{"id":513,"date":"2024-09-18T14:44:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/?p=513"},"modified":"2025-03-26T19:14:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T19:14:38","slug":"how-universities-can-unlock-their-entrepreneurial-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/how-universities-can-unlock-their-entrepreneurial-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"How universities can unlock their entrepreneurial potential"},"content":{"rendered":"
A view of the university of Berkley, where the idea of the personal computer first emerged.<\/span> Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Universities do more than just teach and conduct research \u2013 they\u2019re where some of the most audacious ideas are ignited, eventually finding their way into the private sector and our everyday lives. Take Stanford and UC Berkeley, for example, which have become symbols of how universities can power innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The emblematic interaction between Stanford\u2019s Prof. Frederick Terman, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard<\/a> did not only lead to the emergence of HP\u2019s success story in Hewlett and Packard\u2019s garage, but also to the very notion of science parks. The Silicon Valley emerged as the reference for symbiotic development of an ecosystem focused on innovation thanks to interactions with Stanford and UC Berkeley. Today, corporations such as the aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, Tesla Motors, smart home product manufacturer Nest Labs, software company NVidia, Apple and Google all have headquarters and research facilities around Palo Alto, the world\u2019s dream destination for any innovation specialist. Personal computers emerged there. And it remains a major research hub for AI and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

France still lagging behind<\/h2>\n

In France, public authorities have long supported universities in expanding their role beyond education and research. The \u201cthird mission\u201d of universities covers all activities performed to impact society or transform basic research into innovation. Recently, the French government boosted these efforts by setting up University Innovation Poles<\/a> (PUI)), investing \u20ac166\u00a0million to create 25 PUIs in 2023. But unlocking the full potential of universities in local innovation ecosystems demands a major strategic shift, with universities rethinking how they operate.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Deeptech division of Bpifrance (the French agency in charge of funding innovation-related investments), our research<\/a> shows that activities targeting the development of economic and societal impact are most often side-products mandated in the response to calls for tender about education or research issued by national and European public authorities. It turns out that the \u201cthird mission\u201d of universities results in the accumulation of opportunistic projects that neither build a strategy, nor a focal position for the university in the dynamics of an ecosystem. Our research has identified major issues to unlock and key success factors.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to release universities\u2019 innovation potential, we\u2019ll need to go beyond the old reflex of improving culture and organisation in research labs, or launching new training programs. Becoming an entrepreneurial university<\/a> requires tapping into all of a university\u2019s resources \u2013 human, technological and physical \u2013 toward innovation. In France, there\u2019s still work to be done.<\/p>\n

Issues to address and potential solutions<\/h2>\n

For one, universities need physical spaces that align with the fast pace of innovation. The \u201cthird mission\u201d needs totem places dedicated to innovation, fit to host events promoting startups and new technologies, or meetings discussing new solutions transforming life in society. The totem places must offer areas for interactions between academics and practitioners, and coworking spaces for startups. Places like the Universit\u00e9 de Bordeaux\u2019s SMART building<\/a> show what\u2019s possible, and the relevance of hosting all these functions inside the same facilities easily identified inside the business and research community. Similar projects elaborate on fab\u00a0labs at the the University of Cergy Pontoise<\/a>. They open up opportunities for students, researchers and the civil society to collaborate.<\/p>\n

To foster innovation, universities must break free from their traditional ways of working. To support student entrepreneurship, encouraging collaboration across disciplines is crucial. Coordinating the timetables of different courses will prove to be a headache, but the absence of cross-fertilisation between students can stifle student-led ventures. Students and faculty members face a long list of practical challenges when they try to develop incubation activities or to organise hackathons.<\/p>\n

Another challenge is staffing. Universities need skilled professionals to manage incubation programmes, run innovation centres and interact with the local business ecosystem. All these roles can eventually be assigned to traditional faculty members, but they represent original managerial competences that should be staffed with specialised people. These roles do not fit into the standard human resource management patterns framed by research or education. Universities do not know how to pay salaries matching the standards of the market, or cannot propose long-term contracts ensuring service continuity. This applies to engineers supporting the use of technological platforms: wages are most often funded thanks to short-term education or research grants (two to five years). Similar difficulties exist for business developers scouting for the diffusion of research results and tech projects. These roles are fundamental components of the \u201cthird mission\u201d but positions are tough to fill and staff is even harder to retain.<\/p>\n

Finally, universities need to encourage the participation of faculty members in innovation initiatives. This ranges from creating start-ups to mentoring student entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, these activities aren\u2019t always valued in academic careers. In France, and in many other European countries, individual performance evaluations focus on lectures, administrative duties and track records of publications in peer-reviewed journals, with no points granted for contributions to the \u201cthird mission\u201d. This change in assessments could be introduced either by local universities, or mandated by national bodies, but it represents a key success factor to scale up.<\/p>\n

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Going local<\/h2>\n

Universities local resources must be adapted to the strengths and weaknesses of local business and innovation ecosystems. Take Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes<\/a>, which runs Biopolis<\/a>, a biotech hub. Its location near research labs makes it a perfect fit for the region, but replicating this in other areas, like Bordeaux, where similar facilities already exist, would be redundant. Universities need to vary their activities depending on the dynamics of each local ecosystem and existing infrastructures, and offer services that do not yet locally exist.<\/p>\n

The perimeter of the university\u2019s strategy must tailor its action plan to local needs rather than follow a one-size-fits-all approach. While some ecosystems may focus on services for deep tech startups, others might require technology platforms<\/a>, or services tailored to small businesses. Universities like Cercy Pontoise<\/a> are already pioneering such initiatives.<\/p>\n

For these strategies to work, universities need to collaborate with local stakeholders \u2013 businesses, associations and public authorities.<\/p>\n

In Grenoble, for example, while Biopolis is operated by the Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, part of the site\u2019s premises is used as a venue for exchanges and a showroom run by the MedicAlps cluster<\/a>, which is dedicated to the region\u2019s medical technology sector.<\/p>\n

The risk of spreading too thin<\/h2>\n

France\u2019s universities are not equally equipped. They demonstrate a true dynamism with numerous initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, but they currently face a sort of glass ceiling: at present, less than 10% of students participate in entrepreneurship programs.<\/p>\n

Each university has the potential to be a central force in its ecosystem. A successful \u201cthird mission\u201d does not require the whole Stanford-Berkeley model to be reproduced everywhere. The French vision still promotes the idea of generalist universities in each region, small or large. Spreading resources too thin and trying to do too much everywhere lead to diluted impact. Instead, universities should focus on areas where they can truly make a difference, scaling up local initiatives and matching the local ecosystem\u2019s specialisation.<\/p>\n

To unlock the scale and impact needed for success, French universities need to avoid scattering their resources, to unlock their administrative processes, to broaden up performance criteria evaluated for faculty members, and to concentrate efforts and budgets on specialised research areas.<\/p>\n

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The European Academy of Management (EURAM) is a learned society founded in 2001. With over 2,000 members from 60 countries in Europe and beyond, EURAM aims at advancing the academic discipline of management in Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Val\u00e9rie M\u00e9rindol's research on the 'third mission' of universities is funded by BPIfrance.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

David W. Versailles a re\u00e7u des financements de BPIFRANCE pour le d\u00e9veloppement de cette recherche. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of the university of Berkley, where the idea of the personal computer first emerged. Shutterstock Universities do more than just teach and conduct research \u2013 they\u2019re where some of the most audacious ideas are ignited, eventually finding their way into the private sector and our everyday lives. Take Stanford and UC Berkeley, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horoscope-conseil.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}