Partnerships for Innovation Grantees Meeting, April 2010
Innovation Ecosystems for the Creative
Economy
• Innovation Serving Humanity
• Disseminating Knowledge
• Wealth Creation
Tom Skalak, VPR
University of Virginia
PFI Posters – new section
• Questioning & Curiosity
• Risk Taking
• Openness
• Collaboration across Fields
• Placing Partners in “New Playgrounds”
• Leading/Inspiring for Unexpected Results
PFI Posters – “Attributes”
• Broad span of fields
“boundaryless technology”
- Larry Wendling, 3M
• Partners all new to each other
• An “apparent paradox” – free exchange of ideas
allowed aggressive commercialization timelines
• Have a “core idea” or “large array of ideas”
PFI Posters – “Attributes”
• Curiosity is a key driver
• reaching to undergraduate students – who are
the future!
• Finding a way to merge short-term industry
timelines with new ideas and exploration
• Supporting proof-of-concept work is critical!
A “professional networking” website
for the global bioengineering
community
A global sustainable network for BME
• Facilitates new person-toperson links
• Accelerates BME education,
research, and innovation
• Raises the awareness of the
field around the world
• Increases productivity and
improves human health &
dignity
–Experiential education of
bioengineering talent for the workforce
–Enhanced translation of bioengineering
knowledge to products & services in
the clinic
www.bmeplanet.org
Posting a new idea or problem
• Login
• Click into “ideas”
• Post a new idea
• Can post “ideas”
or “design
challenges/probl
ems”
Finding new knowledge & partners
• Search
• Browse the
network
• Post
opportunities
Why do Innovation partnerships matter?
Work or play? – in Charlottesville
“Home is where I work, and I
work everywhere.”
- Alfred Nobel
Systems thinking: back of the napkin
ideas with new partners can produce
disruptive innovation – make it a habit!
“The Italians” (Barzini)
“Italians have mastered the great art of making
people happy and of making other people happy, an
art which inspires all others, the only art worth
learning, but which can never really be mastered …”
“The Innovators” (Skalak)
“Innovators have mastered the great art of creating
and commercializing technology and of making other
people happy, an art which inspires all others, the
only art worth learning, but which can never really be
mastered …”
A few ways that the world has been improved:
“The Italians”
“The Innovators”
Ferrari (high-powered) 3M
How things
look:
Armani (cutting-edge)
SRI
Alpha Romeo (fast)
Rockefeller, VCs
Michelangelo (ageless) Education systems
(or Chic ?)
A few ways that the world has been improved:
“The Italians”
“The Innovators”
Da Vinci/ circulation
Flow cytometry – Keck PFI
Galileo/ telescope
Ultrasound – Villanova PFI
How things Columbus/ New World
work:
The barometer
The telephone
The sea coast – Maine PFI
Sensor systems – Stony
Brook/Princeton PFI
Small manufacturing-univ. –
Penn State PFI
The espresso machine/
Bachelor of Innovation (life-giving energy)
(or Chic ?)
Colorado PFI
viewed in concert…produce a coherent picture.
A major challenge today: linking the elements of creative
innovation in the arts, sciences, and technology…
The Seine at Le Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat, 1888