital to launch and grow. The university should pursue outside sources for seed funding focusing on student, faculty and alumni innovations to grow the number of startups emerging from the university. University of Calgary Seed Fund; Funding in general to support expansion of business development activities as well as the spaces & places noted above. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION 6.0 PERFORMANCE METRICS A final and crucial recommendation is developing performance metrics for measuring our progress toward developing and implementing the five previous recommendations. This could include participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring study to measure entrepreneurial attitudes on campus, capturing qualitative data/stories on entrepreneurial and innovation success and failures, collaborative research revenue and or others. CONCLUSION The pursuit of the Entrepreneurial University involves a complex and often interdependent set of initiatives, policies and processes, and the leadership to support and encourage such change. On the cusp of our 50 th Anniversary, the time is ripe for the development of a innovative offerings that engage students, faculty and our community in the pursuit of our Eyes High Vision to be one of Canada s leading Universities. The work of the ACEI, with significant community engagement, will strengthen the breadth and depth of our recommendations and support the foundations of this bold new vision. COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP: Co- Chairs: Frank Maurer, Associate Vice President (Research) Kimberley Neutens, Director, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Haskayne School of Business John Brown Environmental Design James Kent Donlevy TUCFA Representative

11 Linda Duffet- Leger Faculty of Nursing Reed Ferber - Kinesiology Peter Garrett Innovate Calgary Greg Hagen Faculty of Law Derek Hassay Haskayne School of Business Heather Herring Industry Representative - Laracina Hana Kadri Undergraduate Students Union Mohammad Keyani Haskayne School of Business Eurgene Kowch Werklund School of Education Cooper Langford Faculty of Science Derek Litchi Schulich School of Engineering Nancy Marlett- Medicine Brian Moorman Faculty of Arts Experience Nduagu Postdoctoral Students Representative Tom Orgaranko- Tessellate Inc. Industry Rep Richard Ramsey Faculty of Social Science (Emeritus) & Industry Representative LivingWorks Derek Rancourt Cumming School of Medicine Janet Ronsky Schulich School of Engineering Alexandra Rutley Industry Representative ATB Robert Schulz Haskayne School of Business Wayne Sim Industry Representative 3esi George Shimizu Faculty of Graduate Studies Rebecca Sullivan Faculty of Arts Mark Ungrin Veterinary Medicine Michael Webster Graduate Students Union