I visited a couple of entrepreneurial universities abroad, including University of Saarland, Germany and Athens University of Business and Economics, Greece, under an EU-funded Erasmus project titled “Transforming Academic Knowledge to Develop Entrepreneurial Universities in Pakistan (TAKE-UP)”.
The Athens Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Athens University of Economics and Business has been effectively playing a pivotal role practically for supporting the young and potential entrepreneurs and researchers to turn their innovative and research-based ideas into sustainable business models. The centre is subsequently helpful in opening start-up companies to address specific business issues by establishing collaborations with start-up teams and tech-talented people both from the faculty and the market. It was learnt during the presentations and interactive sessions in the centre that the entrepreneurial and research teams in the BICs anywhere in the world can be successful only if they are supported and guided by specialized staff of coaches, mentors and experts, from among the faculty, market and the community, having deep market and technical expertise to accelerate product development and growth opportunities not only in the local but also in global market as well. Further, it was also learnt that collaboration of commercial banks with the universities for the financial support of the start-ups might be very effective for developing the entrepreneurial culture in the universities.
In the University of Saarland, the integrated web of innovation laboratories, incubation centres and science parks connected with multidisciplinary research teams, faculty members and experts of various fields was found to be the principal and the major key in making the university entrepreneurial. It was learnt that the cohesion in the whole entrepreneurial web is the master key for the success in transforming the academic knowledge into the entrepreneurial set-up.
During the visit to a few fabrication laboratories in Germany, it was realized as to how equipment and machines help and play a role in implementing interactive art and design projects. It was made clear as to how digital production methods work in developing designs by going through the stages of brainstorming, product development, technical drawing and the implementation of a prototype.
The universities in Pakistan should enhance the capacity and space to develop and establish more and more incubation centres, innovation laboratories and science parks, in addition to the fabrication units, and connect them as an integrated web with multidisciplinary research teams, faculty members and experts of various fields, following the models of University of Saarland and Athens University of Economics and Business, for transformation the academic institutions to entrepreneurial.
DR KHALID IQBAL
UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT, GUJRAT
