Development of the Innovation Academy: Lessons to be learned with a view to developing active learning in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship for students of pharmacy/pharmaceutical sciences

Anyone recognise him?

Prof. Barry Marshall Nobel Prize Winner 2005 Physiology and Medicine

Stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria and not stress, foods or acid.

“It is crucial that large and conservative research teams have the flexibility to pursue failed experiments and unexpected results in search of a potential new cancer cure, antibiotic or diagnostic test.”

What is entrepreneurship? …. intuitive decision-making, capacity to make things happen autonomously, networking, initiative taking, opportunity identification, creative problem- solving, strategic thinking, self-efficacy and ability to cope with ambiguity. …an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives EC Report – Entrepreneurship in higher education What makes someone entrepreneurial? National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education, UK

How do you teach… Ability to cope with ambiguity Flexibilit y Resilien ce Tolerance of failure Self-efficacy Creativity

Innovation Academy Journey

Innovation Academy – Initial Concept Academic part of an Innovation Alliance between two Dublin Universities (that educate over 50% of the PhD students in Ireland) Typically ~10% of our PhD students go on to tenured academic positions Announced by An Taoiseach (2009) as part of the National strategy for developing Ireland as an Innovation Hub for economy prosperity Funded under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (€1.7M)

Values and Ethos (behind the blank canvas)

Do we already have what we need? Higher education is often glacial in implementing change! Video Link:

You can’t prepare students for the future by duplicating what has happened in the past The HP garage didn’t have wifi! No one gets $2M for a 3 paragraph business plan anymore.

Risk taking Failure Self-evaluation Improvement This cycle needs to underpin our design and development of the Academy itself We must act entrepreneurially if we want others to do so