Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
Enterprising students compete for seed money in 'Pitch George' contest
Tim Foley pulled out a glossy black brochure and started talking fast. He had three minutes to sell his idea for a social networking Web site for car lovers. That's all he needed.
"This is a once in a lifetime idea," said Arlington Butler, a small-business owner and George Washington University alumnus who returned to campus to judge Saturday's "Pitch George" competition. He saw Facebook-esque potential in Foley's idea.
Most college students are recovering from midterms this time of year, bracing themselves for the second half of the semester or studying the drink menu at a nearby bar.
And in today's struggling economy, more and more of them are starting their own businesses instead of banking on employment. Such budding entrepreneurs manage to maintain their full-time course loads while taking on the role of CEO, with many sleepless nights to show for their efforts.
Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time you’re discouraged by impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: Tererai Trent.
Jo Luck, center, of Heifer International in her first meeting with Tererai Trent, who is to her right. Of all the people earning university degrees this year, perhaps the most remarkable story belongs to Tererai (pronounced TEH-reh-rye), a middle-aged woman who is one of my heroes. She is celebrating a personal triumph, but she’s also a monument to the aid organizations and individuals who helped her. When you hear that foreign-aid groups just squander money or build dependency, remember that by all odds Tererai should be an illiterate, battered cattle-herd in Zimbabwe and instead — ah, but I’m getting ahead of my story.
New Zealand is still having problems transferring technology from universities and other public research organisations into the private sector, Prof Sir Peter Gluckman says.
Prof Gluckman, chief science adviser to Prime Minister John Key, made his comments in an open lecture attended by more than 300 people at the University of Otago's St David Lecture Theatre.
World leaders meeting in Singapore have said it will not be possible to reach a climate change deal ahead of next month's UN conference in Denmark.
After a two-day Asia-Pacific summit, they vowed to work towards an "ambitious outcome" in Copenhagen.
But the group dropped a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was outlined in an earlier draft.
This column takes the angle of a field naturalist to consider Asian ecosystems and find reasons for success, failure and innovation. It is a guest column written monthly for the Chinese business magazine “China Electronic Business” (invested by Jack Ma of Alibaba), IT news site Interfax and the magazine “Business Forum China“. It also turned as the basis of an MBA class we gave at Berkeley. A recent TechCrunch article gave a great illustration with the matchmaking service Zhenai.
In the early 19th Century, Charles Darwin embarked on a five-year journey as a field naturalist. On a visit to the Galapagos Islands he observed animals that were closely related but had some distinctive features. That triggered his thinking about possible common ancestors and the formulation of the theory of evolution. The story of this discovery teaches us that a lot can be learned from small differences. This applies to China’s digital scene as well. Here is how.
Statement by APEC Leaders
Singapore, 14-15 November 2009
We, the Leaders of APEC, gathered in Singapore to chart a new growth paradigm for the Asia-Pacific region that meets the needs of the 21st century global economy.
The global economy has begun to recover, with the Asia-Pacific region taking the lead. But we cannot go back to "growth as usual" or "trade as usual". The post-crisis landscape will be different. We need a new growth paradigm. We need a fresh model of economic integration.
We will pursue growth which is balanced, inclusive, and sustainable, supported by innovation and a knowledge-based economy, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit our people.
We will take a more comprehensive approach to regional economic integration, to meet the needs of our businesses and to keep up with new trends in cross-border trade and investment.
We will seek to conclude the Doha Round in 2010 and reject all forms of protectionism.
If the past week is any indication, big pharma is showing that it is willing to pay for biotech innovation. On the receiving end this week, Alder Biopharmaceuticals stands to reap more than $1 billion from collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) for the development and commercialization of ALD518, a novel biologic that has completed phase 2a development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Bothell, Washington-based Alder is granting Bristol-Myers Squibb worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize ALD518 for all potential indications except cancer, for which Alder will retain rights and grant Bristol-Myers Squibb an option to co-develop and commercialize outside the United States. In return, Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Alder an upfront cash payment of $85 million, potential development-based and regulatory-based milestone payments of up to $764 million across a range of indications, and potential sales-based milestones that may exceed $200 million and royalties on net sales. Alder also has an option to require Bristol-Myers Squibb to make an equity investment of up to $20 million in Alder during an initial public offering.
As any entrepreneur who's spent some time trying to understand the venture capital universe will tell you, VCs typically invest locally. The logic goes like this: Having startups to invest in nearby makes it easier for both parties to interact, get guidance, brainstorm, etc.
So if an entrepreneur believes that getting venture capital is incumbent to his startup's success and location is important to venture firms, it's probably worth spending some time thinking about where your startup will call home. A look at the Q3 2009 venture capital funding statistics compiled by ChubbyBrain offers a data-driven view of venture investment by geography, which may help entrepreneurs with another data point as they consider the age-old question of location, location, location. (For a data-driven perspective into the world of venture capital, download the free 44-page Fast Company-ChubbyBrain Q3 VC Activity Report.)
7th edition of the Report on Innovation and Enterprise Centres in Poland was published in November. The publication was prepared by the Polish Business and Innovation Centres Association and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP).
The report presents the centres’ achievements, potential and future development directions as well as points out expansion barriers which may be encountered by certain types of the centres.Since 1990 the number of innovation and enterprise centres has been systematically growing to reach 717 in 2009. The number covers 23 technology parks and 23 other park initiatives, 17 technology incubators, 51 pre-incubators (i.e. academic enterprise incubators), 46 enterprise incubators, 87 centres for technology transfer and 318 training and information centres.
Yogi Berra was one of my heroes when I was a kid. He was in his prime as the perennial All-Star Catcher for the New York Yankees and I idolized him. But it wasn't until after he retired as a player and hit the banquet circuit did I really appreciate his genius.
His quotes have become apocryphal for their malapropisms and "huh?" factors. One of my favorites is, "This is like deja vu all over again." But the Yogi-ism that is applicable to the current SBIR reauthorization situation is, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
The question is, which path at the fork do we take? Which way to go? Perhaps the path well traveled - follow the crowd. Sometimes it's the path someone pays you to take. Much of the time, it's the path of least resistance
Making good on the President’s pledge in Cairo
WASHINGTON—In his June “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between those focused on advancing entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world.
Today, the Commerce Department’s new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship begins accepting nominations for delegates to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship on its Web site, http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit.
Nearly 150 delegates focused on entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world, including minority communities in Muslim-majority countries, will be selected from nominations submitted to the Summit Web site, through our embassies and other sources. These delegates will represent their home countries, regions, sectors and communities at the Summit and help highlight successes, challenges and opportunities while working to identify personal, national and regional goals for entrepreneurship development.
The Department of Defense pre-released its 2010.1 SBIR Topics this morning. The solicitation will be open to proposal submission from December 10, 2009 at 6AM ET through January 13, 2010 6AM ET.
You may directly contact the Topic Manger (listed with the topic) to ask technical questions/clarification prior to December 10th. After this date, your questions and the responding answers will be made public on the website. The DOD is looking for specific solutions to their specific problems A clear understanding of the full problem, mission of the unit needing the solution, and the role of any prime contractors already involved in the solution can be critical information necessary for an effective proposal. Be sure to take advantage of this time to ask questions while you have a competitive advantage.
Now its third year, Otis College of Art andDesign’s report on the L.A. creative economy finds that the industry, excluding manufacturing segments, is projected to grow by an estimated 4,000 jobs, or 1.6 percent, by 2013.
The report, using 2008 statistics, was commissioned by Otis and prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
There is no escaping China’s growing impact on clean technology investing. Even at Boston Cleantech Venture Day, held on Nov. 10 and focused on helping European come to the U.S. to raise capital and to penetrate American markets, China’s growing role was front and center.
“We’ve got to keep our eyes on China,” said Alexander “Hap” Ellis of Rockport Capital Partners, five of whose portfolio companies have Chinese manufacturing facilities. “China is becoming a leader in the deployment of clean technology and … will be superb in manufacturing and in stimulating demand.”
There are two significant data points worth pulling out. First, the number of investment rounds for higher valuations (i.e. “up rounds”) exceeded the number of investment rounds for lower valuations (i.e “down rounds”) for the first time this year. Up rounds exceeded down rounds 41% to 36%, according to the survey. In the second quarter, down rounds exceeded up rounds 46% to 32%.
This the equivalent of a rising valuations in the stock market, suggesting that VCs are getting more optimistic about the value of venture-backed startups.
Today’s press review clearly demonstrates the contrast that exists in the promotion of the creative economy from one region to another. Most countries in the world participate in a clearly defined creative economy and creative industry movement while the US promotes a do-it-yourself art/cultural economy model.
It’s broadly recognized that the concept of the creative economy started in 1994 in the UK when they expanded their definition of the art economy and the cultural industries to include the creative industries and the newly recognized creative economy. Since then many European and Asia-Pacific countries have followed their lead and now carry out targeted efforts to promote their creative industries locally, nationally and internationally.
SINGAPORE, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government would make Malaysia a better place to live and work in to bring back its citizens who are residing overseas as well as attract global talents to the country.
"We will create more opportunities, more excitement and more buzz in Malaysia to attract the Malaysian diaspora and expatriates to the country," Najib said on Friday night.
Speaking at a dinner he hosted for the Malaysian community here, the prime minister said that in the current challenging world, Malaysia needed the best talents and brains to develop and prosper the country.
"In the twenty-first century, our country once again needs to undergo comprehensive modernisation. This will be our first ever experience of modernisation based on democratic values and institutions. Instead of a primitive raw materials economy we will create a smart economy producing unique knowledge, new goods and technology of use to people."
-- PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV
Ontario is supporting a new commercialization centre that will help digital media entrepreneurs build new companies and create jobs.
The province plans to invest more than $26 million in The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator (“The Hub”), a new centre that will help emerging digital media companies grow and succeed in the global market. In particular, The Hub will look beyond the entertainment sector to focus on companies creating hardware and software for industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance.
