Academic Entrepreneurship is a free Open Education Resource that seeks to support and grow a new academic research community of Boundary Spanners – those who work in academia and with industry in order to realize the potential of basic discoveries that support the process of translational research through to commercialization and impact. This ebook is a repository of tools, wisdom and best practice that seeks to democratize innovation regardless of where the academic researcher resides.
There are more than 50 chapters of material, divided across the five major sections: Academia, People, Ideation, IP/Reg, and Finance. View the complete, archived e-book here on ScholarlyCommons or visit the new pubpub edition, complete with multimedia and interactive content.
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Publication Intrapreneurship: Strategic Approaches for Managing Disruptive Innovation in Clinical and Research Projects(2019-10-07) Ackermann, Amanda; Winston, FlauraFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/intrapreneurship/release/1 Academic research and intrapreneurship share many similarities with entrepreneurship but take place within a larger organization. Academic innovation depends on creative problem-solving, risk-taking, and resiliency. Personal and financial resiliency are important attributes of a successful academic entrepreneur and can be cultivated through strategic planning. An organization’s culture of support for innovation, tolerance for failure, and financial resiliency all contribute to promoting the success of academic entrepreneurs.Publication Careers in Academia and Industry: Transitions and Challenges(2019-09-21) Shewale, Swapnil; Winston, FlauraFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/gub9p4a0/release/4 Start the career planning process with self-discovery and feedback from mentors. Understand the setting, culture, organizational structure, and leadership of the organizations under consideration for one’s career. Understand the expectations of potential career paths. For personal development beyond hard knowledge and skills, acquire excellent people skills and a strong network. Careers are dynamic. Maintain flexibility. Moving between environments (academia vs. industry) can be challenging, but those who successfully navigate this do so with extensive planning.Publication Resources at Academic Entrepreneurship Centers(2019-09-23) Kumar, Anupam; Gooneratne, NalakaFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/h2vj88lu/release/3 Universities harbor numerous resources for academic entrepreneurs. Academic entrepreneurship centers differ: the more comprehensive ones provide an array of services that support innovations at all stages of development. Universities often have educational programs to teach faculty about entrepreneurship; usually offered in business schools, they are increasingly being offered in engineering and medical programs. Entrepreneurship education increasingly involves experiential learning. Other entrepreneurial support at academic institutions includes: incubators, accelerators, mentoring, business plan competitions, and other programs that support the creation and maturation of startups. University seed funds can help early-stage startups breach the funding gap and attract new investors. Technology transfer offices (TTOs) focus on intellectual property (IP) protection for innovations stemming from university research, and increasingly provide other services and linkages that support the commercialization of innovations.Publication Clinical and Translational Science Awards(2019-10-08) Coons, Barbara; Gooneratne, NalakaFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/clinical-translational-science-awards/release/2 Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) are large federal grants provided to an academic institution that support education and infrastructure relevant to translational science. CTSA site services, training, and pilot grant funding can benefit researchers at any stage of their career, from trainees to faculty. While all CTSA-funded programs offer support for research and training, the focus and services offered vary by institution.Publication I-Corps as a Training Tool for New Technology Development(2019-09-30) Krysiewicz, Annette; Isakowitz, TomasFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/0g4u9h3q/release/4 Innovation Corps is a program developed by the National Science Foundation where university scientists and students learn entrepreneurial skills that enable them to take their research beyond the laboratory and discover the commercial potential of their innovation. I-Corps Sites, located at several universities, offer shortened curricula to qualify teams for participation in the national I-Corps program (NSF I-Corps Teams). The core topics covered in I-Corps Sites’ curricula teach teams about the importance of customer discovery; the teams are expected to leave the lab and personally interview 20+ potential customers to determine their product-market fit.Publication The Promotion Process: Academic Entrepreneurship Career Tracks(2019-09-18) Marquez, Alexandra M; Winston, FlauraFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/gub9p4a0/release/4 In order to advance their career, junior faculty members with an interest in academic entrepreneurship must maintain a dual focus: entrepreneurial success and academic productivity. A key first step is to choose the appropriate academic track that values and/or allows time for entrepreneurial activities. Then, as with all faculty members, you need to remain aware of the criteria for promotion and maintain and regularly review your dossier to ensure that you are making academic progress. Entrepreneurial activities can be integrated into the academic promotion process but are not traditionally valued. Seek guidance on how best to frame them as part of your dossier. A proactive approach that considers a five-to-seven-year timeline can mitigate stress and help you reach your career goals.Publication Human-Centered Design: Understanding Customers’ Needs Through Discovery and Interviewing(2019-09-30) Hartung, Helge; Rottenberg, SarahFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/9twu80ml/release/3 90% of new products fail as a result of a disconnect between what the customer wants and what the company thinks the customer wants. Human-centered design aims to narrow the gap between customer and company through a deeper understanding of customers and their needs, motivations, and desires. Human-centered design is an iterative process: investigate, ideate, iterate, and implement. Design research focuses on the deep story—to understand the many, deeply understand a few. Human-centered design is a team sport and is learned in the field, with an emphasis on qualitative data collection.Publication Conducting Insightful Market Research(2019-09-30) Sosnowski, MichaelFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/psdorj9y/release/4 Market research can complement early design work, assist with fine-tuning features and pricing, help attract investors, and suggest new directions to explore. It is critical to know where a startup is in the design process, from whom it wants feedback, and what it intends to do with the data gathered. As a general framework, it is useful to think in terms of three main blocks of the product development life cycle—early stage, middle stage, and late stage. Consider seeking help from research professionals whenever possible. There are many measurement-oriented and other practical considerations to account for, and a number of good resources a startup can turn to for help. Good research answers key objectives, and is customized to fit within a startup’s very real time and budget constraints. Addressing key questions up front will lead to more actionable results.Publication Social Entrepreneurship in Healthcare(2019-09-25) Jenssen, BrianFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/d1mu8xl9/release/3 Social entrepreneurship seeks to address targeted problems that may not attract traditional private capital. It leverages concepts employed in traditional entrepreneurship. The five core steps include: define the scope of the venture, attend to the sociopolitics, emphasize discovery-driven planning, plan disengagement, and attempt to anticipate unintended consequences. These steps can be applied to create radically new and profitable markets that help improve the lives of others.Publication Rapid Prototyping Strategies(2019-09-24) Jew, Olivia; Rosin, RoyFor latest version: please go to https://academicentrepreneurship.pubpub.org/pub/kwi92jih/release/2 Rapid prototyping allows a startup to test various versions or models of its idea in short iteration cycles. The intent of rapid prototyping is to learn from each iteration and avoid expensive mistakes that can result from untested assumptions. There are three main categories for rapid prototyping, and each category represents an essential question critical to success. First, does anyone want what you plan to do? Second, how will they interact with it? Finally, will it achieve a meaningful impact, moving the needle that customers want to see move? These three key questions map to three types of strategies: vapor tests, fake front-ends, and fake back-ends.