SEA DENMARK

Findings:

The main knowledge transfer activities are maintained by a sister office under Aalborg University Innovation called the knowledge exchange office. The Aalborg University Innovation is part of the administration for the faculties of engineering, science and health, but it is also a service unit for all the faculties of the university. The main parts of the knowledge transfer activities are placed at Aalborg University Innovation, whose role is to ease the entrance to the university and to support innovation, business creation and growth in the business community of the region through its three offices: knowledge exchange office, patent and commercialisation office and the SEA entrepreneurship office.

Funding (annually)

University funding                     €780,000

External funding (e.g. EU)          €1.2m

Total ≈                                                  €2m

STRATEGY AND ACTIONS

Central to the SEA programme, the role of the knowledge exchange office is to assist the university and organizations in creating and strengthening mutually beneficial relationships. This is used between researchers and industry in the creation and maintenance of contacts and networks. Through the project and funding office, joint projects are formulated, funds are applied for and joint agreements can be made. When the partners need a collaboration agreement, the patent and commercialization office gets involved, IPR can be developed and spin outs are created. A large number of the collaborations go all the way through to the patent and commercialization office. This results from the extensive informal collaboration that takes place all around the university. Through the process of the collaboration, some might need the expertise of the patent and commercialization office. The students receive entrepreneurship training in the early phases of the business development through the courses, events and per-incubators. Through SEA’s activities with industry, new ideas are created and start-ups are established. Yet others use SEA’s activities to work on turning their idea into a business plan through coaching and mentoring before establishing their business. Other students go into collaborative research and establish a joint spin-out with Aalborg University.

The patent and commercialization office ensures that the university receives notice of most of the inventions that are made at Aalborg University. However it is also expected that some researchers choose not to notify the university because they do not ‘believe in the system’, meaning that they do not think that commercializing technology should be the task of a public university (‘old school’). Furthermore, it is expected that some researchers are unaware of the fact that they sometimes generate patentable inventions and that technologies are made public before patenting possibilities have been considered. It is also expected that some researchers are not aware of the existence of a Danish law regarding inventions in public research institutions and that they also are not aware of the university office that deals with commercialization activities (mainly foreign employees).

COOPERATION WITH ENTREPRENEURS

SEA offers business people a unique opportunity of getting professional advice and testing of knowledge based business ideas. In short, SEA can help realize the entrepreneur’s vision. Since all ideas and thoughts are distinct, the offer by SEA comprises different arrangements, each adapted to a specific period of the process from idea to reality.

TRAINING OF ENTREPRENEURS WITH MENTORS

SEA is continuously organizing training programmes for entrepreneurs. The programmes are open to all interested, irrespective of educational background. However, the business idea should have a knowledge intensive focus. The programmes function as introductory programmes to the incubator arrangement and provide useful tools for the development of business plans. During the course programme the entrepreneur is assigned to a mentor who assists in guiding the project during the course.

THE INCUBATOR ARRANGEMENT

The incubator arrangement with SEA is an offer directed at innovative souls with an interest in entrepreneurship and starting up a business. Through the incubator arrangement, the entrepreneur will be joined to internal and external resource persons with specific knowledge. Additionally, through the incubator arrangement the entrepreneur will get in touch with other students with different professional competences to challenge their expectations and patterns of thinking in relation to their business idea. In this way, focus will be directed on the interdisciplinary aspect around their idea and business.

CONSULTANCY FOR ENTREPRENEURS

SEA cooperates with a large number of experts who are available for consultancy. Such consultancy may comprise:

Assessment and development of ideas

Preparation of business plan

Operation, sales and marketing of the business

Loan and financing

NETWORK

To many entrepreneurs, success is associated with knowing the right people and being able to draw on resources through one’s network. Aalborg University provides access to the network of researchers employed by the university. The university participates in many networks.

TRAINING OF TRAINERS

A key issue of entrepreneurship culture and teaching at the university is to have teachers that are in a position and have qualifications that allow them to teach entrepreneurship and to use innovative pedagogues in teaching. For this reason SEA provides courses for teachers at all levels of the educational system.

INNOVATION X

For entrepreneurs, it is essential that they are surrounded by a well-functioning Eco-system that can provide access to e.g. professional guidance. For this reason, SEA has initiated and runs a partnership open to all public and private actors in the innovation system to join forces in quarterly knowledge days. On a knowledge day, entrepreneurs and SME’s have the opportunity to listen in on a variety of different sessions, meet people from the innovations system and network with other entrepreneurs.

SUCCESS FACTOR

SEA sees its activities, basic philosophy and definition of entrepreneurship as being closely connected to the ‘basic’ teaching rule of Aalborg University – problem-based learning. Problem-based learning has always been the prime teaching and learning metaphor of Aalborg University and is probably the most distinctive feature of Aalborg University compared to other universities inside or outside Denmark. According to SEA, entrepreneurship thinking and problem-based learning are closely related and they perceive problem-based learning as a significantly different environment and precondition for entrepreneurship than what is the reality in most other HEIs in Europe. Problem-based learning is by its nature heavily associated with ‘the art of finding solutions’, which is also one of the corner stones of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship. SEA is embedded in the knowledge transfer process of the university.