The Purdue-Fraunhofer team is exploring how US universities can better support innovation by applying principles developed by Fraunhofer, a global leader in applied research. Fraunhofer has developed market-facing approaches to accelerating the conversion of knowledge to value. The team is piloting these ideas at NJIT and developing agile innovation platforms to more smoothly connect technological development to market opportunities through university collaboration. Universities have the assets to build innovation ecosystems beyond commercializing IP by linking firms to technology development and market opportunities.

1. How can U.S. universities develop their innovation
ecosystems following market-tested principles developed by
Fraunhofer? A Purdue-Fraunhofer team has been exploring
this question. A global leader in innovation, Fraunhofer
represents a network of 67 research institutes that has
generated some of the world’s most successful applied
research initiatives.
The ideas from the Purdue-Fraunhofer team are now being
deployed in a pilot program at the New Jersey Institute of
Technology. Here are some insights from the work so far:
• Innovation, the process of creating value from ideas,
represents a set of disciplines. These disciplines, when
properly practiced and deployed, create a continuous
loop of development between technologies and markets.
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Fraunhofer IAO:
Jaochim Warschat
joachim.warschat@iao.fraunhofer.de
Antonino Ardillio
antonino.ardilio@iao.fraunhofer.de
Purdue University:
Ed Morrison
edmorrison@purdue.edu
Scott Hutcheson
hutcheson@purdue.edu
Duane Dunlap
ddunlap@purdue.edu
Leveraging universities
to accelerate innovation
A small team from Purdue and Fraunhofer IAO has been
exploring how U.S. universities can support innovation more
productively. Here are some insights.

2. • In the past 10 years, the availability of computing power
and big data has opened the door to creating highly
productive new approaches to systematic innovation.
• We can think of a technology for a manufacturing firm as
consisting of two components: processes and materials.
For a service firm, technology consists of a process and
some form of data or information. These definitions,
although abstract, open the door to innovation
opportunities.
• For example, U.S. manufacturers focus too much on the
products they produce, not the technologies they have
mastered. Because this view of their business is too
confining, they do not see potential new market
opportunities very clearly. The same is generally true for
service-based businesses.
• For most technology-related businesses, the starting
point of their innovation journey begins by characterizing
their technology in a far more detailed way.
• Universities have a vital role to play in accelerating U.S.
innovation, but this role is not well understood or
practiced. Innovation involves far more than
commercializing intellectual property.
• Universities have large inventories of unused patents.
These inventories represent a significant investment for
which there is little return. New, more disciplined
approaches to innovation can be applied to evaluate and
identify promising market opportunities for existing
patents.
• Identifying and addressing new market opportunities for
a specific technology requires an infrastructure that most
small and medium-size firms do not have. Universities
can fill the gap.
• However, in order for universities to support growth
among small and mid-sized enterprises they must develop
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Universities have developed research
systems to convert money
(government grants, mostly) into
knowledge. Yet, their innovation
systems — to convert knowledge into
money — need more extensive
development, beyond promoting
technology transfer and encouraging
start-ups. For universities, government
funds the lower half of the circle, while
the market funds the top half.
Fraunhofer has developed “market-
facing” principles to accelerate the
conversion of knowledge into money.
The Purdue-Fraunhofer team is
adapting these principles to
strengthen U.S. universities.
The New Jersey Innovation Institute
is piloting ideas developed by the
Purdue-Fraunhofer team.

3. a new type of infrastructure around their campuses. The
good news is that this innovation infrastructure does not
require major new investments to start. Most universities
already possess all the assets with which to develop this
infrastructure.
• To date, most universities have focused on their start-up
ecosystems. They have not focused on their innovation
ecosystems designed to accelerate growth among existing
companies. Start-up ecosystems and innovation
ecosystems are significantly different from one another.
• Accelerating innovation among existing firms is likely to
have far more significant regional impact than focusing
on start-ups, but a university should do both.
• Developing a university-based innovation infrastructure
involves integrating different types of disciplines,
frameworks, smart data platforms and data visualization,
all designed to link technology and market development
on platforms. Firms need ready access to these platforms,
but they cannot build and support them alone. That is
where the university comes in. Universities have the
assets to develop these innovation platforms to support
high-growth firms.
• A focus on innovation ecosystems represents a new
direction for most universities. Traditionally, a university
research system is designed to take money and convert it
into knowledge. And innovation ecosystem converts
knowledge into money, a fundamentally different focus
and flow with which universities are generally unfamiliar.
• Building an innovation ecosystem around the university
campus should be done carefully. Universities have
sensitive immune systems that, ironically, attack new,
potentially disruptive ideas. Shrinking budgets make this
immune system even more sensitive. Successful
innovation ecosystems will emerge through continuous
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Connecting technology development to
market opportunities is a major challenge.
Technologies are both converging and
shifting faster than markets develop.
Universities can smooth the process.

4. experimentation: small, promising collaborations that
grow over time.
Developing agile innovation
platforms
The small Purdue/Fraunhofer team is integrating Purdue’s
work in agile strategy — Strategic Doing — with Fraunhofer’s
sophisticated innovation and technology management
platforms. The team is focused on designing a new 4D model
of university-based innovation: modular platforms that are
practical, scalable, flexible and agile. On these platforms,
complex collaborations can quickly form. These innovation
platforms — customized to each university’s portfolio of
innovation assets — would be designed around market-tested
tools, simple rules and the discipline of relentless
experimentation to explore complex, shifting market
opportunities. They combine the extensive innovation assets
of U.S. universities with the market-facing principles,
frameworks and disciplines that Fraunhofer has pioneered.
About Fraunhofer IAO
Fraunhofer, based in Germany, represents a network of 67
research institutes and over 23,000 employees focused on
applied research. Most of the Fraunhofer institutes
concentrate on a specific area of technology development.
Fraunhofer IAO, based in Stuttgart, focuses on innovation
and technology management across technologies.
Learn more
If you are interested in learning more about Purdue’s work on
technology and innovation management with Fraunhofer
IAO, contact Ed Morrison (edmorrison@purdue.edu) or
Scott Hutcheson (hutcheson@purdue.edu). Please put
“Purdue-Fraunhofer” in the subject line of your e-mail.
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