Incubators as enablers for academic entrepreneurship

The key questions that academics are struggling with are: can one teach entrepreneurship and how can it be embedded into a science, technology or engineering curriculum while maintaining high academic standards. Furthermore, prior research has pointed to a mismatch between the competencies of the highest educated and most specialised students of our academic system and the expectations of the (corporate) market (Anseel, 2012; De Grande, De Boyser, Vandevelde et al, 2011). Therefore, this paper investigates the opportunities offered by 'learning-by-doing' in an ecosystem perspective. The organisation iMinds somehow acts as network integrator for research and entrepreneurship in ICT in Flanders. In this role, iMinds collaborates with universities and university colleges and other actors in the ecosystem supporting entrepreneurship. The various mechanisms deployed to support entrepreneurship and the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst (under) graduate students are analysed. These include extra-curricular activities (workshop and coaching series). Additionally, these activities are embedded in and intertwined with the development of entrepreneurial behaviour and skills in the classical curriculum using new learning methods. Some examples can be found at Karel de Grote University College (the so-called 'The Company' minor) and at Ghent University ('student-entrepreneur' status). The enabler to drive this evolution forward is the inclusion of incubators as part of the learning system. Students that want to start a business can spend 2 years on an MBA or join an incubator; the latter generally being accepted as a faster and more effective way of learning. Results can be seen at three levels. Firstly, it results in an increased awareness of entrepreneurship as viable career opportunity. Secondly, these programs increase the number of student start-ups, which additionally are better equipped to grow and prosper. Since the program's start in 2011, iMinds has received eight applications for student start-ups and has supported four. Furthermore, about 25 students have made use of the (physical) incubator space. Thirdly, this ecosystem approach results in an increased cooperation between universities (e.g., at the level of doctoral schools) and with other network actors, leading to spillover effects and more effective use of proceeds. The universities of the future will intertwine academic education with entrepreneurship. The end goal should not be that all students become entrepreneurs, but the development of entrepreneurial skills will be beneficial to all stakeholders. This requires collaboration with these stakeholders in the ecosystem, including incubators as further enablers of entrepreneurial behaviour

R&D Spin-outs in the pharmaceutical industry

The high number of research and development (R&D) spin-outs in the pharmaceutical industry during the last 10 years focusing on drug development or offering specialised services demonstrates that pharmaceutical companies believe, through doing this, they can improve R&D performance. In a study, 43 European drug development as well as service oriented R&D spin-outs were analysed with regard to background, impact, realisation and the underlying strategy of the pharmaceutical parent companies. Spin-out creation can help to refocus the company strategy. Following a merger or simply complementing a strategic realignment on core areas, spin-outs provide a valuable option to leverage assets of low strategic importance, or under-exploited assets in their parent companies. Key aspects are strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit, a clear focus on core activities, performance-oriented controlling through cash-driven key indicators, high identification with the company, and appropriate financial incentives for management and staff.<br

A structured approach to academic technology transfer : lessons learned from imec's 101 programme

In this article, we describe imec’s 101 Programme for academic technology transfer and explain how it supports researchers by following a structured process in a limited amount of time and by carefully involving different stakeholders and people with relevant skills and expertise. The programme combines insights in terms of processes and of team composition from the entrepreneurship literature and puts them into practice in an internal incubation programme that is generated from the bottom-up. Based on hands-on experiences and interviews with key stakeholders in the process, we evaluate the programme and distill lessons learned. The article highlights the importance of a structured technology transfer process in the early stages of opportunity discovery and entrepreneurial action, and it offers insights on team formation for academic spin-offs

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Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Studentenparticipatie als een strategie om leiderschapskwaliteiten te ontwikkelen

België is een van de weinige landen ter wereld waar de graad van studentenparticipatie in de opleiding geneeskunde zo hoog ligt. In deze studie gaan we na in hoeverre de studentenparticipatie kan bijdragen aan het ontwikkelen van leiderskwaliteiten die van belang zijn voor een arts. Studentenvertegenwoordigers uit de opleiding geneeskunde aan de Vlaamse universiteiten werden een vragenlijst voorgelegd. Uit de vragenlijst blijkt dat bepaalde competenties aangeleerd worden dankzij het engagement van de student. Deze vaardigheden kunnen bijdragen tot een goede ontwikkeling van een arts die kan inspelen op de noden van de maatschappij

Kinetic profiling of novel spirobenzo-oxazinepiperidinone derivatives as equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 inhibitors

Evaluation of kinetic parameters of drug-target binding, kon, koff, and residence time (RT), in addition to the traditional in vitro parameter of affinity is receiving increasing attention in the early stages of drug discovery. Target binding kinetics emerges as a meaningful concept for the evaluation of a ligand's duration of action and more generally drug efficacy and safety. We report the biological evaluation of a novel series of spirobenzo-oxazinepiperidinone derivatives as inhibitors of the human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1, SLC29A1). The compounds were evaluated in radioligand binding experiments, i.e., displacement, competition association, and washout assays, to evaluate their affinity and binding kinetic parameters. We also linked these pharmacological parameters to the compounds' chemical characteristics, and learned that separate moieties of the molecules governed target affinity and binding kinetics. Among the 29 compounds tested, 28 stood out with high affinity and a long residence time of 87 min. These findings reveal the importance of supplementing affinity data with binding kinetics at transport proteins such as hENT1.Medicinal Chemistr