Faces Of Innovation: Building Partnerships To Bring Ideas To Life

Post by Priscilla Nelson, Professor and Head, Department of Mining Engineering, Colorado School of Mines on the NTT i3 Blog on August 24th, 2016. What is innovation, how is it valued, and what purpose does it serve? There is no simple answer as the definition, value and purpose vary — depending on the individual and organization. Based on my experience working with universities and the organizations they partner with, I believe that innovation in universities is not always the same as innovation in government or industry. For instance, most government agencies (exception being the U.S. National Science Foundation) are mission-focused and may miss opportunities for innovation that comes from outside of the mission. From the perspective of many universities, innovation that is transformative is much more highly valued than incremental advances. Universities careless about implementation or if a product can be demonstrated. Industry, however, tends to be more pragmatic and short-term, so they look for innovation that solves an immediate problem, or that leads to progressive and incremental change. Priscilla Nelson, Colorado School of MinesThe reality is that there is no right or wrong way to innovate, but with the current status quo, all sectors are missing out on opportunities. In particular, there is a lack of communication between universities and industry in the importance of speed and a prior identified application. For example, while industry is often focused on getting something done as soon as possible, university faculty focus on fundamental academic inquiry, student learning and participation, and important publications — all of which require sharing of intellectual property, as well as sustained and long-term vision and planning. As a result, many industry partnerships that develop are awkward for university achievement. However, if sectors listen to each other, I believe we could more consistently arrive at win-win situations that create sustainable relationships. An effective way to build bridges between industry and universities lies in being more agile and developing increased permeability for professionals to cross between sectors, through such opportunities as professors-of-practice, research associates, and faculty-in-residence in industry. A second approach is to build programs in which the students are the agents of connection — as co-op students, interns or employees, students have the new knowledge, curiosity, interests, and persistence required to initiate professional and technical exchanges between industry and university. Students experience the industry’s problems first-hand, and bring them back to the university to engage faculty in innovation and solution. Faculty then have the obligation to integrate incremental advances into the transformative innovations that are more likely to receive industry interest and support. In bringing together universities, industry and innovation, we need to be persistent, flexible, and open to opportunities as they arise. Also integral to the process is effective engagement of the ability of faculty to look beyond the most immediate challenge and focus on long-term and perhaps larger-scale problems and their solutions. And to be successful, we must work as a team that provides a safe and supportive space where all ideas can be shared and valued. This is integral to the culture of innovation. For me, innovation is something that I must do. I am driven by possibilities, and my appointment at the Colorado School of Mines enables me to pursue opportunities with passion. I come in each morning, knowing that something is going to happen. There will be a new experience that day, and in the process, I will learn something new, and something new about myself. I am a natural agent of stretching and integration, and I am fortunate that charge is to help people expand their ideas and think about possible directions and activities — whether it’s growing ideas or providing people with the connections they did not know existed. And here is the heart of innovation — seeing the connections between ideas or devices that never existed before. How does something work? Is it a good idea? How can we make an idea into something? Only then can we bring ideas to life.