Visit St Louis, Chicago and Boston on Knowlegde Transfer
Wednesday dec 13
Sometimes you need to recharge your batteries. Or in my case: get all fired up again.
The last year and a half, on behalf of StartupDelta, I worked hard on boosting academic startups. I battled with the Ministry of Education and Science trying to get them to focus more on bringing technology to the market and on entrepreneurship in education. I battled with the Dutch Universities Association to get them to strengthen their Technology Transfer Offices and reward scientist who spin out knowledge to companies or start their own companies. And of course that must have helped. But it doesn’t feel like we are making enough progress.
As StartupDelta, we are in a hurry to catch up on the knowledge transfer business. We think there is a huge potential of knowledge that is not getting to society quick enough. In the Netherland 10 universities rank among the 200 best universities of the world! But how many top companies, that came out of that research can you name? Exactly.
We believe that academic startups are a very effective way of getting knowledge to have impact faster and more widespread. And we need smart solutions for the global challenges we are facing and for the Dutch economy to stay up to par. But the Ministry of Eduction and Science and the universities themselves don’t seem to be in a hurry at all. They have been debating the pro’s and con’s on economic valorisation for years.
So even though StartupDelta is pushing and pulling to boost academic startups, I don’t feel it has been very effective yet.
Maybe the battle-strategy I’ve chosen isn’t the right strategy. Maybe we want to go too fast. Or maybe we’re emphasizing what’s missing too much instead of acknowledging the progress universities have made the last 5 to 10 years.
Time to take a step back and examine the facts and learn from the best. So I’m on a plane. Heading towards St Louis. Yes. St Louis. Because there, I’ve been told, they know how to build an ecosystems around the university. With the university as a centerpiece. But with the challenges that the market faces as core, instead of the technologies that come out of the universities.
And after St Louis on Thursday, I’ll go to Chicago on Friday. And then Boston on Monday to talk to Lita Nelsen. Her exit-interview inspired me. She describes the steps MIT has taken over the last 25 to 30 years to get where they are know, as the engine behind so many breakthrough tech companies. And I can’t help but think we are about 25 to 30 years behind on them. But more about that tomorrow!
