Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers

Examines the gender gap in the number of successful start-ups, its implications for job creation, and misconceptions about and factors behind barriers to women's entrepreneurship. Recommends steps to cultivate high-growth start-ups among women

The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different From Men?

Compares characteristics of successful entrepreneurs by gender, including education, motives for becoming entrepreneurs, views on the role of prior experience, the importance of human and social capital, sources of financial capital, and challenges

Commercializing University Innovations: A Better Way

With the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, the federal government explicitly endorsed the transfer of exclusive control over government-funded inventions to universities and businesses operating with federal contracts. While this legislation was intended to accelerate further development and commercialization of the ideas and inventions developed under federal contracts, the government did not provide any strategy, process, tools, or resources to shepherd innovations from the halls of academia into the commercial market. And more than twenty-five years later, it is clear that few universities have established an overall strategy to foster innovation, commercialization, and spillovers. Multiple pathways for university innovation exist and can be codified to provide broader access to innovation, allow a greater volume of deal flow, support standardization, and decrease the redundancy of innovation and the cycle time for commercialization. Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) were envisioned as gateways to facilitate the flow of innovation but have instead become gatekeepers that in many cases constrain the flow of inventions and frustrate faculty, entrepreneurs, and industry. The proposed changes focus on creating incentives that will maximize social benefit from the existing investments being made in R&D and commercialization on university campuses.

Assessing Risk and Return: Personalized Medicine Development & New Innovation Paradigm

Outlines how focusing on subpopulations with biomarkers could make the pre-clinical and clinical phases of drug innovation more efficient and create economic returns. Looks at collaborations with nonprofits to reduce risk and secure early-stage funding

Finding Business "Idols": A New Model to Accelerate Start-Ups

Explores a novel approach to finding high-tech entrepreneurial enterprises that is transforming how high-tech entrepreneurs are identified, their businesses launched, and the growth of their operations accelerated

Commercializing University Innovations: A Better Way

Argues that university leadership must refocus its attention from a revenue-driven patent/licensing model to an approach that emphasizes the quantity, viability, and rapid commercial potential of scientific and technological innovations

Building Innovative Corporate-Academic Partnerships: What is Needed?

System requirements: Windows Media Player version 9 or above.The panelists presented corporate perspectives on the building blocks necessary to sustain innovative, profitable partnerships