Insights from Univenture2015Nathan ZeldesNov. 30, 2016

The Univenture2015 Workshop• Place and Time: 16 Dec 2015 at Tel Aviv University

• Key Topic: How should universities adapt to the evolving world of venture in the 21st century?

• Key Objective: Create an initial understanding of the challenges caused by the changing role of universities – and generate and disseminate insights that can seed action to address the challenges

• Key Attendees: Academic researchers, University officials, VC managers, University TTO managers, Reflective stakeholders

The Univenture2015 Workshop

Main themes in the teams’ outputSo much needs to change!

• Interdisciplinary research possibilities

• Teaching curriculum and methodology

• The research incentive structure

• Mentoring options

• Technology Transfer Offices

• Bringing Business and Academia together

• Balancing Basic and Applied research

Theme: We need interdisciplinary research

We need interdisciplinary research• Interdisciplinary research:

– Can cross Applied Science, Social Science, and Business– Will make it easier to attract the interest of VCs and Angels– Leads to enhanced creativity– Requires an infrastructure that fosters collaboration by causing

people to meet and talk

• Technologists need to learn about entrepreneurship, ethics, philosophy, and management

• Our teams have come to see the importance of a dialog between the Sciences and the Humanities – which have many skills and perspectives to offer

Theme: Teaching curriculum should change

Teaching curriculum should change• Deploy a basic course on innovation, entrepreneurship,

commercialization

• Offer a track for students (in any field) who want to become entrepreneurs (e.g. a minor in entrepreneurship)

• Create joint integrated courses between business and engineering/technology areas

• Integrate (Tech and Non-tech) Entrepreneurship into Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts education, for the benefit of society

Theme: Teaching methods should change

Teaching methods should change• Teach through experience! A good example: the legal clinics sat

Tel Aviv University

• Include in the educational programs initiatives for social engagement and contribution to society

• Provide hands-on experience via Hackathons and Workshops

• Provide training to humanities and social sciences lecturers about how to create a venture

• Encourage discussion in the classroom

Theme: We need a new incentive structure

We need a new incentive structure• Adapt the incentive for researchers – balance patents and

publications instead of only rewarding the latter

• Provide incentives for faculty and students to directly engage in entrepreneurship

• Reward collaboration and teamwork, as opposed to a focus on individual achievement

• Expose faculty to potential customers and customer discovery teams, using small $$ grant incentives (a good model are the $50K grants of the NSF I-Corps program)

Theme: Mentoring

MentoringThere is a need for mentors from outside the university to facilitate and negotiate commercialization

• Bring in mentors from the “field”, e.g. social and other entrepreneurs, into academic education

• Integrate mentors from Industry into the academic process (both Research and Education)

• Such mentors can help academics commercialize, and also show the needs that should be responded to

• Provide mentorship to students as well as to faculty

Theme: Bringing Business and Academia together

Bringing Business and Academia together

• Create more opportunities for faculty to meet others (outside their site) including business development people, TTO’s, and potential customers

• Hold events that bring inventors, funders and strategic partners together – with food and drinks

• Identify and mobilize brokers between research bodies and investors/industry

• Bring business development people closer to researchers

Theme: Technology Transfer Offices

Technology Transfer Offices• Today’s TTOs are seen by industry as an obstacle to cooperation

• We need to streamline the TTO’s role as a mediator

• TTOs need more transparency and clarity of the “rules of the game”: VCs never know what they have coming when entering a negotiation with a TTO

• We need agreed norms of consideration – a combination of reasonable equity and royalties. These norms would come from an open discussion between industry and academia

• TTOs should be much more inclusive in departments – located with faculty, not outside

Theme: Balancing Basic and Applied research

Image: Nikodem Nijaki

Balancing Basic and Applied research• A tricky issue: we need interaction between industry and academia,

but must also protect academia and its freedom to act and research

• Put in place a culture of industrial entrepreneurship within the university (while letting each researcher decide whether to do basic or applied research)

• Universities should work on different revenue sources and not necessarily from tech transfer

• Strengthen the influence of industry on university research – through funding, research subject selection and curriculum. This will lead to new innovation, make the research more concrete without disturbing basic research

Bonus: other ideas from the teams• Provide to academics tool kits for venture (legal, financial,

business planning frameworks)

• Apply Globalization by involving multi-nationals, people from outside the country, in startup teams

• Distinguish between good and bad research, rather than between applied and basic research as done until today

• Better harnessing of alumni is needed