Proposed Centre of Excellence in Innovation, Design
and Entrepreneurship

Identified Need

In virtually all fields of academic endeavor, the Idea Quotient is usually high, but the Innovation Quotient is woefully low. The first quotient represents the percent of scientists with good ideas, while the latter connotes the percent of those people whose ideas make it into practice. As a nation, the U.S. urgently needs sustained research and analysis work to help increase the Innovation Quotient. A higher value for this quotient translates directly into more research that is transformed into commercial success.

In the last 40 years, the U.S. economy has been transformed from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. This implies that U.S.-based manufacturing companies must now rely more on innovation than they had in the past in order to compete with relatively low-wage global competitors. Further, in order for the U.S. economy to continue to grow, it is vital that the service sector have a high rate of innovation. This creates a new urgency to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging areas that offer high potential for rapid commercialization and broad use. In addition, innovation and entrepreneurship can also be the source of commercial ideas to transform existing business models to be more efficient and effective. Thus the proposed Center will not only help spawn new firms and industries, it will also help transform existing businesses.

The National Innovation Initiative Report, released in December 2004, and sponsored by the Council on Competitiveness stresses the urgent need to foster innovation and places great emphasis on three aspects: talent; investment; and infrastructure. In particular, it recommends, “..support a culture of collaboration, a symbiotic relationship between research and commercialization,….encouragement of long-term innovation strategies,…and structure for collaboration among innovation stakeholders.”

Institutional Uniqueness

The entrepreneurship program and faculty of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona was ranked #2 in the country by the Entrepreneur magazine; evaluations performed by other independent organizations have unanimously praised the applied research and development capabilities of the entrepreneurship program. The MIS program has been rated among the top 5 in the country over the 15 years that this category has been evaluated. Only MIT and Carnegie Mellon University fall in the same category. The University of Arizona is the “sole” public university in the US to be ranked in the top 5 category on a consistent basis. The marketing program and faculty has been ranked 18th by U.S. News & World Report and the faculty are frequently rated as among the top 10 marketing departments for research productivity. The faculty have collectively received every major marketing award, edited the top journals, and held every major professional office. Overall, the University of Arizona scores extremely highly in terms of both the breadth of high-potential domains for innovation, as well the depth of research performed in these fields as evaluated by independent peer review associations and processes.

The University of Arizona is currently engaged in establishing new teaching and research programs that involve experts from the Eller College of Management working closely with faculty, staff, and students of six major colleges and programs. In each case, the goal is to catalyze the development of new technology that commands very high potential for near-term exploitation, the transfer of such technology from academia to commercial settings, and the rapid dissemination of products and services that can be derived from such technology.

Further, a new C-Path Institute is being created to conduct research and educational programs that will enable the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry to accelerate the safe development of important new therapies. It is a free-standing non-profit organization formed to facilitate collaboration among The University of Arizona (UA), SRI International (SRI) and the FDA.

The Eller College has established the Tom Brown Chair in Entrepreneurship and MIS based on a major donation from the Tom Brown Family Foundation. The Brown family is interested in the activities proposed above, and are expected to provide additional financial support to the proposed endeavor.

Conclusion

The proposed Center of Excellence will enable academia, industry, and government to work together to explore emerging interdisciplinary areas from the viewpoints of rapid innovation, creativity, and job creation, thereby establishing US leadership in emerging interdisciplinary areas.

For more information, please contact us.