That the ed profession and the innovation industry are changing

Innovation districts—typically created through collaboration between cities, industry and research universities—are evolving to keep pace with rapid technological advances and the growing need for social impact.

But even as the structure of innovation centers changes, the combination of creative intelligence, open-ended relationships between higher education institutions and local communities, and business-friendly government policies remains the foundation of a successful knowledge economy, academic and industry leaders said.

Speaking to Times Higher EducationAt the World Academic Summit, Faye Bowser, vice president of higher education at Siemens, said the technology conglomerate is moving away from one-to-one relationships with universities and focusing on promoting a global environment that includes start-ups, research centers and universities all focused on the region. it needs that connection with the influence of the world.

The way academia and industry have worked together over the decades has changed dramatically, he said, and in a “quickly changing world,” there are two big differences. “One is about the speed of innovation and the other is about the impact of innovation – we are driven by purpose.”

In the US, regions of innovation, epitomized by the coastal hotspots of Silicon Valley and Cambridge, Mass., are emerging from the most unlikely places. One of the four Siemens research centers in the United States, for example, is located in Atlanta, and includes partnerships with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and North Carolina A&T State University. .

Being a hub for talent is part of what makes innovation regions thrive. “Many people in Europe do not fully understand the migration of talent and capital that is happening in the United States right now,” Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, told the conference, which was held at the University of Manchester in England.

“There’s a journey from coastal areas—California, New York—and the Midwest to a place that starts in Texas, all the way to Florida where it stops in Tennessee. And that is driven by the fact that this is an attractive place for people to live and work and do business. “

CNBC recently ranked Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee among the top 10 business states in America based on metrics such as business tax status, the number of patents issued per capita, how many institutions of higher education the state has and long-term trends in support for higher education. .

Traditional innovation centers should start waking up to this trend, Diermeier said. “I think there’s a sense that you can just take this for granted—[they think] ‘We have this big house and everything will be fine.’ If you’ve spent any time in San Francisco in the past few years, that should be a lesson to everyone in how quickly things can change.”

At a time of deep political divisions in American society and dividing national policies on many hot-button issues, including abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, Diermeier said. Within Higher Ed that Tennessee politics did not affect Vanderbilt’s ability to attract faculty and research talent. “Politics is strange no matter where you are; it just comes in different flavors. There are aspects of Tennessee politics that are complicated and aspects of New York State politics that are complicated, and people have to weigh that up and decide where they want to be. “

A university that engages with the community and local industry is also critical to successful innovation districts, the panel noted. “Anything that makes universities more accessible and accessible and less focused on new ideas will help encourage new areas,” said David Willetts, the UK’s former minister of state for science and universities.

He called for less focus on the original culture, saying that universities can contribute to the creation of new things in other ways, including contracted research with industry partners.

While Nashville is known as Music City, it also has an economy built on healthcare, the biomedical sector and the automotive industry. Vanderbilt’s approach to building trust in these fields and being open to any kind of collaboration has resulted in higher and continuing education, community relations and innovation. “We don’t know what their problems are and they don’t know what our solutions are, so it’s a complementary process,” Diermeier said.

A third factor in the success of new innovation regions is government policies that support new growth, either for industry in general or through strategic investment in a specific sector.

“If you’re a mayor or a state with an entrepreneur, you can make a very positive impact in a short period of time,” Diermeier said. Within Higher Ed.

But despite the economic benefits that innovation districts can bring to their communities, they will do little to change public perceptions about the value of higher education institutions on their own.

“We need to do the right thing about innovation and talk about it,” Diermeier said. “Partnerships with municipalities and new economies are very important. People need to understand that large research universities are educational institutions but they also generate brilliant capital for creativity and innovation. That is the source of the country’s prosperity.”