Advancing Innovation and Enterpreneurship

Monday, October 03, 2005

Paula Stephan and Orna Berry keynote speeches available.

The final two keynote speeches (Paula Stephan and Orna Berry) are now available for download.

http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=642

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Mowery keynote available

David Mowery's keynote speech is now available for download.

http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=642

Carl Schramm and Josh Lerner keynotes available

The keynote speeches by Carl Schramm and Josh Lerner are now available for download.

http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=642

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Keynote speeches available for download

Keynote speeches from the Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference will be available via streaming media and for download. The audio files will not be available immediately following the speeches, but announcements will be posted on the blog when they are.

For a direct link, click below:
http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=642

Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Carl J. Schramm
President and CEO, Kauffman Foundation
 
Our Broken Patent System
Professor Josh Lerner, Harvard University
 
Bayh-Dole After 25 Years
Professor David Mowery, University of California at Berkeley
 
A State of Innovation
Dr. Orna Berry, Gemini Israel Funds 
 
The Entrepreneurial Puzzle: Exploring the Gender Gap
Professor Paula Stephan, Georgia State University

Introduction to iBridge

The iBridge program is a web-based platform designed to facilitate the licensing and sharing of technology discoveries from university laboratories. The iBridge application will serve as a clearinghouse for university innovation and provide an additional channel through which researchers can disseminate university-developed innovations, research methods and findings. iBridge is a program of the Kauffman Innovation Network, an initiative created by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to advance innovations through education about best practices, research and fellowships.
www.innovationbridge.org

Specifically, the iBridge application is designed to ease the transaction burden on university technology transfer offices and encourage more open and efficient access to research by academics and other interested parties. The program also aims to expand the number and scope of collaborative relationships by increasing awareness of existing research across the country and facilitating exchanges among those who are conducting and/or using the research. Studies indicate that such relationships are a critical component in advancing new discoveries and may likely lead to even more ideas and inventions, in turn generating greater innovation potential and collectively fueling more entrepreneurial ventures around the country.

The flexible nature of the iBridge platform allows universities to adapt it in ways that best complement their existing processes for collaboration and technology transfer. Universities may use the iBridge application to license and distribute a variety of information, including software, research tools, databases, teaching materials, surveys, and reference materials, that by themselves do not rise to the level of an innovation home run.  Postings may also include a variety of research artifacts, as well as descriptions of ongoing research activities.

The iBridge? application initially will be piloted by selected universities throughout the United States, including Washington University in St. Louis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Cornell University and the University of Kansas.  It is expected that a total of seven U.S. universities will participate in the initial pilot in the coming months.
www.innovationbridge.org

Feel free to visit the site and comment on iBridge.

Do you believe alternative pathways are required to facilitate innovation?

TTO principles for success

Traditional technology transfer is one pathway for university innovation. What are specific principles for success in technology transfer offices?

Policies and Practices for Incubators

While the Kauffman Foundation was a funder of the original National Association of Business Incubators, the effectiveness of incubators and research parks has been mixed. Have the conference sessions highlighted policies and practices for success with research parks and incubators?

Kauffman Campuses

Through the Kauffman Campuses initiative, the Kauffman Foundation awarded grants to eight U.S. universities that pledged to make entrepreneurship education available across campus, transforming the way entrepreneurship is viewed, taught and experienced. While entrepreneurship programs traditionally have been the domain of the business school, the eight Kauffman Campuses schools boldly proposed to create campus-wide entrepreneurial experiences that could affect hundreds of thousands of students.

What types of interdisciplinary activities advance innovation in a meaningful way?

Gender gap in faculty disclosures

In a study of 12 major universities over a 17-year period, Thursby and Thursby* documented research disclosures by tenured faculty with respect to gender. When controlling for number of publications, male scientists were still 43% more likely to disclose innovations. While there is some convergence in this data (in the last four years of the study, male scientists were 33% more likely to disclose innovations), female scientists still trail their male counterparts significantly.
What are the contributing factors and possible solutions? What are future research needs?

 * Thursby, Jerry G. and Marie Thursby. 2004. Gender Patterns of Research and Licensing Activity of Science and Engineering Faculty: A Report to the Kauffman Foundation.

Global innovation policy and collaboration

In our flattening world, innovation is an inherently global phenomenon. Countries across the world have created successful innovation engines. The Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference specifically discusses the United Kingdom and Israel.

As communities work both globally and domestically to advance innovation and entrepreneurship, they look to the policies of their peers for guidance. Such international policy emulation could be dangerous if it ignores the other financial, societal, and culture influences of the country or region.

How have conference sessions influenced your perspective on global innovation (especially with respect to technology policy)?
How can global collaboration between academia, industry, and government enhance and/or accelerate innovation?