The document summarizes insights from the Univenture2015 workshop about how universities should adapt to changes in venture opportunities. Key themes discussed included the need for: interdisciplinary research that bridges fields; changes to teaching curriculum and methods to include more entrepreneurship education and hands-on learning; new incentive structures that reward collaboration over individual achievements; mentoring from industry; better connections between business and academia; streamlining technology transfer offices; and balancing basic and applied research while protecting academic freedom. The workshop brought together academics, university officials, venture capitalists, and other stakeholders.

1. Insights from Univenture2015
Nathan Zeldes
Nov. 30, 2016

2. 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

3. The Univenture2015 Workshop

4. Main themes in the teams’ output
So 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

5. Theme:
We need interdisciplinary research

6. 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

7. Theme:
Teaching curriculum should change

8. 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

9. Theme:
Teaching methods should change

10. 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

11. Theme:
We need a new incentive structure

12. 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)

13. Theme:
Mentoring

14. Mentoring
There 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

15. Theme:
Bringing Business and Academia together

16. 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

17. Theme:
Technology Transfer Offices

18. 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

19. Theme:
Balancing Basic and Applied research
Image: Nikodem Nijaki

20. 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

21. 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