From research to commercialisation in an entrepreneurial university: Development of pre-incubation structures for the University of Antwerp

The outspoken ambition of the University of Antwerp to create value for society is translated in this project to the ambition to become an entrepreneurial university. In order to achieve this ambition the University of Antwerp is committed to reinforce the different actors within the university in their endeavours to translate their research results, knowledge and expertise to society as a whole. There is a clear need for the development and offering of state-of-the-art pre-incubation services at the University of Antwerp. A pre-incubator offers a protecting environment in which entrepreneurial ideas can be tested on their market potential. The ambition of the University of Antwerp to create value for society as an entrepreneurial university can only be achieved through its unceasing support of its commercialisation processes of research knowledge and expertise, while safeguarding its basic values of academic fundamental research. To close the gap between scientific research output on the one hand and sustainable commercialisation on the other hand, and the survival of the so-called 'valley of death', pre-incubation facilities, like insights in opportunity and market potential detection and IP knowledge, should be installed or reinforced to allow researchers to test and evaluate the commercial potential of their research output in a protecting environment. Moreover, the TRL levels will be increased indirectly, which is a pre-requisite of support programs for scientific research (eg. Horizon 2020, VLAIO,…). An increase of the TRL level equally leads to lowering the threshold for business and industry (and related investors) as such reinforcing the commercialisation potential of the research. This project aims to develop five pilot pre-incubation structures for target disciplines (sustainable chemistry, logistics, health, product development and social innovation). These pilot cases were selected based on the 'Beleidsvisie 2016-2020' and the research spearheads of the University of Antwerp. In the deployment of the pilot cases special attention will be paid to the clear fit with the existing incubation and techtransfer activities of the University of Antwerp. In the same line of reasoning the pre-incubation structures will be embedded in the entrepreneurial ecosystems of the five targeted disciplines. Addressing the needs and barriers of the researchers is a central point of attention. The short term result is a minimum viable product for pre-incubation services for the targeted disciplines. At the same time, our results will provide a blueprint for the development of pre-incubation services for other disciplines in the long term. By safeguarding the embeddedness of pre-incubation structures and optimal fit with existing initiatives within the University of Antwerp as well as with its entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders a leverage is created to society as a whole.

Keywords:VALORISATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Disciplines:Business administration, Innovation, research and development, technological change, intellectual property rights, Business management