SCIENCE NATION
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have booths. All these players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem will be available to participants just for advi- sory purposes.”
INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP Cooney stresses that Ireland does not needmore entrepreneurship. “Whatwe need is more innovative entrepreneur- ship,” he says. “Lots more companies starting up ‘me too’ activities isn’t going to drive a growth economy. Particularly for a country like Ireland, we need a more cutting-edge, innovative type activity. “I thinkwe teach entrepreneurship in
higher education institutions to the wrong students.We teach it to business students who write very good business plans but are less likely to come upwith highly creative, highly inventive or highly innovative entrepreneurship ideas. “Ultimatelywhatwe need to be doing
is teaching entrepreneurship into SET graduate and postgraduate pro- grammes. To do that we need the sup- port of academic staff who lead these programmes. So, by engaging with themin a soft approach and by showing them what’s possible through a wide variety of mechanisms, we’re hoping they will appreciate over time the ben- efit of entrepreneurship modules being embedded in SET programmes.”
SOFT APPROACH “There’s a general conservatism from the science and technology community towards the notion of commercialisa- tion,” notes Cooney. “Our work in the universities is more about pure re- search and about publications.We felt that if we were to push for results that it might push people away fromus. “By taking a softer approach and al-
lowing people to explore in their own waywhatmight be possible, itmight get them to consider positively the oppor- tunities that are available to them in terms of commercialisation of their re- search. Even if they weren’t to take it ahead themselves, that they could give it to their technology transfer office who would license it out for them or patent it for them so their work would see light of day in the marketplace.”
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 21
‘Whatwe need is more innovative entrepreneurship. Lotsmore companies starting up ‘me too’ activities isn’t going to drive a growth economy’
Cooney feels the programme repre-
sents an important opportunity to com- municate to the science community the benefit of commercialisation. “It’s an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss or to do poorly. I don’t think it’s going to revolutionise thinking but I do think it’s going to increase the number of peoplewhowill bemore open to busi- ness becoming part of science activity within the research communities.” “By creating this awareness for Irish
sciences and researchers, a secondary target is that theywill become aware of local support agencies and the Irish entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
L–R: Prof Thomas Cooney, chairman of the Science-2-Business programme commit- tee; Minister forResearch and Innovation Seán Sherlock TD; LisaAmini, director of IBMResearch Ireland; and ProfMark Ferguson, director general, Science Foundation Ireland
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRAMME
Keynote address by Dundalk-born Dr Pearse Lyons, founder and presi- dent ofKentucky-headquar- teredAlltech, on howhe turned US$10,000 into a bil- lion-dollar business operat- ing in over 120 countries, over 30 years,without look- ing for venture capital.
Aworkshop on female researchers and entrepre- neurship that aims to demonstrate howwomen can ensure that their research results are brought through the process of commercialisation.
TheMarketplace Exhibition, whichwill provide a nexus for the different elements of the business start-up ecosys- tem:VC, advisory services (legal, IP), public develop- ment agencies etc.
The Invention Convention, a competition for creative minds fromacross theworld to showcase their innova- tions. The top 15 innovative inventions submittedwill pitch their ideas in three- minute presentations to a panel of judges.
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