Optimizing multicultural teams

Traditional models of multicultural R&D collaboration fail to draw most effectively on individual team members’ skills and experiences. Jeanne Brett, a professor of dispute resolution and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, thinks the key to multicultural teams is coexistence of differences and meaningful participation.

In Cultural Intelligence in Global Teams, she explains how she has observed that most multicultural teams collaborate in one of two ways. In the dominant coalition model, there might be a minority group or even a single person who directs the team’s decision making. Brett explains: “We saw how that model shut out certain members of the team who had contributions to make.”

Alternatively, the integration model requires team members to sublimate the identity of their own cultural groups to that of the entire team. However, members might yield some of their their tendency to think differently in the interests of unity.

Brett asserts that the team leader should undertake formal interventions to balance the power equation. Such interventions might encourage more questioning among team members. Alternatively, the leader might appoint individuals or subgroups to work on a particular problem independently and then share their solutions with the entire team.

Brett also believes that one of the ways to get people to participate is to make the size of the groups smaller, and to seed each small group with someone who is likely to support the team member who has not been participating.

To maintain its creativity as its tasks change, the team should continually reconstitute the subgroups.

What makes a successful research team?

The availability of online databases containing millions of papers, as well as analytical tools from network science have turbo-charged studies of collaboration patterns among researchers. These studies typically try to answer the question: "How do you assemble a network and figure out where to plug in your ideas to get the best return?"

A recent article by John Whitfield in Nature summarizes the researchers' tentative tips on what their work reveals:

• If you team up with someone from another institution (of equal or higher tier to your own), the resulting papers are more highly cited than if you team with someone from your own institution.

• If you specialize and work mostly with people in your own field, or you become a big generalist and work with people in a wide range of fields, you get highly cited papers. But in the middle (people who work with an intermediate number of other fields) you get less successful papers.

• In large interdisciplinary groups, the more diverse they were, the less productive they were, but groups where the authors had previous papers together were much more successful than others.

• Large collaborations (say a team of around 20) were more successful if they had a high rate of turnover, but small groups (say 3 to 4) were more successful if they were stable. But stable small groups tend to publish lower impact papers over time.

Research is increasingly collaborative

A recent study at the Kellogg School of Management by Brian Uzzi shows that high impact research is now more likely to arise from large, distributed teams. Published in the journal Science, the study says though that the benefits of this evolution are concentrated largely among the nation’s most elite universities.

The authors examined thirty years worth of the publications tracked by the Institute for Scientific Information’s Web of Science. Multi-school collaborations were relatively rare in 1975. Over the thirty years that followed, multi-school collaborations grew steadily to account for 35 percent of publications in 2005.

The authors found that multi-school collaborations are more likely among the top universities. Lower tier schools, where research isn't cited as often, participated in only 18 percent of multi-school collaborations. Top schools where research is cited more often, participated in 60 percent of multi-school collaborations.

The authors noted that single-author papers have become increasingly rare, down from roughly 30 to 10 percent for science, 60 to 40 percent for social science.

Entrepreneur as a change agent

When we say the word “entrepreneur” at the university, everyone immediately thinks we are referring to someone in the business school, technology transfer office or a start-up company.

So we avoid saying the word - - - - - - - - - - - -, until later in the conversation. It gets in the way of discussions we like to have about the potential of entrepreneurship as a lever for creating positive change, which most people at the university, especially students, embrace.

We think there is an eager audience for education focused on understanding and developing entrepreneurial behaviors, skills and attributes in many different contexts. Business is just one context. Others are social and creative.

The essence of entrepreneurship lies in creating and exploiting opportunities and pursuing innovation in practice. This involves learning, often by trial and error, how to design organizations of all kinds in different contexts and how to operate them successfully.

Universities are moving towards a more holistic concept of entrepreneurship, transcending the pure business focus.

We admire how the University of Rochester is equipping its students across the university to be successful in that regard. According to an AAC&U article “Building a Better Entrepreneurial Education,” it is aggressively fostering entrepreneurial skills in fields like education, engineering, nursing, and music—and in the business department, too. Courses in entrepreneurship are found in six schools on campus. The goal is to foster leadership, management, and team-building qualities.

Rochester’s brand of entrepreneurship is the “transformation of an idea into an enterprise that creates value—economic, social, cultural, or intellectual.” It focuses very little on the profit portion of the field.

In the AAC&U article, Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship Duncan Moore proudly points out: “Most of the projects being proposed by the students are not around business entrepreneurship, but social entrepreneurship,” he says.

“If we want to be sure our students will have a long career…they should have either international or entrepreneurial experiences," Moore says. “That’s not going to get outsourced.”

Next time you hear the word “entrepreneur," think attitude - towards engaging the world, and changing it.

Universities are more entrepreneurial

Dr. Allan Gibb, University of Durham, in “Towards the Entrepreneurial University?” offers some observations on the emergence of the entrepreneurial university, one which has taken on a third mission, that of contributing its knowledge generated to society more directly.

Gibbs claims that entrepreneurial universities have a culture that is open to change and to the search for, and exploitation of, opportunities for innovation. They are managed by a strong steering core that helps them respond flexibly, strategically and coherently to opportunities. Across academic departments there are entrepreneurial champions. Key aspects of entrepreneurship education are embedded across the curriculum.

A great example is the University of Rochester. According to “Building a Better Entrepreneurial Education,” it is aggressively fostering entrepreneurial skills in fields like education, engineering, nursing, and music—and in the business department, too. Courses in entrepreneurship are found in six schools on campus. The goal is to foster leadership, management, and team-building qualities. Rochester’s brand of entrepreneurship is the “transformation of an idea into an enterprise that creates value—economic, social, cultural, or intellectual.”

At entrepreneurial universities, engagement with the stakeholder community is actively pursued. Funding is obtained not by pursuing philanthropy but by building credibility with key stakeholders. By such engagement the university becomes more of a learning organization.

Knowledge transfer programs are a feature at entrepreneurial universities. Interdisciplinary research and partnerships with external stakeholders are more important in terms of their contribution to innovation than patents, licensing and spin-off activity.

The latest evolutionary stage of the university as an institution is generating debate and tension in academia, similar to what took place a hundred years ago concerning the emergence of the research university. At that time, many argued that the demands of research would compromise the university's teaching mission.

Today, who would argue that knowledge generated by research doesn’t infuse teaching with relevance and vitality? Similarly, the ambivalence to universities' added entrepreneurial role is likely to change.

Gibb thinks the new dimension to its mission is rather Victorian, revisiting the 19th-century view that higher education is for imaginatively using knowledge.

Overcoming barriers to producing multidisciplinary knowledge

Knowledge sharing among researchers within interdisciplinary communities may be critical for new discoveries. In spite of this, biologists tend to talk to biologists, economists tend to talk to economists, and psychologists tend to talk to psychologists. Co-locating them may be a helpful but insufficient step to generating multidisciplinary knowledge. Disciplinary subgroups hold contrary assumptions about the appropriate questions to be asked.

How can this be overcome? Kathleen L. McGinn gives and answer in in “Incompatible Assumptions: Barriers to Producing Multidisciplinary Knowledge in Communities of Scholarship”. A Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, she argues that interdisciplinary communities must first attend to the compatibility of assumptions held by sub-groups within the field. Understanding may stem from the potential for members to recognize the relevance of others' findings to their own scholarship.

In collaborative consortia, relate first, then act

Upfront negotiation regarding roles, resources, governance and so on might interfere with progress in collaborations addressing complex societal issues. So conclude Benyamin Lichtenstein et al., University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Management in Relational Space: Creating a Context for Innovation in Collaborative Consortia.

The authors completed a case study of The Sustainability Consortium – a voluntary association of about a dozen member organizations that have an interest in tackling sustainability. Initially focusing on relationships encouraged a higher degree of innovation in action projects.

In the Sustainability Consortium, it was nearly two years before the first project was clearly articulated. During that time participants met together in three three-day meetings. The focus of attention was the formation of what the authors call “relational space”: face-to-face personal interactions through which participants pursued open inquiry and learning, developed strong peer-based relationships, asked for and received help and support, and inspired each other in a variety of ways. Gradually, problems were articulated and framed, and action projects emerged.

What makes the bay area so cool?

The bay area, envied the world over for its industry of ideas, consistently grabs about 44% of the nation's venture capital investment. What is it about the bay area that makes it a hub for innovation?

Paul Graham ought to know. He is the founder of Y Combinator, a blend of boot camp, commune, and investor designed to help start-up companies get off the ground. Y Combinator used to alternate its activity between Boston and San Francisco every six months.

In "How to Start a Start-Up," Graham says the bay area “has the right kind of vibe.” It attracts a special kind of talent, the younger scientists, programmers, and creatives who drive innovation.

The bay area has everything they want:

• Authentic personality. Young-feeling, but not new.

• Smart people, which means universities, still tethered to their professors.

• An environment that tolerates oddness in which they feel they can best be themselves.

• Neighborhoods which are cheap, fun, and near the subway.
  

Nerds don't like to work in dreary office buildings that are a wasteland when the sun goes down. They like to head out for dinner then take the subway back to the office or lab to get some real work done, instead of going home to watch television. That's why creating business parks in the suburbs is futile.

When start-ups grow into big companies, and move to the suburbs, they still keep an r&d center near the Red Line. Otherwise they'd loose the younger talent.

What is unique about the bay area is the support system in such areas as finance, law, accounting, headhunting, and marketing, tuned to help ventures form and grow.

Ventures operating outside the bay area certainly succeed. But who would be willing to claim that a venture elsewhere wouldn't benefit from moving to the bay area?

Graham's advice to start-ups? "Get a place on the Red Line."
________________________________________________________________
Red line life line
To younger talent, the Red Line is pure magic. Its convenient, and quirky. Listen to their banter on Yelp.

Molly says: “It's supremely easy to get to anywhere worth going...I can hear the trains from my apartment, but it's worth it just to know they're there.”

John says: “I would have a difficult time functioning without it, and for that I am grateful.”

Kelly: “I like it, it's homey. I look up from my reading or video game to watch the city arrive and recede as we cross over the river. It's calming.”

Victor says: “And hey, you can go under the bay. How cool is that? It's pretty damn cool.”

Sarah says: “The seats are SO much more comfortable on the BART than on the T. :)”

But Jeffrey says: “Reupholster the seats. They're gross.”

Helen says: “I LIKE the gross aspects of public transit.“
_______________________________________________________________

Graham has his favorites start-up places along the Red Line. He especially likes Berkeley, Davis, Inman, and Central.

In “Cities and Ambition” he says he always imagined that Berkeley would be the ideal place to be—that it would basically be Cambridge with good weather.

But when he finally tried living there a couple years ago, it turned out not to be. He says “it's not humming with ambition.” Its message is "live the good life."

“The people you find in Boston...are the kind of people who want to live where the smartest people are, even if that means living in an expensive, grubby place with bad weather."

There are plenty of smart people in the south. But he thinks the universities there are too spread apart, therefore diluted, while in the north, they are clustered, dozens withing a few miles of each other.

Lately, he thinks the north has the edge on ideas (in the whole world), the south the edge on ventures. Why? Investors tend to be more conservative in the north, more aggressive in the south. Facebook was started in the north. Boston investors had the first shot at them. But they said no, so Facebook moved to south and raised money there.

But for now, Graham says, "Boston just doesn't have the startup culture that the Valley does. It has more startup culture than anywhere else, but the gap between number 1 and number 2 is huge; nothing makes that clearer than alternating between them."

Since ideas are only one step upstream from economic power, says Graham, it's conceivable that the north will one day regain the edge.

How do you pitch a venture?

Here are the steps, and the likely questions you have to address to get funding, at each stage of the venture development process. The farther along you are, the more likely you will achieve investment.

1. Good product/service idea
Key questions: Is it a solution to a job users are trying really hard to get done? Who is the competition? Will they fail fast?
Most important point to make: About your market insight.

2. All-star team
Key question: Has the team succeeded in the past? Do they have special knowledge or skills in the area? Are they committed to the idea?
Most important point: Why the team you have assembled is the right one.

3. Breakthrough technology
Key question: Who owns the patents? Are there any good substitutes?
Most important point: Barriers to entry.

4. Prototype product/service
Key question: What will it take to launch a working product or service?
Most important point: Show a prototype or engineering resumes.

5. Working product
Key question: What does the product do? What’s the launch plan? Who’s on the marketing team?
Most important point: Live demonstration.

6. Micro-scale results
Key question: Who is the customer, and how do you know? What is the potential market size? What are the business economics?
Most important point: Lessons learned.

7. Promising results
Key question: Can you monetize that traffic (or drive traffic to that profitable destination?) Do you know why you’ve achieved those results?
Most important point: Revenue potential.

You can see that few individuals possess the necessary range of skills to accomplish all of these steps on their own. You need deep thinkers who conceive the vision - you, plus those who can get the innovation really to work, and those who communicate the advantages of the innovation so it is used.

Ventures come in all flavors

Some cast enterprise as the enemy of social concerns. Here are examples of what can be accomplished by joining social concerns with private enterprise:

• Diagnostic-For-All, that will deliver affordable point-of-care diagnostic solutions to the global medical community.

• Seeding Labs, which reclaims and refurbishes laboratory equipment from universities, hospitals and biotechnology companies in order to equip talented scientists and clinicians living and working in the developing world.

• Social Venture Lab, which provides a program to share ideas on best practices for businesses or organizations that consider their community contribution as part of their product or service.

• CleanFish, which works with artisan fishing communities around the world to help bring their sustainably harvested fish to a global marketplace.

• The Environmental Insurance Agency, which creates pay-as-you-drive auto insurance, to reward low-mileage drivers.

• Eyebeam, a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time.

• Partners for the Common Good, a wholesale loan participation network which serves the needs of low-income communities.

• Revolution Foods, a daily meal service in schools featuring meals that have no high fructose corn syrup or trans fats and contain only the highest-quality organic ingredients.

• Sweet Beginnings, helping ex-offenders fully reenter society by providing assistance in securing and retaining employment and developing a career path.

• Windows of Opportunity, a lead-safe window replacement business that protects children from lead poisoning and provides supportive employment training to youth ages 17-24 at risk of chronic unemployment.

• OneWorld Medical Devices addresses the large vaccine wastage problem that often results from improper temperature control.

• Mobile Medics, a traveling health care service that provides private sector, high quality, and affordable medical care through mobile clinics to paying villagers in India.

• Samasource aims to harness the world's untapped talent through socially responsible outsourcing.

• MyC4 raises capital for African entrepreneurs, and in so doing is striving to become a significant tool in the fight to end extreme poverty.

• MicroPlace makes socially responsible investments in microfinance to alleviate global poverty.

• RootSpace, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurship as a powerful force for economic, social, and environmental development around the world.

• Better World Books is a global bookstore that harnesses the power of capitalism to bring literacy and opportunity to people around the world.

• Benetech harnesses the power of technology for social benefit

• Living Cities brings opportunities and the power of mainstream markets to urban neighborhoods and residents historically left behind.

• Inveneo.org provides technology solutions to remote villages through non-governmental organizations and through commercial or government owned organizations.

• E+Co invests in local energy businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America to support clean energy.

• AfriCeuticals strengthens Africa’s private health sector with certified human and veterinary products and services developed, sourced, manufactured, branded, and/or distributed in Africa.

• GeoOptics establishes a new model of community-based space development for the public good that could change the way the world collects and disseminates earth observational data.

Enterprise comes in all flavors, including social.

Two sides of the river

On the north side of the river, people stay up all night working to invent things. On the south side of the river, people wake up in the morning thinking how to change things. They are just as smart and interesting, and really good at what they do. They too push boundaries, break down needless conventions, and defy expectations.

On the south side, they don’t run a model railroad club that meets on Saturday nights, or have a cappella group called the loga-rhythms. But they do have subversive knitters whose software people use all around the world to protest sweatshop labor.

On the north side of the river, people closely watch the fate of commercial ventures like A123Systems, which manufactures high-power lithium ion batteries. They excel at private entrepreneurship, but try really hard to be socially responsible. Their commencement speaker last year was Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in the microlending movement.

On the south side of the river, people closely watch the fate of social ventures like the Entrepreneurs for Peace, a training program for Arab-Israeli ventures. They excel at creating value for society as a whole, but are trying hard at private entrepreneurship. Their commencement speaker, two years ago, was Barack Obama.

On the north side of the river, they are trying to de-nerdify their reputation. Going to great lengths to do so, such as producing calendars featuring scantily clad students in the arts to show how well-rounded they are. On the south side of the river, they are trying to attract nerds, the really hardcore math/science types. And going to great lengths to do so, such as building a venture center.

Frankly, I don’t see the attempts to totally normalize either the north or south will get all that far. Nor should they. Well-rounded people don’t push the human race forward.

Academic entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial academics

Quiz: Which one of these faculty members is the innovator?

One publishes a book so students can learn object-oriented systems analysis and design in a highly practical and accessible way.

Another invents a miscoscope so every teaching lab can enjoy advanced imaging at an affordable price.

Answer: Both. But most would pick the latter.

Martin Meyer, in "Academic entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial academics? Research-based ventures and public support mechanisms" argues one may indeed distinguish at least two breeds of innovation agents at a university: the ‘entrepreneurial academic’ and the ‘academic entrepreneur’, the latter being the archetypical start-up entrepreneur and the former resembling the ‘innovative’ faculty member.

Innovators do not necessarily have to set up a fast–growing company but can use other avenues to create impact. Both types of innovators move the university towards being a significant actor on its own terms.

What are we doing for students?

Everyone asks this question. Even Sen. Jack Hart, during an interview he and I were doing for the Dorchester newspaper, asked how are you helping students get good jobs in the innovation economy?

Thanks to our Entrepreneur in Residence, Dan Phillips, we are doing a lot. Just a few weeks ago, over 80 students, with some having to be turned away, came to hear Dan talk about what it is like to work in a venture backed start-up, and to sign-up for a chance at a paid internship. Students lined up to give Dan their cards following his presentation!

Dan has spent the last 25 years as an executive with four venture capital backed software companies. The most recent was as CEO of SilverBack Technologies which was acquired by Dell Inc. Dan has a great appreciation for the quality and culture of UMass Boston students as he has self funded his own Scholarship/Mentor program for our students over the last 15 years.

Two students, Wararat Tipwimolratchai and Wei Tang, have already been selected by Brighton House Associates, a venture backed start-up company in Marlborough. Much more to come in this one year pilot effort.

Finding quality start up internship opportunities is extraordinarily difficult. Students at places like MIT and Stanford line up for jobs. But for the first time, UMass Boston students have the opportunity. They are a perfect match for start-up companies.

With the opening of the VDC in early 2009, we will be able to house the venture backed firms and internships right here on campus, in Wheatley where our 18,000 sf center is in the final stages of being constructed.

We’ve reached out to Student Affairs as well as the deans to locate interested students with marketing, finance, information systems, computer science and economics backgrounds. Dan plans to run a session for students every two months.

How do you find time to work with us?

Faculty members tell me over and over again that they have dozens of other priorities and have precious little time for innovation.

Well, what’s your vision for what you’d like to create at the university? I believe that if you don’t have something worth doing, that you are absolutely passionate about, you won't find a way to make it happen.

Even so, everybody is busy and there is the yawning chasm between rhetoric and reality. So the university has to be part of the solution.

So I constantly advocate for measures to make it easier for faculty members to pursue their vision:

1. How have they been equipped to be an innovator? What training have they received? What tools have they been supplied with?

2. Do they have access to an innovation coach or mentor? Is there an innovation expert in their department who will help them develop their breakout idea?

3. How easy is it for them to get access to experimental funding? How long would it take to get a few thousand dollars in seed money? How many levels of bureaucracy would they have to go through?

5. Do the university’s management processes—budgeting, planning, staffing, etc.—support their work as an innovator or hinder it?

The truth about the university is there’s no shortage of ideas bouncing around. The trick is to align incentives to execute them. Its how a university advances. Or not.

When should you engage with the VDC?

Most of the time, faculty come to us with just a few days left before they publish their research results, wanting to talk about a patent, or with a year left of a five year project, looking for continued funding.

The time to talk to us is before you think you have to, meaning at the beginning of your project, when you are designing it.

When we engage then, we can talk about doing something with anticipated research results beyond a publication. Novel dissemination plans are key. Funders like them because it shows you have thought through your project.

There are lots of possibilities, such as a subscription newsletter or journal, webinar, videos, research, testing, or design operation, or even a product, many of which can become revenue generators.

Engaging us early means learning how to expand your concept of your project team. Success these days in every field requires a range of skills, including ours. We can save you lots of headaches and heartaches.

What is it like working with us?

As in as in all partnerships, we work hard to earn each others' trust. Because sometimes the conversations are difficult.

But we do have a distinct style of working. Its more like a start-up than a service unit. So its not for everyone.

We feel more like impudent underdogs instead of stuffed shirts, and that is exactly the spirit we encourage.

We say we are a are lean team. Like you, we try to spend as little money as possible to achieve great results.

Like a start-up, everyone does everything, no matter what title they have. There is no sense of entitlement, also the spirit we encourage.

We subscribe to learning by doing. We are more of a coach than assistant.

Fact is most entrepreneurs want to implement, reflect, take action and step-by-step, achieve their own results. But they do appreciate the effective questions we ask and the feedback we provide. Because we excel on the execution side - the “how are we going to get there, and keep it going” - the stuff they feel kind of lost trying to deal with at the university.

So we make great partners.

We underscore that you’ll not find more passionate allies. When you think you are ready to fly, we pull out all the stops - find allies, leverage resources, locate space, whatever it takes to move forward.

We are happy when your program grows in size, strength, and impact. When we help you get to the top of a mountain, we will arrive there also.

Tour by Goody Clancy

Another day, another tour. But this one was very special. The project managers and architects retained to do the feasibility study for UMass Boston’s new integrated science building visited the soon to be completed Venture Development Center.

This is a different team than the one which designed the Venture Development Center, which is Sasaki Associates and RDK Engineers.

The tone was set by John Benson, senior program manager at the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management, who said “This is a big bet for the campus.” He said its not hard to envision UMass Boston becoming the dominant campus in the system.

The Venture Development Center represents state-of-the-art in design for research and development, an intensely social activity, according to many on the team. Experience with similar projects at other universities has been positive, according to Chris Cowansage principal of sst planners.

The team thought we struck the right balance between supplied plug and play infrastructure and specialized equipment users would supply.

Benson also said the VDC is a good example of the new model in research and development parks “of” the university versus “at” the university.

The team had never seen video conferencing and broadcasting integrated in a lab, and did not understand why there were two plasma screens in each. We explained this is an advanced feature permitting remote collaboration.

The team also liked that private offices were not integrated into the labs, rather, being adjacent, allowing assignment flexibility. Not all will want an office. The team thought up to six persons could use one of the labs comfortably.

The team was really impressed by the measures taken to reduce energy use with high-efficiency lighting; advanced heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment; and many passive solar features. These will generate savings more than offsetting the cost of operating the facility.

What did they enjoy most of all? The vast expanse of glass and terrace overlooking the harbor. Bernard Dooley, senior associate at Goody Clancy, thought we’d be overwhelmed with people wanting to use the facility.

What services do we deliver?

With a puzzled look, I am often asked, by faculty, what services does the VDC deliver?

And I always answer by first saying who our client is. The client always is the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is an innovator who recognizes an opportunity to introduce something valuable, and who raises the necessary money, assembles the team and organizes an operation to exploit the opportunity.

In our university setting, entrepreneurs are easily recognized, the ones who create a new program, consortia, center, organization, product, process or company. Their motivation varies - might be social impact, commercial gain or creative expression. But all want to make a genuine different.

But they have a powerful vision for what they’d like to create at the university. And they want to find a way to make it happen.

A large organization's bureaucracy is not kind to entrepreneurs. It wears them down. We love entrepreneurs, though, because they are moving the university forward. We are really good at mobilizing the university behind them, lighting their load, speeding their progress, getting them recognition.

Usually we meet with the entrepreneur every month or so, helping them:

• Build a business case.
• Identify and obtain funding.
• Develop proposals and budgets.
• Create operational plans.
• Experiment with what works and doesn't.
• Set financial sustainability as an outcome.

We also recognize that for big thinkers, its the little things that make for out and out success, like help with university rules, regulations, agreements, the stuff they feel kind of lost trying to deal with.

What do you want to accomplish?

In conversations with faculty members, I hear over and over again that they have dozens of other priorities. The conversations inevitably move to what to throw overboard to make room for innovation.

Those seeking external funding for research really don't have choice: Not a day goes by without seeing a request for proposals from a funding agency looking for the transformative, the translational, the sustainable. But the fact that everybody says they are too busy to innovate demonstrates the yawning chasm between rhetoric and reality.

Conversations about what to stop doing are inherently difficult and divisive. Conversations about the best ways to pursue a specific goal are much more productive. They begin only if you have something worth doing, otherwise we won't find a way to make it happen.

The right question is: What do you want to accomplish? Decisions about how to assign resources are much easier when you have a great idea.

These questions seem to get the wheels turning in a positive direction, and unearth their real priorities:

1. What motivates you to go to work everyday?

2. When was the last time you proposed a new idea to your dean? How was that idea received?

3. If you could run the university by yourself for a day, what changes would you make and why?

4. If you could take a sabbatical, what would you do and why?

5. If you could work for any university of your choice, which one would it be and why?

6. If you could create your own business, what would it be and how would you run it?

I also ask these questions of myself to figure out how to make it easier for that faculty member to pursue their idea:

1. How have they been equipped to be an innovator? What training have they received? What tools have they been supplied with?

2. Do they have access to an innovation coach or mentor? Is there an innovation expert in their unit who will help them develop their breakout idea?

3. How easy is it for them to get access to experimental funding? How long would it take to get a few thousand dollars in seed money? How many levels of bureaucracy would they have to go through?

4. Is innovation a formal part of their job description? Does their compensation depend in part on their innovation performance?

5. Does the university’s management processes—budgeting, planning, staffing, etc.—support their work as an innovator or hinder it?

The truth about the university is there’s no shortage of ideas bouncing around. Like just about everything else, execution is the result of collaboration, decisiveness, discipline and hard work. All of which faculty members are quite good at when they are driven by a vision.

Social venturing for activists

so·cial en·ter·prise (n.)

An organization or venture that advances its social mission through entrepreneurial, earned income strategies.

This is a new model some non governmental organizations and donors are trying in the search for more powerful, lasting social impact. This model seems tailor made for a university campus like UMass Boston that prizes its engagement with the community to improve the human condition. I see growing interest in social enterprise as a strategy for addressing some of our most pressing problems.

It is not that hard to put together a for-profit arm, but to have it be a significant contributor to the core mission requires considerable strategic work. But my hunch is that the biggest challenge is that most social activists struggle to make the culture change that is required within the organization to even explore this model.

A social enterprise is one where the social aims are of equal importance to its commercial activities. Like any business, a social enterprise focuses on generating an income through the sale of goods and services to a market but the added value of a social enterprise comes from the way in which it uses its profits to maximize social, community or environmental benefits.

An announcement of this year's the winner of the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition represents a coming of age of sorts for social ventures. A social venture won the grand prize of what is arguably the leading business plan competition in the world. Diagnostic for All is a not-for-profit venture from Harvard University aimed at delivering cheap, dispensable diagnostic tests to impoverished countries.

Harvard Business School gave legitimacy and gravitas to social ventures by creating the Social Enterprise Initiative in 1993, which has published more than 400 cases and teaching notes on topics related to social enterprise. It was the first formal academic program in the field. HBS has a great article called The Future of Social Enterprise on the current state of the field.

On the donor side, social venturing is picking up steam, especially as a number of high-profile business leaders (like Bill Gates) adopt this model for their charitable giving.

On the seeking side, the competition for donations and gifts seems to get tighter every year. And so-called donor fatigue seems to be becoming almost epidemic. That is in part why organizations are exploring ventures.

Investors like it when you're making just enough to pay your program expenses. It shows you've thought about sustaining your venture; it shows you have the discipline to keep your expenses low; but above all, it means you don't need them. The reason they like it when you don't need them is because that quality is what makes ventures succeed. The more you don't need them, the more they will invest.

Non profits are actually really good at identifying unserved needs and opportunities for programs and services. They also know best how to tailor a service for their particular client base, and can provide the kinds of supports required to make such a venture work. These attributes can result in community-changing ventures.

Fourth Sector Network has teamed with the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest to produce a new edition of A BUSINESS PLANNING GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, a pragmatic tool to assess if the venture model is right for you and the range of stakeholders that have a connection with your program.

Interview with Mass Media

This interview with UMass Boston's student newspaper follows the post Standing Room Only about our new program to hook up students with ventures:

Mr. Brah, my name is Greg Bluestein and I report for UMB's Mass Media. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions on the upcoming program that you are working with concerning getting UMB students getting first picks on highly competitive internships.

Greg: What exactly is this program?

Bill: It’s a paid internship program that connects UMass Boston students with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies in the Boston metropolitan area. It was conceived by Dan Phillips, our Entrepreneur in Residence.

Greg: How can students become part of it?

Bill: They can attend the next session in two months where students can hear what it is like to work in a start-up, and to sign-up for a chance at an internship. We'll be sure to post the information in a variety of places in an effort to reach out to as many students as possible.

Greg: About how many students per year will be able to benefit from this program?

Bill: Its a pilot program so we'll know after this year. There are lots of opportunities and lots of students interested. Two students have already been selected by a start-up company. We are going to run a one-hour session every two months where students can hear what it is like to work in a start-up, and to sign-up for a chance at an internship. Over 80 students attended the first session on October 1st, and 30 submitted resumes.

Greg: How were you able to put this program together?

Bill: The Venture Development Center likes to say that it brings the innovation economy to the campus. We are beginning with our students. Phil Quaglieri, Dean of the College of Management, introduced us to Dan Phillips.

Dan has spent the last 25 years as an executive with four venture capital backed software companies. Two of these companies executed IPO’s and two were acquired by fortune 200 companies. The most prominent was as COO of Concord Communications which attained an $800,000,000 market cap and the most recent was as CEO of SilverBack Technologies which was acquired by Dell Inc.

After a few meetings, Phil and I decided to support Dan and offer venture internship opportunity to all students at UMass Boston.

Greg: How long will this program be running?

Bill: Its a one year pilot program. Dan is already trying to raise funds to scale it up for next year. A program like this must be staffed in order to be successful. Ideally, the students would receive academic credit too, so the challenge is to integrate the internships into the academic programs at UMass Boston.

Ideally, over the next three years, we’d like the venture backed firms to come to our students! With the opening of the VDC in early 2009, we will be able to house the venture backed firms and internships right here on campus, in Wheatley where our 18,000 sf center is in the final stages of being constructed.

Greg: Why was it created?

Bill: We want to establish UMass Boston as a key producer of talent needed by the innovation economy. UMass Boston students have all of the qualities venture backed start-up companies look for. They are smart, hungry, loyal, and work hard for everything they achieve. Yet they are overlooked. Venture firms normally go hunting for talent at places like Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Chicago, Stanford and Berkeley, where students literally line up for the opportunity. But Dan's connections to the area's venture capital firms allow UMass Boston students to be first in line for chances at internships at the portfolio companies they invest in in the Boston metropolitan area.

Greg: Has UMB ever created any program like this before? Where did the idea come from?

Bill: This is a first for UMass Boston, thanks to Dan Phillips. He has a great appreciation for the quality and culture of the UMass Boston student body as he has self funded his own Scholarship/Mentor program for UMass Boston students over the last 15 years. What a gratifying sight, students in a cue to give Dan their cards following his presentation on October 1st!

Greg: If there is anything else you think I should know that I have not asked about, please feel free to tell me.

Bill: Venture capital is a highly competitive industry and an internship can give students the experience needed to secure a good job in the future. Furthermore, an internship will allow them to meet people in the industry who they can later network with. Finding quality start up internship opportunities is extraordinarily difficult. Now UMass Boston students have the opportunity to hook up with a venture and live happily ever after!

Capitalism to the rescue

On Sand Hill Road, the wide avenue in Silicon Valley lined with some of the country’s most powerful venture-capital firms, hundreds of millions of dollars pours into green technologies, according to a feature in the New York Times.

Doing well has always been about timing. Many a sound plan has failed because it was too early or too late. But progressive investors could see this day coming, and a few of them now will make a lot of money.

In a stint a little over ten years ago with the Environmental Business Council of the US, we labored to rally the business community around the Clinton-Gore environmental technology strategy (Bridge to a Sustainable Future: National Environmental Technology Strategy) which we helped shape. Its gratifying to finally see the investor interest.

Some dismiss the greening of venture capital as their latest effort to make a lot of money, not to save the environment. Others are saying that the venture capitalists are recklessly betting the firm on perhaps an idealistic quest. If the results are positive, I say: What’s wrong with doing-well-by-doing-good?

Interview with Public Purpose magazine

Chancellor Motley, my name is Cheryl Fields, a writer for Public Purpose magazine, published by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. I am getting the perspectives of presidents and chancellors involved in developing innovative partnerships with business. I have spoken with Richard Antonak, William Brah, and Christine DePalma, so I have background information on what is going on with the Venture Development Center.

Fields: One thing I'm interested in is whether you see the VDC as more of an outlet to extend and commercialize your faculty members' research--or whether the overall aim is more in terms of the institution's commitment to (or the expectation from the state) to aid economic development.

Motley: I see the Venture Development Center as adding a powerful new dimension to our long-standing commitment to make a difference in the communities the University of Massachusetts Boston serves – locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Top faculty and students want the results of their research put to use for both social and economic betterment.

Fields: Is a major goal to attract more basic research funding for traditional faculty research?

Motley: Attracting more basic research funding is an ongoing goal here at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and certainly the Venture Development Center will strengthen our reputation as a research university. Equally important is that the VDC will help us attract top faculty and students who are interested in research and development.

Fields: Do you see the VDC as helping to use the advantage of your urban location to assist in the developing ideas from faculty or entrepreneurs in other areas of the state, for example, UMass-Amherst?

Motley: The University of Massachusetts Boston collaborates closely with the four other campuses of the UMass system. For example, the campuses recently completed a joint strategy for life science research and development, and we will continue to look for ways to collaborate and share the unique strengths of our individual campuses. We have encouraged the other campuses to use the Venture Development Center, and we will continue to do so.

Fields: In developing the center, did you receive advice froom other presidents involved in incubators and the like about what NOT to do?

Motley: Whenever you take on a project like this, you get a lot of suggestions and opinions. I think the greatest encouragement has been around thinking of and planning for the Venture Development Center as an investment in the future of the University of Massachusetts Boston, realizing that the benefits to our research efforts, reputation, and recruitment will be great.

Fields: Five years from now, what would success look like? What benchmarks will you use to measure the VDC's success?

Motley: What we are trying to do at the University of Massachusetts Boston is to build a more collaborative, more innovative urban research university. We have identified the areas of strength where we think we can grow and partner with others, including industry. So I look for the Venture Development Center to help catalyze this growth and collaboration, and when we start to see the benefits of that growth and collaboration, that will be an initial benchmark for success.

Fields: Thanks very much for your help with this story.

Why time begins at the end of your project

Why time begins at the end of your project

Satisfied with research results? Great. Have you thought of doing something with them that generates value beyond a publication? You work long and hard to secure a competitive grant. But you rarely stop and think of what is possible. Probably in part because it is beyond your experience, so it seems like a hugh mountain to climb.

But not any more. Sure, its still hard work, but you’ll have a partner. For us, research results are the beginning of the journey you thought was over.

We are good at putting results into motion through a variety of pathways to make a genuine difference.

Value creation is collaborative since few individuals possess the necessary range of skills to accomplish it on their own. You need deep thinkers who conceive the vision - you, plus those who can get the innovation really to work, and those who communicate the advantages of the innovation so it is used. We put this team together.

Some try do this on their own. Its possible, but mighty hard. Here on campus, the Boston Science Partnership is a great example. A little coaching from us can make what you are doing more competitive, more productive, and more impactful.

Why? We possess maniacal focus and drive and a willingness to take risk; move very quickly (after all, “better to fail quickly then to succeed too slowly”), and are motivated by limitless potential to make a difference. Its in our genes.

We call what we do innovation through collaboration. Why should you care? Because you want to see something come from all of your hard work and creativity. Its rewarding. How do we know? We've done it before, many times.

Reason #1 - You need to be connected

What’s impressive about Boston is not just scientific advances or technological breakthroughs. Instead, its edge derives from a habitat that is tuned to turn ideas into products and take them rapidly to market by creating new firms.

So why you want to be in Boston is to be connected to this ecosystem. At the VDC, you are connected. To leading research universities that interact with industry, an exceptionally talented and highly mobile work force, and experienced support services in such areas as finance, law, accounting, headhunting, and marketing, all specializing in helping ventures form and grow.

The VDC works closely with 31 other universities in the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Organization and the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center. We also work with the John Adams Innovation Institute, the Massachusetts Life Science Board, MassInsight Corporation. This network shapes strategic alliances among public and private universities, teaching hospitals, government and industry which expand the state’s research, development and economic leadership in emerging technologies, and translates these capabilities into commercial development activities.

Researchers investigate carbon neutrality

In a race for the greenest of the laurels, not a day goes by without another announcement about going “carbon neutral.”

Carbon neutral organizations are those that measure CO2 emissions, work to reduce or eliminate them, and then attempt to offset those that cannot be eliminated through schemes such as the purchase of carbon offsets, tree planting and clean energy alternatives.

Among the world's 195 nations, the starting pistol was fired earlier this year in Monaco at the annual meeting of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program. Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Costa Rica formally signed up to go zero carbon, competing to be the first to go entirely carbon neutral.

One United Nations member state already claims to have beaten them all. The Vatican announced last year that it was becoming the world's first – but is widely held to have cheated since it failed to count the carbon emitted by its traveling officials.

Among the many other entities that have made the carbon neutral pledge are Abbott, Dell, the Super Bowl, the Whole Foods, the World Bank—even rock bands like the Rolling Stones and Coldplay, and surfer Kelly Slater. New Hampshire University claims it is the first carbon-neutral university campus.

In the face of widespread concern about global warming, many organizations are going carbon neutral. Or are they?

Professors Amanda Ball and Markus Milne of the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) have been awarded a Marsden research grant ($824,000 over three years) to examine claims of being carbon neutral. Along with colleagues Professor David Levy (UMass - Boston) and Professor Kevin Anderson (Tyndall Centre at Manchester, UK), professors Ball and Milne will investigate organization and agency claims, policies, and practices in relation to carbon neutrality. This will be achieved through a series of in-depth case studies of organizations that are pursuing this goal, along with evidence from certification agencies, auditors, and others involved in measuring, managing and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.

Credible carbon neutrality programs require serious attention to emissions reduction prior to offsetting. So far, however, little work has attempted to systematically understand the actual dynamics of organizational emissions reduction programs, key motives that drive or inhibit action, or critically scrutinize obvious tensions and paradoxical motives between organizational desires to reduce ecological impacts and desires to grow and succeed economically. Achieving carbon neutrality requires organizations to think differently as well as change their practices. The researchers aim to uncover exactly what managers in an array of organizations mean by ‘carbon-neutrality’, and how they believe it can be achieved in their organizations. This side of the issue has not yet been examined as fully as the economic and technological aspects.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has already set her country the goal of being the world's first carbon-neutral country. It aims to generate 90 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025, and to halve its transport emissions per head by 2040. But the country has a particular problem with agriculture, which accounts for half its emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Marsden Fund supports excellence in leading-edge research in New Zealand. Projects are selected annually in a rigorous process by nine panels of experts who are guided by the opinions of world-leading referees. The Fund is administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Levy has co-edited two books, titled, “The Business of Global Environmental Governance”, (MIT Press,2005), and "The Business of Climate Change", (Greenleaf Publishing, 2005).

Reason #2 - You are ready for action

The second reason to collaborate with the Venture Development Center:

We are better at action than anyone else. Talk is important. But when the time for talk is over, you turn to the VDC. We are passionate about putting into action creative ideas to make a genuine difference.

You are excellent at starting novel things. We excel on the execution side, the stuff you feel kind of lost trying to deal with at the university.

So, we make a great team.

Standing room only

Thanks to Entrepreneur in Residence, Dan Phillips, over 80 students, with some having to be turned away, came on October 1, 2008 to hear him talk about what it is like to work in a start-up, and to sign-up for a chance at an internship.

The firms like what they see at UMass Boston. Two students, Wararat Tipwimolratchai and Wei Tang, have already been selected by Brighton House Associates venture backed start-up company in Marlborough. There is much more to come.

The College of Management and the Venture Development Center are supporting a university-wide internship program targeted at students who want to work for venture-backed start up companies in the Boston metropolitan area.

These companies are in a range of businesses including novel cancer therapeutics, home care services to the elderly, natural pharmacy, low-cost battery system, advanced microarray instruments, on-demand social media platform, and digital semiconductors.

Students can step into a job needing no more assistance than any other senior level employee. All students are welcome.

There's no doubt that venture capital is a highly competitive industry and an internship can give students the experience needed to secure a good job in the future. Furthermore, an internship will allow them to meet people in the industry who they can later network with.

Finding quality start up internship opportunities is extraordinarily difficult. Students at places like MIT and Stanford line up for jobs. But for the first time, UMass Boston students have the opportunity. What a gratifying sight, students in a cue to give Dan their cards following his presentation!

Dan has spent the last 25 years as an executive with four venture capital backed software companies. Two of these companies executed IPO’s and two were acquired by fortune 200 companies. The most prominent was as COO of Concord Communications which attained an $800,000,000 market cap and the most recent was as CEO of SilverBack Technologies which was acquired by Dell Inc.

Satisfying two masters

Not a day goes by without seeing a request for proposals from a federal science agency seeking “interdisciplinary efforts to address scientific challenges leading to a new and truly transformative approach.”

Arguably, the most dynamic research at disciplinary frontiers and in novel terrains is interdisciplinary. But you have to defy gravity to achieve it. Because every day, biologists just talk to biologists, economists talk to economists, and psychologists to psychologists.

Even in notably successful interdisciplinary research programs, where there is a concerted effort to integrate of knowledge and modes of thinking, the approval of peers sways assessment. Researchers often are forced to evaluate the degree to which their work is reasonably consistent with antecedent disciplinary knowledge.

This is the conclusion of a paper entitled “Assessing Interdisciplinary Work at the Frontier” by Veronica Boix Mansilla and Howard Gardner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In their study, they looked at the way in which the quality of interdisciplinary work is determined at exemplary interdisciplinary institutes and programs around the nation.

At the end of the day, success of faculty is tied to disciplinary recognition. Sure, there is a tremendous sense of freedom associated to breaking disciplinary rules, and trying to transform understanding.

But interdisciplinary work takes a lot of effort. A lot of compromises and negotiations are in order. Members of interdisciplinary research programs have to spend time to recognize the relevance of others' findings to their own scholarship.

The authors conclude that interdisciplinary work gains its strength from its keen awareness of the provisional status of its findings. When you are at the cutting edge of anything, by definition you're taking risks that most do not take.

Reason #3 - You need a navigator

Another reason to collaborate in the Venture Development Center:

You just can't sprinkle your idea with pixie dust to make it happen. You know that. But you wish you could, don't you?

Nine times out of ten you are better explaining where you want to go but not how you are going to get there.

Not to worry. This is where the VDC's team of professionals come in. We excel on navigating the execution side, the stuff you feel kind of lost trying to deal with. As part of your team, we work with you to assemble everything you need to be successful.

We will adeptly steer you around those who will tell you that what you are doing can't be done, shouldn't be done, and isn't necessary. And then of course there are the university policies and procedures we know how to comply with.

Our team has a few internal center start-ups under our belt. And our entrepreneur in residence has done four software companies. Need we say more?

Reason #4 - You prefer to work in a team

Another reason to work in the Venture Development Center:

From the moment you step through our doors, you'll know that this is not business as usual.

We vanquished the solo investigator lab, substituting open labs. We shrank offices to the minimum, substituting work pods for teams. (To underscore the point, we even included two stand-up private offices.) And we provided lots of places where researchers can congregate outside their labs or offices to talk with one another, exchange ideas and write-up results.

Why did we do this? Because modern research and development is an intensely social activity. So the VDC’s designers delivered a program that facilitates interaction, flexibility and sharing.

The program supports research clusters, designed to enable scholars to better exchange ideas and explore emerging research areas and to work more effectively with industry, other research organizations and the community. We've learned that collaboration creates synergy, excitement, and creativity. Besides, we hear from students that employers want graduates who are prepared to meet the multidisciplinary needs of the world, integrating what they have learned in disparate fields.

We really pushed the concept. As networks connect people and organizations, sharing data within a team and with other research teams becomes key. Our technology enables you to include your colleagues scattered around town or the world, even in the labs.

Reason #5 - You need speed

Another reason to work in the Venture Development Center:

We told our IT folks: “Big science will be done here. Have at it.”

They delivered. The VDC is the fastest place on the UMass Boston campus. Universal CAT 6A connections everywhere linked by fiber optic cable to the data center which is connected to Internet2.

The IT folks did not stop there. Because you also have to be able to dynamically visualize data, not just process or store it, we installed a full high definition plasma display, at 103”, the largest in the world.

Now you can take advantage of the new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, and experience a whole new way of understanding the world. So go sequence an entire ecosystem.

We think big so you can too.

Think like a sponsor

You are pitching a sponsor whether a program officer from a foundation, science agency or a private investor. Instead of thinking about you, think about them. Everything then changes, in your favor.

What is the sponsor most interested in? We can answer this question with a few observations from our experience being both funding seekers and givers.

Contrary to popular belief, the sponsor is not thinking, “Is this venture going to make a lot of money?” or “is this venture going to have an impact?” That is the simple question that most think they are answering, but they are missing the crux of the investment process.

What the sponsor is really thinking is, “Is this venture the best next investment for me and my fund?” That is a much more complex issue, but that is what you have to pitch. So, you have to figure out how your venture fits with other investments the individual sponsor has made and the investments the sponsor is chartered to make.

The sponsor is also thinking, "Will my investment increase your venture's capacity to be self-sufficient or it's attractiveness to other sponsors?" Most sponsors do not take on a permanent funding commitment. So, you have to present milestones and say how you will use the requested investment to accomplish the milestones, in order to move the venture from one stage to the next, and meet the sponsor's objectives.

Investors like it when you're making just enough to pay your program expenses. It shows you've thought about sustaining your venture, instead of just working on amusing technical problems; it shows you have the discipline to keep your expenses low; but above all, it means you don't need them.

You may still need investment to make it big, but you don't need it next month. The reason they like it when you don't need them is because that quality is what makes ventures succeed.

The investor wants to say "Oh, those folks can take care of themselves. They'll be fine." Not "those folks are really smart" or "those folks are working on a great idea."

Reason # 6 - You want to make a difference

Another reason to check out the Venture Development Center:

We like to feel good about the business missions we support. That is why we seek out those who are pursuing double or triple bottom line ventures - those who set out with a vision to build a profit focused company that is socially and environmentally positively impacting the world.

UMass Boston is a magnet for those dedicated to improving people’s lives using the power of enterprise as a powerful force for change. It has outpaced the nation in the growth of sponsored social science research. Most of this research is driven by a desire for social change, and it is shared with society in a way to have an impact. And through its many ethnic institutes, it has a finger on the pulse of the world. We know that there are opportunities all over the world for social enterprises that commercial enterprises have missed. We can help you to see and seize a gap in the market.

Reason # 7 - You see things differently

Another reason why the Venture Development Center is for you:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."*

*"Think Different" is an advertising campaign created in 1997 for Apple. The commercials end with an image of a young girl opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

Reason # 8 - You need to leverage talent

Another reason why the Venture Development Center is for you:

All start ups have too much to do, in too little time, without enough resources. Your workforce is typically very expensive, however with limited resources, you often are required to use your high priced talent to accomplish everything.

Our student interns provide great value in database entry, database scrubbing, and data verification; event and lead generation; market research; scripted cold calling for webinar, seminar, and event attendance; collection and analysis of data to determine effectiveness or outcomes; lab tests on blood, tissue and body fluids; first level hardware and software support; scripting and code development; accounting assistance and business modeling. They are smart, hungry, loyal, and work hard for everything they achieve.

Our faculty comprise an outstanding translational research community in human development, biological systems, computational science and environmental monitoring, and can solve technical problems, engage in joint development and verify results.

The cultural diversity of UMass Boston's research community and its distinction as one of the most productive of small research universities adds to the robustness of your solutions.

Reason #9 - You need a place where you can do good work

Another reason why the Venture Development Center is for you:

As a lean technical team looking for a place to get started on your venture, you often face the choice between looking impressive, and being impressive.

You could find a cheap deal to share bench or office space in a cube farm or some dreary building in the suburbs that's a wasteland when the sun goes down. Not great since you’ll be practically living in the space, coming back to work after dinner when the phone stops ringing.

Leasing corporate space closer to the action is beyond your reach at the moment. You don't know what your needs will be six months from now and don't want to be locked into paying for space you do not need.

But after investigating what’s available, you quickly find that you have to compromise. Until now.

The VDC brings you the latest in research and development space design with flexible terms that work for you. In our 18,000 sf facility, you can plug in and get to work, almost immediately, and your team can expand or contract as you go. Plus, you can take a walk or run, smelling the ocean instead of traffic.

Reason #10 - You want to build something of lasting value

Another reason why the Venture Development Center is for you:

Inside your research program there is a venture screaming to be set free. A venture might include a subscription newsletter or journal, fee-for-service research, testing, or design operation, or even a product. Researchers rarely stop and think about what is possible.

Having a venture helps you meet the challenge of maintaining the capacity to continue to implement the ideas and approaches begun under a grant. It also helps your program officer show that what resulted from their investment and effort has value beyond the term of the grant.

Most sponsors these days aren’t simply dispersing money but casting a hard eye on results. They’re expecting impact long after their funding is withdrawn.

Most researchers are not prepared to deal with this. They tend to go from grant to grant assuming that just because their mission is worthy, or they achieve good results, their program will continue.

The VDC helps our partners meet this challenge. We begin by asking the right questions. Not at the end of a grant, when it is too late, but at the beginning, so progress can be tracked just like the other outcomes. We also help clients change the pitch they make to sponsors so they'll be more likely to invest.

We'll coach you through a pragmatic step-by-step, test-and-learn process that enables you to see and seize revenue opportunities. You'll learn how to build sustainability into your strategy. It will save you headaches and heartaches down the line.

California v. Massachusetts

If you haven't noticed, California and Massachusetts are going head-to-head on biotech and clean energy leadership. Governors Schwarzenegger and Patrick both aim to attract the top scientists and companies to their state.

At the Biotechnology International Convention in San Diego, Schwarzenegger stated that, “California is the place to set-up shop.” He touted $73 billion in annual revenue for the California biomedical industry, which he added, “excludes the sales of Botox.”

As the competition heats up, I am keeping an eye on what is happening out west. It appears that they are pulling out all the stops.

The San Francisco Business Times reports that Segway users now will be able to bring the scooters on BART (as in MBTA) with some limited restrictions. The BART board approved a one-year pilot program covering guidelines for using Segways on BART. The newspaper estimates that only 15 to 20 Segway owners ride BART.

Getting down to the business of creativity

The Venture Development Center team consumes vast quantities of research results that bear on how large unwieldy organizations manage to think and work in new ways to achieve superior performance.

Here are some interesting snippets from Getting Down to the Business of Creativity published on May 14, 2008 by Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Three faculty members discuss where creativity comes from, how entrepreneurs use it, and why innovation is often a team sport.

"The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it's in the arts, sciences, or business.”

Research demonstrates the causal relationship between emotion and creativity, “with positive emotion tied to higher creativity and negative feelings linked to lower motivation and creativity.”

So what can managers do to promote a healthy, positive work life among employees? A pat on the back is always welcome. But research shows that “people have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.”

(This reminds me of one comment universally endorsed that appears in the report of the Research and Graduate Studies Committee during UMass Boston's strategic planning process about reengineering internal business processes to be a tailwind versus a headwind.)

“Maximum diversity in cultures, disciplines, and backgrounds—the intersection where creativity is most likely to occur.”

"In business, people can go only so far by doing things the way they have always been done. In entrepreneurship especially, it is essential to perceive opportunities that others have not, and to pursue them in novel yet appropriate ways at every stage of the game. Such creative solutions will be necessary for managers to help solve the socioeconomic challenges of the future."

"As a manager, you need to create a culture that will convince people to kick off the filters they're used to applying and to think more broadly. It is the shift in the mindset of employees that can prove most difficult."

The new wave in research parks

UMass Boston’s Venture Development Center represents the new model of research parks integrated into the fabric of the university, according to a report, "Characteristics and Trends in North American Research Parks: 21st Century Directions", prepared by Battelle's Technology Partnership Practice (TPP) in partnership with the Association of University Research Parks (AURP).

Today’s research parks differ substantially from the model that emerged in the 1970’s. Most early research parks were first and foremost real-estate development projects. The companies that located in the parks usually had few, if any, actual ties to the university. In the 1990s, research parks began to place greater emphasis on supporting incubation and entrepreneurship. Like the Venture Development Center, the newest versions create an innovative environment with free and frequent exchange of information between academic researchers and their industry counterparts, the report says.

"A new model is emerging," said Walter H. Plosila, Vice-President, Battelle TPP, when the report was released at the AURP Annual Conference. "What we're seeing are strategically planned, mixed-use campuses designed to create an environment that fosters collaboration and innovation and promotes the development, transfer and commercialization of technology."

Challenges facing the integrated research park include bridging cultural barriers between the academic and business communities and facilitating a true partnership. Parks must continue to serve as an intermediary that understands both cultures and creatively fosters integrated, collaborative efforts, the report says.

Most research parks have very few resources in their early stages and do not generate sufficient revenue to be self-supporting. “Parks need diversified funding sources, and investments in research parks need to be considered as investments in a region’s economic development infrastructure,” the report states.

The TTP survey of 174 university research parks in the United States and Canada revealed that:

* More than 300,000 workers in North America work in a located in a university research park.
* Every job in a research park generates an average of 2.57 jobs in the economy resulting in a total employment impact of more than 750,000 jobs.

Important success factors for technology-led economic development include the commitment of university leadership and the local economic development community. This report quantifies actual results of science parks as an important economic development tool.

A full copy of "Trends and Characteristics in North American Research Parks: 21st Century Directions" can be found at http://www.aurp.net/more/pr102607.cfm.

A sign of good things to come

An article last week in the Boston Business Journal titled “Schools boost tech-transfer efforts, and VCs take note” included an apt remark by UMass President Jack Wilson. Emphasizing the importance of championing entrepreneurial activity, he said: "If you’re not doing these things you’re not going to be a great university. And by the way, you’re not going to attract the best faculty and you’re not going to attract the best students.”

Maybe that is why President Wilson beamed when he toured the future home of the UMass Boston Venture Development Center. I know it is how I felt last week when I showed the nearly completed 18,000 SF metal and glass high-tech facility to a candidate for a department chair at UMass Boston. This candidate not only has outstanding scientific credentials, but is a leader in furthering diversity by training underrepresented minority students in science, and has formed a company with a few graduate students that needs a home.

The Venture Development Center is not just a recruitment strategy though. It is a powerful new way for UMass Boston’s faculty, staff and students to express their passion to drive lasting change, either in society or the economy or both, in response to opportunities to create new products and services that dramatically improve people’s lives.

Watch out Boston, we are on the move!

Uncovering lore (and much more) in Skagafjörður

A few dozen shaggy sheep graze at Stóra-Seyla, a farm in a fjord valley in the northern part of Iceland named Skagafjörður. Beneath them deep in the wind-blown deposits lie the remains that archaeologists believe document the wrenching transition of Iceland from chiefdoms to state. The Skagafjordur Archaeological Settlement Survey (SASS) led by UMass Boston’s John Steinberg has had to develop novel techniques to understand what happened during the transition.

Icelandic history is largely informed by sagas, which give fascinating details into the lives of people living during the Viking and Middle Ages. The level of historical accuracy is widely debated, with some seeing the sagas as fairly accurate while others the texts as mere myth making amongst a hero-obsessed culture. Still others see an unwritten saga that needs to be told.

Iceland was one of the last places on earth to be settled. The first settlers were chieftains, wealthy farmers, and their households fleeing state consolidation in Norway over a thousand years ago. The resulting settlements of chiefs and autonomous farmers meant that each held large territories by virtue of first possession and their ability to muster the might to defend them.

Steinberg’s previous research has demonstrated that about 150 years after the first settlement, smaller farmsteads were split off from the larger, earlier farmsteads. This split was a critical step in the development of a society of landed landlords and tenants, resulting in pronounced disparities in wealth and status. The sagas describe the fierce competition among the thirty chieftains over several hundred years that ended in civil war and the King of Norway taking control of Iceland.

The SASS team is comparing Stóra-Seyla to two other nearby farmstead clusters in Skagafjordur identified in previous survey work. This will provide data to answer questions concerning how chiefly strategies both adapt and fail. For example, were small farms split off as a result of population growth, economic opportunity, or environmental degradation? Answering these and other basic economic questions about the development of social inequality is an objective of the SASS program.

Archeology is difficult in Iceland. There are virtually no trees, so buildings were constructed from turf. Overgrazing caused all the soil from the highlands to eventually blow onto the coastal regions, covering a substantial percentage of the productive land. As a result, the archeology is deeply buried and therefore invisible, especially in the most important areas.

Steinberg, a senior scientist at UMass Boston’s Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research, addressed this problem by using sophisticated equipment that measures the electrical conductivity and resistance of soil. The turf used in construction has a much lower conductivity, so electrical patterns reveal where walls are located. Once these buried structures are located, dating their construction material is routine because of the volcanic ash layers that are in the walls and cover them.

Steinberg’s techniques allow rapid excavation with a small crew. “We can see what we are going to find before we find it,” noted Steinberg in an interview this summer on Icelandic television, sparing the landscape from large-scale excavation.

The SASS team has been working in Skagafjörður since 2001. During the excavation this summer, a number of rare finds were uncovered, including a Viking Age ring pin and an unusual copper coin. The ring pin is a plain ring with a polyhedral head. It has a chevron pattern on the shank and a dot pattern on the head. The copper coin is intriguing as most Viking Age coinage was silver.

Steinberg’s ultimate goal is to understand the radical transition in property systems and what it means for sustainability. For centuries, the settlers managed to live in a free state and avoid destroying their land before the transition.

In 2007, Harcourt Trade published a book called The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, by Nancy Brown which recounts Steinberg’s archaeological advances which Brown observed during her volunteer stint with SASS. They are woven in a story of a chieftain’s daughter-in-law compelled by the exigencies of a feudal economy to sail across the North Atlantic in search of new pasturelands.

The SASS program is funded by the National Science Foundation.

How the world understands your brand

This is a visual representation of how Google sees the content on our web site. The size and color of each word reflects how frequently it appears in the overall page. Google doesn't care how our site looks. Only the words we use on our site form the online brand. I think we got it right.

These images were generated using a tool at http://wordle.net/.

Grant and sponsored program activity achieves another record

During the 2006-2007 academic year, UMass Boston set a new record for grant and sponsored program awards— $45,435,687, an 8.77% increase over FY07 and a total increase of nearly 50% in the last six years. UMass Boston received 312 awards, a 28.93% increase over FY07. A total of 351 proposals were submitted. Also in FY08, a total of 592 active sponsored programs (a 12.76% increase over FY07) expended $38,895,922 (a 12.48% increase over FY07).

UMass Boston’s researchers work long and hard to be successful. With their fingers on the pulse of the region and its needs, they create the new knowledge that helps drive the growth of the region’s economy. Their grant and sponsored program activity also strengthens the social fabric of the region by supporting neighborhoods and providing arts and cultural activities for thousands of people. Whatever the topic their research addresses, the goal is impact. We celebrate their success!

Bringing new ideas to life

In about eight weeks, an 18,000 sf high-tech metal-and-glass innovation center will be substantially completed in the former cafeteria in the heart of Wheatley Hall on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The construction has been managed so well that most don’t even know its underway. When we take people on tours of the work in progress, their jaws drop. Its so different, most say, so well, like UMass Boston we want to see.

What better symbol of the institution’s transformation than a place that celebrates its visionaries? They are the team-builders, risk-takers and change-makers in our midst. You know them well. They are the ones who see things differently. The ones driven by passion to make a big difference. The ones who don't worry about current resources or fuss about who gets what since there will be plenty for all. You can praise them or vilify them, but you can’t ignore them. Because they are creating the future of the university.

And now, finally, they have a place to call their own, a home away from home. Its called the Venture Development Center (VDC). What will they do in this place? Last year, we gathered thirty-five visionaries to ask this question. Our architect, world-renowned Sasaki Associates Inc., listened carefully:

• The group wanted a place with raw edges to reflect our urban roots yet abundant with amenities, one that would delight their colleagues at the bench and in the boardroom.
• They wanted a place with advanced yet easy to use technology that enables any-time, any-place collaboration.
• They wanted a place insulated from daily business where they can experiment with what works and doesn’t without disturbing their current workspace.
• They wanted a place where their partners from industry and other research organizations can work side-by-side with them for an extended time.
• They wanted blazing fast electronic connections to manipulate and visualize large data sets.
• They wanted a place to relax, in a coffee bar or bookstore like atmosphere where they can informally discuss.
• They wanted a secure, private place to repair to think and reflect.
• And they also wanted professional support, so good they wouldn’t mind paying for it.

The resulting program gives them what they want, and more. The design features:

• Four small group collaboration spaces for teams to develop plans and proposals.
• One large presentation space for video conferencing and presentations.
• Six labs - two with with fume hoods and two without, and two dry labs, for experimenting with ideas, proving concepts.
• Ten temporary offices for individual work.
• A display area for receptions and showcasing work.
• A lounge and terrace for relaxing while enjoying stunning views of the harbor.

Want a visiting scientist to be with you for a while? Want to present research results to a very important group? Want to have a reception impress donors or sponsors? No problem.

Visions need a great process to realize their potential. That is where our team of professionals come in. You excel on the technical side, we excel on the execution side, the stuff you feel kind of lost trying to deal with. As part of your team, we work with you to assemble everything you need to be successful. We help you rapidly experiment with what works and doesn't, build support, and mobilize resources. When you succeed so do we.

The VDC itself was a vision only a few years ago. It is the kind of bold innovation we help you bring about in your own areas.

So, send us the visionaries. The ones who see abundance. The future of the university depends upon it.

Supercharging life science

Beacon Hill, with strong backing from the life science industry, has approved a $1 billion, 10-year life science initiative, a cornerstone of Governor Patrick's economic strategy. He hopes the bill will lure biotechnology companies to the state, creating high-paying, quality jobs while holding onto scientists and researchers at state institutions.

The bill includes $250 million in tax credits for life sciences companies that agree to create jobs in the Commonwealth. Another $250 million is set aside for research grants to encourage those conducting the cutting edge research to stay in Massachusetts.

The remaining $500 million would be dedicated for major construction and improvement projects designed to benefit the industry. One of those is a $10 million Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy at UMass Boston in partnership with the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center. UMass Boston was quick to win one of the initial $750,000 grants from the new life sciences center board, responsible for allocating the new state funds, for start-up funds to recruit a nationally prominent scientist to lead the Center. Overall, UMass won over one-quarter of the $1 billion life science bill for various projects.

In another bond bill approved this year by Beacon Hill lawmakers is $2.2 billion, 10-year higher education bill to help pay for new building and renovation projects at the state's public universities and colleges. As part of the bond bill, UMass Boston will receive $125 million in new funding the bulk of which will fund a new integrated sciences building.

The state investments in science and technology come at a time when federal research investments are shrinking as a share of the U.S. economy, just as other nations are increasing their investments, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Federal investment in research will fall in real terms for the fifth year in a row. Massachusetts’ young scientists are stuck behind their mentors in a federal funding queue that is stalling promising careers in academic research and development.

At a hearing in March of this year on a report called "A Broken Pipeline," Senator Edward Kennedy warned: "If we lose the talents of a generation of young researchers, we put in peril not only medical progress, but our leadership in life sciences too," he said. "A culture of innovation and discovery does not just happen. It must be nurtured or it will wither."

The new state investments come on the heals of an economic stimulus bill two years ago through which UMass Boston obtained $5 million for an 18,000 SF Venture Development Center, opening early next year. The Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy is expected to be a magnet for young scientists requiring small, reasonably priced office and lab space in the Venture Development Center for starting their own companies.

Massachusetts is “the gold standard” according to the Milken Institute’s 2008 State Technology and Science Index. The surge in authorized borrowing this year has signaled that Massachusetts will not be outdone when it comes to science and technology, and that UMass is a cornerstone of the state’s strategy.

Popping a quantum balloon

When a tiny, quantum-scale, hypothetical balloon is popped in a vacuum, what happens to the particles inside?

This is a deceptively complicated question, the subject of debate among theoretical physicists studying nature at the subatomic level. Predicting if chaos or regularity prevails there is also important to scientists who are trying to harness quantum's bizarre wave and particle like behavior to advance nanotechnology.

Dr. Maxim Olchanyi, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Department of Physics, thinks the answer is chaos … sort of. Writing in the April 17, 2008 edition of Nature, he reported that when an observer attempts to measure the energies of particles coming out of a quantum balloon, the interference caused by the attempt throws the system into a final, “relaxed” state analogous to the chaotic scattering of air molecules. The result is the same for any starting arrangement of particles since the act of measuring wipes out the differences between varying initial states.

“It’s enough to know the properties of a single stationary state of definite energy of the system to predict the properties of the thermal equilibrium (the end state),” Olchanyi said in a press release issued by the University of Southern California, where he began his research.

The measurement – which must involve interaction between observer and observed, such as light traveling between the two – disrupts the “coherent” state of the system, Olchanyi said. In mathematical terms, the resulting interference reveals the final state, which had been hidden in the equations describing the initial state of the system.

“The thermal equilibrium is already encoded in an initial state,” Olchanyi said. “You can see some signatures for the future equilibrium. They were already there but more masked by quantum coherences.”

Olchanyi’s finding level extends into the world of applications, where scientists require reliable predictions in order to develop quantum-scale semiconductors. Quantum computing is gaining attention as manufacturers rapidly reach the limit on how much smaller chips can be. Because quantum particles can exist in multiple states at the same time, they could be used to carry out many calculations at once, factoring hugh numbers in just seconds. But to exploit this power, researchers must prevent coherent systems from falling into the chaos of thermal equilibrium.

Paolo Zanardi, an associate professor of physics studying quantum information at USC College, said in the USC interview: “Finding such ‘unthermalizable’ states of matter and manipulating them is exactly one of those things that quantum information/computation folks like me would love to do. Such states would be immune from ‘decoherence’ (loss of quantum coherence induced by the coupling with environment) that’s still the most serious, both conceptually and practically, obstacle between us and viable quantum information processing.”

Modern technology already operates at a scale where quantum effects are significant. Examples include the laser, the transistor, the electron microscope, and magnetic resonance imaging. But further exploitation at the nanoscale is only in its infancy.

The National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Resarch funded the research of Olchanyi and his co-authors, postdoctoral researchers Marcos Rigol and Vanja Dunjko.