EUBIC LEARNING CAMPMay 15-17 2014, Finland

EUBIC Learning Camp gathered together more than a dozen experts on university-business-cooperation in May 2014 in Porvoo, Finland. !Purpose of the event was to create a forum for the participants to meet and share experiences as much as possible - to go beyond from ”benchmarking” to ”benchlearning”. !This document features some of the discussions and findings from the camp. Presentations are available from EUBIC website eubic.fi/en/ or via this link: http://bit.ly/eubic-material !We wish thank you all the participants for your enthusiasm and spirit! !!Facilitators of EUBIC Learning Camp, !Mikko Markkanen, mikko.markkanen@businessarena.fi !Toni Pienonen, toni.pienonen@businessarena.fi

SOME OF THE QUESTIONS

THE CAMP SET OUT TO TAKCLE

”Word ’commercialization’ is misunderstood. Each system has its own language - it’s only natural we don’t understand each other.” !

”Anyone working in university-business-cooperation has a huge task in marketing. Every time. Reporting things in a way that everyone understands it - telling in layman terms what you’re doing. Otherwise no one knows what you are about.”

!”Whole education system was designed for industrial society. Manufacturing. Current business world needs a different logic.” !

”World is changing - education is changing. What they teach at university is often outdated. I need the latest knowledge - where do I learn it? In practice.”

!”We need to understand concepts and systems. This is what companies are doing. Traditional education system puts things into separate silos, we don’t want that. Project-based learning creates teams - that’s the key!” !

”Landscape of business life has disintegrated into smaller companies - this challenges the ways of UBC.” !

”Estonia is excellent in sourcing ideas from elsewhere and putting the pieces together. That’s one the reasons for our success.”

DISCUSSION AND OBSERVATIONS

”If you do all services free of charge, for companies there’s less commitment and perceived benefits. Don’t do it!” !

”TU Berlin: Strategic focus on responding to societal challenges in the university vision.” !

”Steering groups should be held accountable for the results of the projects, like company boards.” !

”Commercialization is often too much focused on personal idea. Especially in social sciences we need to solve complex challenges, that bring together multidisciplinary teams.”

!”In Estonia there isn’t going back to old ways. Change is accepted. Such an environment drives things ahead - and we need to nurture it!” !

”Universities should use students as door openers between university and business - more focus on the ”after sales”, shared learning. Where is the customer relationship management of internships, projects and thesis work?” !

”How do we increase the (temporary) people flow between universities and business, the role of universities in businesses’ strategy, and involve university representatives in strategic decision-making?”

Observation from Central Finland: promoting UBC is about culture. Those tasked with promoting it within their university, should lead the

change from inwards via key individuals.

Don’t lead the massesLead the key individuals,

resource them, make success stories and cases visible

EXISTING MODELS AND SOLUTIONS THAT WERE PRESENTED /

DISCUSSED ABOUT AT THE CAMP

• Ground-breaking in the Finnish ecosystem • Student-driven, independent of Aalto University activities • Exceptional investor / mentor network on international scale; Startup Sauna is able to

reach the right people, helping start-ups to learn from them - very valuable experience !Clear offering: easy to sell !• Startup Sauna recruits all around Scandinavia, Russia and Baltics • Essentially about couple months of intensive start-up building: hype, culture,

responding to changes in global employment market (young people don’t see long careers in established businesses)

!Barriers and limitations !• Offering is clear, but quite limited: any applicant attending the program needs to create

a product in few months. • Too short time for many valuable cases. If you are already past this early-stage point,

the program doesn’t have that much to offer to you. This rules out several potential businesses.

• Limitations are more evident when it comes to resource-intensive ideas. That’s where Startup Sauna is failing at; good research that could be commercialized, brought to the markets, but Startup Sauna is not the right tool for that. it lacks long term commitment.

!How to improve upon and make use of Startup Sauna?

• Aalto and other universities should make use of the networks from Startup Sauna and create a parallel track for more research-oriented commercializations that need more time to develop.

(FINLAND)

Prototron (Estonia)

!INPUT: What is needed to make activity happen (resources, people, information)? !!- Prototype ideas (tangible product required, around 50% IT / 50% everything else)!!- Money and business angels (Swedbank uses Prototron as a marketing tool, snow-ball effect that accumulates resources)!!- Selection committee from ecosystem: finance, uni, businesses, different fields

Who organizes the activity?!

- Tehnopol science park, Tallinn Univeristy of Technology, etc (steering committee)!!!What takes place during the activity?!

- Selection & coaching -> business model!- Process of improving the idea!

!!Scale of the activity?!

- 4 rounds, total 400 proposals!

- 12 ideas are funded

OUTPUT: What are the practical results and outcomes? !- 12 funded ideas!

!- free publicity!

!!- shortcut to incubators!

!- business angel network, fiannces

Mektory (Estonia)

!INPUT: What is needed to make activity happen (resources, people, information)? !!-Competition to activate students and help them generate good ideas -> winning prize: trip to Silicon Valley!

-Students with good business ideas -Sponsors 20-30 (Estonian-based companies) -Professors and univeristy sends students to Mektory

Who organizes the activity?!

- Innovation and business centre of Tallinn University of Technology, 4 people!

!!What takes place during the activity?!

-Marketing + competition -Workshops, meetings, seminars, prototyping -4-6 events / day!

!!Scale of the activity?!

- 4 rounds, total 400 proposals!

- 10 ideas are funded

OUTPUT: What are the practical results and outcomes? !-around 10 spin off business ideas -new way of working with university -potential game changer

PORVOO CAMPUS Haaga-Helia and Laurea universities of applied sciences !Inquiry-based learning: students learn by doing real projects for businesses. In total, the campus has around 60 commissions / year. !

”We don’t teach just basic skills, but meta competencies (teamwork, communication, etc). Learning happens outside the school.” !”We are all learners here in the same process - students, teachers and business.”

Before, teachers were used to working alone. Not anymore. Teachers spend a lot of time learning from students and businesses - and on the field, enabling projects. !!

”innoSPICE is a standard based model for innovation, knowledge- and technology transfer. It is an evaluation procedure that can help knowledge-intense institutions generate more innovation while helping investors and research institutions optimize public funds to achieve economic added value.” !

http://innospice.ning.com/

(Finland)

• Market/problem driven taken for granted

• Generation of ideas on open forums always free implementation

• Options to form projects according to types of innovations:

– 100% public projects with major share of public funding, access to results and rights

– ”Cluster projects” for groups of companies wanting to share results and IP

– 100% confidential projects executed under strict non-confidentiality agreements, IP ownership of results always transferred to clients

NEW SOLUTIONS CREATED BY CAMP PARTICIPANTS

”SOCIAL ARTICULATOR”Sari L. Siemon S. Solveig R. Corinna M.

MARKET PULL

Touchpoints with students

and researchers of social sciences

& ”hard sciences”

SERVICE SOCIAL ARTICULATOR

OUTCOMES !!

• Solutions for businesses, public sector and society !

• Students finding their own path and ways to use their expertise, new student businesses

!• Company spin-outs !

• Research projects !

• Contracted projects !

• New IPR (no patents, but concepts, brands, etc.)

Wicked problems

Social issues

Real-life problems from business / public / NGO

- especially important in the beginning to get some good ones

Industry, society, service sector, politics, etc. present real-life problems that need solving

SOCIAL MIXING CHAMBER

!Facilitating and accommodating

solutions for societal problems, e.g ”how to deal with robotics in

real-life” !

→ proof-of-concept projects, etc.

Service organizes communication, bringing people together, facilitation, problem

identification, dissemination of ideas, contract formation

Here’s the catch! As a general rule, students and researchers of social sciences are more interested in societal impact, rather than ”money making” - this

needs to be reflected in the marketing.

Sari L. Siemon S. Solveig R. Corinna M.

”NETWORKING PROGRAM”

Kaisa K. Kersti P. Mikko K.

Evariste H.

Networking  Program

Question:  How  many  relevant  business  contacts  does  a  resercher  have?  !

Answer:  X?  !

!

…Not  enough  -­‐  it  needs  to  be  at  least  10X!  !

!

Networking  Program

How  to  get  to  10X?  1. Measure  no  of  contacts,  evaluate  relevance  2. Set  new  targets  individually,  to  the  team,  faculty  etc.  Define  

networking  as  KPI.  3. Set  individual  plans  to  enhance  networking  and  business  

engagement  !

Actions:     Events,  business  conferences,  workshops,  business  breakfasts,  alumni  engagemeint,  mentorships,  social  media…  What  ever  means  needed  to  find  meaningful  contacts  

!

!

Networking  Program

• Needs:    – Need  for  new  meaningful  contacts  and  cooperation  – Need  to  create  value  to  society  through  economic  activity  – Practical  applications  through  scientific  knowledge    

• Benefits:  – Better  mutual  understanding  of  business  reality  and  the  research  world  – Better  utilisation  of  universities  resources  – Value  co-­‐creation  – Better  understanding  of  the  the  ”big  picture”  – Merging  different  working  cultures  

• Scale  – University  wide,  tailor  made  for  different  fields  of  research  – All  levels,  management  included  

• Barriers  – Lack  of  time;  Contradicting  expectations;  Lack  of  motivation  and  focus;  Cultural  

differences;  Attitude  and  resistance  to  change  –  people  want  to  stay  in  their  comfort  zone

Networking  Program

How  to  test  the  model?  1. Get  some  expertise  in  networking  (guide  and  help  

with  planning,  along  with  support)  2. Apply  to  a  limited  group  ie  a  university  

department  3. Execute  and  monitor  for,  say  6  months  4. Analyse  results,  find  best  practices  5. Evangilise  and  expand  !

”FITNESS TEST”

Anu K. Aivar P. Heidi F.

Marju-Riitta I.

”FITNESS TEST” !Make companies ”active for life”, find common culture and language between universities and companies. Make time and space for co-creation. !

FITNESS TEST • Set of tests:

• interview • focus group • diagnostic tools • service design for fuzzy front end !

PERSONAL TRAINER - goal setting, NABC - wellbeing agreenment = next steps - R&D needs

!”EXERCISE ROULETTE” ACTIVITIES, 1-6 MONTHS

- For one company, similar companies or ones with similar issues

- 1: Beginners - 2: Intermediate - 3: Advanced

- Funding, project leader, research, development, prototypes and products

WHAT NEXT?

• If you were to test these different solutions in a new project with international partners, here are few thoughts how you could organize the lifespan of the project to make development more agile

!

• Our suggestion: don’t freeze everything in the project plan, make sure it allows iteration and experimentation-driven development

!

• ”Think BIG, act small” - Anssi

Tuulenmäki

(c) Anssi Tuulenmäki, Aalto University

Keeping in mind the principles of experimentation . . .

FIRST EXPERIMENTS (by yourself) !Experimenting the solutions small scale in different universities / regions. Fail fast, learn fast. Gather customer/user feedback. Analyze and filter out experiences.

SHARING THE EXPERIENCES (together) !Socialization: meet and share experiences, what worked and what didn’t? Externalization: find patterns and differences Combination: create new plans, focus on what worked and move onto bigger scale

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LARGE-SCALE EXPERIMENTS (by yourself) !Internalization: doing, testing !Move forward with those experiments that worked, tweak and adjust.

SHARING EXPERIENCES AGAIN (together) !Socialization: meet and share experiences, what worked and what didn’t with bigger? Externalization: find patterns and differences again Combination: create new plans, focus on what worked, semi-freeze the solutions and launch

€

Plenty of small scale experiments, from 0 EUR to few thousand

Having filtered out those solutions that didn’t work, increasing the scale of experiments

Meeting with other project partners Meeting with other project partners

Analyze the solutions

Filter out the badly performing

solutions

Analyze

Filter out the badly performing

solutions

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”BEST” SOLUTION (by yourself) !Internalization: taking the results into practice with proven and tested models, pooling in the remaining resources

. . . example of how the project could look like?

Pooling in the remaining resources, establishing permanent models with

proven results

RECAP OF THE CAMP What worked? What didn’t? What should be done differently?

What will you take into practice? What did you learn?

”I came with problems, returning home with solutions and ideas. I had never before understood how universities of applied sciences work, putting education and UBC together.”

”I realized Palmenia works like a regional development agency. Same issues.”

”We need people who break the rules.”

”Having entrepreneurs and researchers at the camp would’ve been nice. We were perhaps too much in agreement.”

”Fantastic people!”

”Good people and contacts.”

”Timetables worked very well.””Ecosystem model was bit confusing.”

”Different points of view affect UBC a great deal.”

”Best thing - meeting new people.”

”Good spirit.”

”More compressed time table would’ve been better, no program on Saturday.”

Documentation Toni Pienonen / Business Arena Oy 0400 737 238, toni.pienonen@businessarena.fi