Thomas W. Peterson

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

University of California, Merced

17 October, 2013 – CESAER Conference RTWH Aachen

Stimulating Innovation

and Entrepreneurship

in US Universities

Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I & E)

Why So Much Interest?

• Economic Drivers

• Political Drivers

• Investment Drivers

• Workforce Drivers

What is the USA Doing?

• Federal Funding for I&E

• One Agency’s Approach

• Success Stories

– Bridging Research and Entrepreneurship

– Educating Engineers for Entrepreneurship

Tech Trade Balance in

growing deficit

Innovation for Growth From the President’s Innovation Agenda 2009

Basic Research

Translational Research

Solving Grand Challenge Problems

What are The Challenges? What is Needed to Address those Challenges?

THE CHALLENGES

• Workforce

• Research Investment

• Academic Culture, other…

THE NEEDS

• A talented workforce

• Good ideas

• Mechanisms to facilitate Innovation

Challenges Relating to

Workforce

• Diminished Interest in engineering

• Attracting a diverse population to the field

• Global Competitiveness

0%

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2%

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4%

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6%

7%

8%

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96

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97

19

98

20

00

20

01

20

02

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04

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Percentage BS Degrees to Hispanics

Engineering

Chemical

Immigrants helped BUILD this Country

Federal R&D Funding

Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation

to Congress 2011

Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation

to Congress 2011

Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation

to Congress 2011

Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation

to Congress 2011

How One Agency Responds: National Science Foundation

• Annual Budget approximately $7B

• Research and Education Support for Science and Engineering (S&E)

• Seven Directorates covering all fields in S&E

• The Engineering Directorate (ENG) annual budget about $800M

The Opportunity

What can one do with one one-

hundredth of one percent (0.01%)

of the federal budget?*

*NSF ENG Investment in Innovation

The NSF Portfolio: Has it Helped?

• What Investments have been made?

• What are the results from Basic Research?

• How has Translational Research contributed?

• Has it led to innovation (i.e., product or process of economic value)?

NSF Support for Basic and

Translational Research • Single Investigator Research Awards

• Emerging Frontiers of Research and Innovation (EFRI)

• Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT)

• Science and Technology Centers (STC)

• Engineering Research Centers (ERC)

• Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC)

• Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC)

• Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC)

• Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)

• Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)

• Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

Single PIs and Small Groups

Programs Supporting Business Partnerships

Multiple PI and Multi-Institution Centers

NSF’s Centers Foster

Innovation NSF supports more than 100 centers in seven interdisciplinary program areas that facilitate innovation.

Center for Biophotonics Center for Behavioral Neuroscience

NSF’s FY 2013 Engineering Research Centers: Lead institutions

NSF ERCs, 1985-2013

NSF Investments have led to

Significant Commercial

Products

DISCLAIMER:

• NSF doesn’t claim SOLE responsibility for

these successes, but

• NSF played a clear and definable role in

the intellectual evolution of all these

innovations.

SBIR Support of Qualcomm

• In 1985, Andrew Viterbi and 6 colleagues formed “QUALity COMMunications”

• In 1987–1988 SBIR provided $265,000 for single chip implementation of Viterbi decoder

– Led to high-speed data transmission via wireless and satellite

• Now the $78B company holds more than 10,100 U.S. patents, licensed to more than 165 companies

The Ubiquitous Bar Code

In the 1970s, research led to improvements in the accuracy of scanners

More recently, advanced algorithms have been developed for bar code readers

DNA Evidence

• Forensic DNA analysis is key to our legal

system

• Basic biological research

led to the PCR technique,

making DNA fingerprinting

possible

Memory Storage

• Engineering Research Center at Carnegie

Mellon

• Nickel aluminum underlayer enables high-

capacity memory storage

– Laptops

– MP3 players

– Consumer electronics

Internet Search Engines

• In the 1990s, NSF funded Stanford University

Professor Hector Garcia-Molina’s “Digital Library

Project”

• Garcia-Molina’s grad student, Larry Page,

developed a new search engine that reflected

linking among web pages

Retinal Implants

• NSF-supported researchers are creating retinal

prostheses to electronically capture and transmit

images to the brain

• Implanted prostheses

permit patients to see

light and shapes

Credit: Intraocular Prosthesis Group at Johns Hopkins Univ. and North Carolina State Univ.; illustration by Jerry Lim

Affordable, Effective

Medicines

• NSF–funded researchers

engineered yeast cells

to produce the

anti-malarial drug

artemisinin

• Cell production has been

scaled up, and drug

production began

in 2010

The leaves of Artemisia annua, the sweet wormwood tree, are the source of artemisinin. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• STC for Magnetic Resonance Technology for Basic Biological Research at UIUC established in 1991

• PI Paul Lauterbur discovered the possibility of creating a two-dimensional image by producing variations in a magnetic field

Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2003 for discoveries leading to magnetic resonance

imaging.

Nanopatterning and

Detection Technologies

• Chad Mirkin, Northwestern Univ.

• NSEC for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies (0647560)

• Mirkin holds more than 350 patents

• NanoInk (founded in 2001) offers Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) tools for fabricating MEMS and other nanoscale devices.

• Nanosphere (founded in 2000) offers nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostic testing.

Dip Pen Nanolithography for nanofabrication. Credit: NanoInk

Bridging Research with Entrepreneurship

• Team Composition:

– Entrepreneurial Lead: Post-doc or Student to move it forward

– I-Corps Mentor: Domain-relevant volunteer guide

– PI: Researcher with current or previous award

• Program Outcomes

– Functioning network of Mentors/Advisors

– Scientist and Engineers trained as Entrepreneurs

– Increased impact of NSF-funded basic research

Credit: © 2011 JupiterImages Corp.

•30 Hours of Curriculum •$50,000 per award • F&A $5,000 maximum • 25 awards in FY2011 • 100 awards in FY2012 •100+ awards in FY2013

University

Small Business

Investors

Industry

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NSF

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ALI

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PFI

ERC

The Innovation Corps Space

SBIR

STC

Res

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Inve

sted

Discovery Development Commercialization

Foundations

NSF Innovation Investments

AIR

Translational Research

STTR

NSF I-Corps Program

Distribution of I-Corps Teams 2011-Summer 2013 (N=236)

I-Corps Examples

Where are they now?

• GroundFluor Pharma: 1st I-Corps Cohort • Radiological Medical Imaging • Company Formed

– I-Corps mentor-turned CEO – I-Corps EL-turned First Employee – I-Corps PI-turned head of Scientific Board

• IP Licensed from University • Raised over $250,000 • Collaborations with leading Research Hospitals • Several Products in the pipeline • Early discussions with Big Pharma

Where are the now?

• Neon Lab: 2nd I-Corps Cohort • Neuroscience applied to online image processing • Company Formed

– I-Corps EL-turned CEO – I-Corps PI-turned Scientific Board Advisor – + 5 employees

• IP Licensed from Several Institutions • Edison Prize Innovation ‘13 Award Winner • Raised over $800,000 • Product Launched

The Lean LaunchPad

The “Business Plan” vs. “Lean LaunchPad”

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

“Get out of the Building”

Educating Engineers for Entrepreneurship

GOAL: To develop and nurture the Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) skills of undergraduate engineering students nationwide.

The Challenge

• CONTENT: Lack of Effective and Accessible I&E content for engineering students.

• COMPETENCE: Inadequate faculty and student training to develop strong I&E curricular offerings

• DISSEMINATION: No national community (universities and industry) devoted to integration of I&E into engineering curriculum

Engineering E-Ship Initiatives:

1997

SOURCE: National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance NCIIA Proposal Guidelines: http://nciia.org/grants/courseandprogram/guidelines

Engineering E-Ship Initiatives:

2013

The Georgia Tech VentureLab

• Teams run the “Startup Gauntlet”

• The GIT version of Steve Blank’s ‘Customer Discovery’ Process

• Six-week Intensive Program

U. Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship

• Offers Statewide I-Corps Program

• Partnership among Michigan Universities, Michigan SmartZones, VC community and NSF

High Profile Entrepreneurship Programs in the US

Survey of undergraduate colleges and graduate business schools in Spring 2013, looking at:

• Commitment to entrepreneurship, both inside and outside the classroom;

• Percentage of faculty, students, and alumni actively and successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors;

• Extent of mentorship programs; • Scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial

studies and projects; and • support for business plan competitions.

Summary

• Key Elements in an Innovation Ecosystem

– Basic Research

– Translational Research

– Education of Engineers in Entrepreneurship

• E-ship Education best integrated into undergraduate Engineering curriculum

• I&E national network an efficient approach

Useful Sites

• Engineering Research Centers – http://www.erc-assoc.org/

• Innovation Corps – www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/program.jsp – www.cfe.umich.edu/innovation-corps – venturelab.gatech.edu/nsf-innovation-corps/ – nciia.org/i-corps

• Lean LaunchPad – https://launchpadcentral.com/ – http://steveblank.com/

• EpiCenter – http://epicenter.stanford.edu/

• NCIIA – nciia.org/

• High Profile Entrepreneurship Programs – http://www.entrepreneur.com/colleges/