With a new year upon us, there is no better time than the present to start actually abiding by that New Year's resolution to start reading more. If you are an entrepreneur, chances are you may feel like you simply don't have time to read for fun, but it is very important that you do what you can to start reading more. Reading is a great way to expand your mind, learn new things and read about skills that can translate into a more successful business. Here's a free guide to the stock market that I created.

University College London (UCL) has launched the UCL Technology Fund to invest £50 million in commercialising its world-leading research.

The Fund will be used to support academics whose research has commercial potential, with funding for early stage proof of concept, licensing projects and new spinout companies.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama announced a "moonshot" program to cure cancer. Obama named Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer last year, to lead the government effort, which could even have bipartisan appeal. In 2015, House Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which raises funding and lowers barriers for audacious medical research. (The Senate is considering its own version.) The bill's sponsor (and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee), Fred Upton, tweeted his support for the Obama-Biden effort.

We asked Corey Pierson ENG’04/WG’10, Founder of Custora, what he thinks the next big thing in analytics will be:

Globalization was once driven almost exclusively by the world’s governments, large multinational corporations, and major financial institutions. But now—thanks to digital platforms with global reach—artisans, entrepreneurs, app developers, freelancers, small businesses, and even individuals can participate directly. New research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) uses novel data to analyze the extent of the connections and their economic impact.

In the alphabet soup that is today’s crowded C-suite, few roles attract as much attention as that of the chief digital officer, or CDO. While the position isn’t exactly new, what’s required of the average CDO is. Gone are the days of being responsible for introducing basic digital capabilities and perhaps piloting a handful of initiatives. The CDO is now a “transformer in chief,” charged with coordinating and managing comprehensive changes that address everything from updating how a company works to building out entirely new businesses. And he or she must make progress quickly.

Obviously, college is more than just football games and dorm parties — it's also a lot of work. But some students are working harder than others.

Niche, a company that researches and compiles information on schools, analyzed its data to find the colleges where students work the hardest.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

The age-old debate over whether entrepreneurship can be taught or is part of something innate rages on. In Western Australia, a new report suggests that entrepreneurship can indeed be taught – and not only that but the best place to do it is in university – a theory that flies directly in the face of the belaboured ‘drop-out entrepreneur’ stereotype.

QUESTION: I’ve had a (business) on the side for awhile and I’m thinking of doing it full-time. Now I’m not so sure. When I was telling a friend he said he’d read somewhere that more entrepreneurs are failing than ever before. This was news to me. Is he correct?

Gillespie: Entrepreneurship has been in decline since the latter part of the twentieth century. But with all those other issues of the day to contend with this is not something that has garnered a lot of attention over the years.

Join the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA) at their 2016 Annual Conference. The CDVCA Annual Conference 2016 will be held on Thursday and Friday, March 17 and 18 at the Washington Plaza Hotel Washington D.C. preceded by an Introductory Workshop on Wednesday, March 16. The CDVCA Annual Conference is the premier training and networking event for anyone interested in developmental venture capital, including social venture capital and impact investment fund managers, emerging fund managers, investors, economic development professionals, foundation officers, government officials, and other policy makers.

Register here or visit CDVCA’s website for more information.

In the latest of Deloitte’s report, entitled, 2016 Canadian Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions, there is a little bit of news for everybody and some may be surprising.  For instance, the millennial generation of 18-24 year olds is the most pro-PC group of all age groups in 2016.  Even though they are certainly the ‘smartphone generation,’ they will purchase and use a PC more than any other age group in 2016.  Deloitte’s survey shows that 25-percent of the 18-24 year old Canadians intend on purchasing a new laptop in 2016.  In fact, 93-percent have access to a laptop versus the 91-percent that have access to a smartphone – of course this will soon change.  They consider the PC and smartphones as compliments to one another, not a replacement.

Accelerators are one of the best ways to launch a company or simply boost its growth, but all accelerators are not created equal.

I’ve had the privilege of participating in two accelerators, each in different states with different ecosystems. There has been a flood of new accelerators pop up, and choosing the right accelerator for your business can be a make or break decision. If you boil it down, founders should look for three things in an accelerator: strategic program offerings, founder-friendly terms and a vertically supportive ecosystem, meaning the individuals, organizations and institutions that cultivate entrepreneurs, ultimately increasing their chance of success.

Image: http://www.arkansasbusiness.com

On a sunny day on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, the peaceful rustling of eucalyptus trees belies the furious chemical activity happening inside every single leaf. Through photosynthesis, leaves use the energy in sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into substances that plants need, emitting only oxygen in the process. In a nearby lab, chemist Peidong Yang is building an artificial system that does the same, using arrays of nanowires coupled with engineered bacteria. If something like this is ever scaled up, it would churn out a better version of the fuels we use today—one that does not add to the total amount of carbon dioxide in the air.

It’s been a frenetic couple of weeks between Consumer Electronics Show and J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference so now it’s time to take a broader look at what investors took away from them. The latter conference has certainly evolved since its start as Hambrecht & Quist.

Serial entrepreneur West Shell III, founder and CEO of Conversa Health who could recall attending in its early days, said the conference used to be dominated by public companies. In recent years it’s evolved to attract much more diverse private biotech and health IT companies at all stages of development and investors with a similar range of strategies.

Investments in crowdfunded technology are set to increase seven-fold from an estimated $1.1 billion in 2015 to $8.2 billion by 2020, according to “Crowdfunding: Strategies & Impacts for Technology Markets 2016-2020,” a new study conducted by Juniper. The study expects the crowdfunding industry to “see an accelerated growth from the lucrative, but less well-known, method of funding known as ‘equity crowdfunding’.”

Venture capital and investment banking can be hard to tell apart for many outside of the financial industry. While these two types of financial firms are similar, they are also quite different. Here's a quick breakdown of the differences you need to know.

First, what is venture capital? Venture capital is a type of investment capital where the venture capital firm invests in a new or fast growing business or start-up that have the potential for significant returns, but also a high risk of loss.

Our livers rested, our business cards sheathed – one more year of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference has come and gone. Given that the week was relatively quiet in terms of breaking news, the focus rested more solidly on trend analysis, moodiness – and what was not said. It also showed undercurrents of change.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be publishing year-end datagraphics to recap global private equity, venture capital and M&A activity in 2015.

First up is our PE summary, as investors worldwide found success on the fundraising trail with a record 85.1% of vehicles reaching or beating their initial fundraising targets. Deal flow was relatively steady throughout the year (4Q numbers will undoubtedly grow as deal announcements roll in), and capital invested numbers were healthy. The open exit market remained one of the notable stories of 2015, with more a half trillion dollars netted in realized investments.

Image: http://pitchbook.com/

My son’s karate teacher recently asked his young students, “What’s the one thing you really want to improve on in the new year?” Hands shot up immediately, with responses like “Watch less TV!” and “Improve my karate form!” and “Work on my time management!” He asked each student to get more specific, write down the goal, and bring it to the next class. With a wide grin, he told the kids to expect that he would periodically stop class throughout the year to engage everyone around how they were doing.

Work munchies: they strike between breakfast and lunch, or an hour before you punch out. You could hold out for your next meal, but it’s not pretty when you get hangry.

So what should you reach for as you try to keep that New Year’s resolution? Fruits and vegetables are no-brainers. But for lots of reasons, walnuts are an optimal work snack, says Dr. Lenore Arab, a professor of medicine and disease prevention at UCLA.

Image: Danny Kim for TIME