Business creation activities to optimize the outcomes of RDI projects in an applied science university – The Spin&Launch incubator

Abstract: Universities of applied sciences and other high education institutions are expected to act as catalysts of innovations and innovators. Optimally, the research, development and innovation work they perform should produce a positive number of new startups spinning off from their project portfolio. The performance of a school within a high education institution from Finland was evaluated with respect to value creation to the local business ecosystem. The evaluation considered parameters like number of RDI projects, projects’ budget, achieved technology readiness level in each project, and the number of companies (new or existing) directly benefiting from the developed innovations. The results revealed that a good portfolio including over 200 projects, from small and fast-paced student projects to more complex national and international projects, didn’t transform in a satisfactory number of new companies spinning off from the school activities. The reasons for non-satisfactory performance were evaluated at managerial, personnel, and student levels. The two most important reasons were mindset to start entrepreneurial activities and the lack of an action plan for innovation deployment after project official ending date. An action plan was subsequently designed to improve the performance. The new Spin&Launch incubator was conceived. The incubator services are available for all local individuals and companies aiming to develop new and scalable business activities from technology-based innovations. The service concentrates in three specific action areas; Team Building – help to find the right skills from our students and personnel, Innovation Validation – action plans to verify the real value of the innovation, and Funding Reach – support to write funding applications and perform efficient pitching and networking. Benchmarking of the new incubator against other incubators and accelerators from Finland confirmed the suitability of the three specific action areas taken in, because those were not normally covered by others, and here a further reason for tight co-operation with other incubators. This paper explains in detail the analysis process, the support work within each of the three specific actions, the benchmarking process, and the first experiences of the Spin&Launch incubator with real innovation cases.

Keywords: Innovation, Start-Up, Incubation, Business, Hei

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004716

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