New Zealanders need to change a prevailing ‘do-it-yourself’ mindset if we want to develop successful innovation districts in this country, says a Massey University entrepreneurship researcher.

Dr Rebecca Gill, the lead researcher for the Grow North Innovation District research project, will report her findings at a summit at Massey University’s Auckland campus today. The research investigates the opportunities and challenges to developing an innovation district in Auckland North, but also has implications for innovation hubs in other parts of Auckland and New Zealand.

Image: http://www.massey.ac.nz

Innovation is the critical ingredient to creating and growing a successful start-up, but innovation requires money – money that can be very hard to find, especially if your innovation is “high-risk/high-reward.”

Wouldn’t it be great if a venture capitalist investor came to Texas, offering $2.5 billion seed investments in cutting edge technologies created by early stage companies? The only thing that might make it better is if the investor took no stock in those companies, providing “non-dilutive” funding for the boldest entrepreneurs.

by Andrew Clark

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."

Translating these gripping phrases from Charles Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to Australian politics may seem presumptuous, but, hey, we're dealing with Malcolm Turnbull's government.

Image: Former Greek finance minister Yannis Varoufakis says Australia should switch from "rent" to "entrepreneurial profit". ABC  - http://www.afr.com

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – On November 25, UBI Global released the World Top University Business Incubator and Accelerator Rankings 2015. Live from Trafalgar Square in central London, UBI Global’s CEO, Ali Amin, announced the rankings through a broadcast streamed on ubi-global.com.

On November 12, UBI Global hosted the last of its regional university business incubation awards of the year. The awards ceremony, which was held at EAN University in Bogotá, Colombia, recognized 16 High Impact Incubation Programs in Latin America.

The UBI Awards in Latin America was the fifth in a series of events that has seen the Swedish pioneers in measuring the performance of university business incubators from all over the world embark on an international tour between October 14 and November 12.

When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust. But new research from Stanford University will change your mind (and your attitude).

Psychologist Carol Dweck has spent her entire career studying attitude and performance, and her latest study shows that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ.

The Nordic Venture Performance Index 2014 shows indicates that the Nordic venture capital market has delivered better returns than selected Nordic public market equivalents and the Nasdaq 100 between 2000 and 2014.   By analysing 8 venture capital firms, 26 funds and 515 portifolio companies, the index indicates that the Nordic capital market has had a net return of 13.2 percent. In comparison, the Nordic Small Cap Index and the Nasdaq 100 had net returns of 12.8 and 11.4 percent respectively.

At the University of North Dakota, students are completely running their own venture capital fund through the Dakota Venture Group (DVG) program. It’s the only one of its kind currently in the U.S. where students get direct experiential learning in the field of venture capital and angel investing without having to report to an advisory board.

Students from many different academic backgrounds, anything from law, marketing, engineering, finance, accounting or entrepreneurship are given the opportunity to conduct due diligence, make investment decisions and negotiate deal terms. Five students are appointed as managing directors.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

Enterprise Ireland (EI) has been ranked third in the world for seed investment by international investment platform, PitchBook.

SHARE Investors are ranked by the number of seed rounds since 2010.

Executive director at Enterprise Ireland, Kevin Sherry, said that getting funding for start-up companies is a crucial function of EI.

Image: Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Cinnamon - http://www.independent.ie

While Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks and showing appreciation, these are things I try to do daily. Not only does it improve my personal happiness, it’s equally as important for my professional success too!

I’m constantly finding new things I’m grateful for, but there are certain “constants” I’m also regularly thankful for. Those are what I’d like to share with you today!

This post will give you insights into who I am, who has helped shape my success, and even the tools that have allowed me to achieve remarkable results as an entrepreneur.

While there's no one-size-fits-all model for real entrepreneurs, there are a number of common themes. It’s not a laundry list of attributes or qualities, but more about their behavior and motivation. What makes them unique is what they do and, just as important, what they don’t do. Becoming a real entrepreneur is certainly not preordained, but it’s not a cakewalk either. In my experience, the following questions, when answered correctly, are what sets real entrepreneurs apart from the crowd.

You know you should relax more, your wife is always reminding you. She’s right, but it’s not always easy to do as a busy entrepreneur. Taking the time every day to prepare yourself mentally, to exercise and renew your body, and nourish your relationship with your family, will not only have you producing better business results, but you will be healthier in mind, body, and spirit. There’s good news! Doing a few simple things every day to nourish yourself is easy to do and doesn’t take a lot of time…and yes, your wife will approve!

For many of us, the holiday season means fun parties, eggnog, and a growing sense of anxiety about what to give friends and family. This year, you can relax, as I’ve done the hard work for you with a detailed but concise list of techie presents for people of all interests and ages (yes, there are even some ideas in here for the kiddies). Happy holidays!

Governments all around the world want to build strong startup ecosystems. Cities want to attract world class talent and corporations are ready for open innovation.

Morocco is no exception.

It feels like Morocco is at a tipping point between its current immature ecosystem and a fast growing one. But is everything going to work out?

On a recent trip to Boston, I had a meeting with the founder of a growing global public relations and marketing firm. When I entered the office, I was struck by how quickly several people with smiling faces came over to ask me if I needed help. “Who are you here to see?” “Can I get you some coffee while you’re waiting?” “Here is today’s Financial Times.” “Let me go find Dan.” “Where did you come from today?”

The Toronto Zoo's eight-week-old lion cubs made their first public appearance on Thursday, displaying their cuteness in a video on the zoo's YouTube channel.

Baby animals are almost always cute — but extremely rare baby animals? Who are only eight weeks old? And exploring their environment? They're so adorable they would make Ebeneezer Scrooge himself squeal like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert.

Image: http://mashable.com

It's pretty common for teachers to task their design students with rethinking a ubiquitous object, so designers Luka Or and Keren Tomer weren't exactly going rogue when they asked their third-year industrial design class at Israel's Holon Institute of Technology to redesign the humble pencil. But what their students came up with transcends the usual half-hearted redesigns, spanning pencils that are applied like paint brushes, pencils shapes like paleolithic tools, and more.

 Image: http://www.fastcodesign.com

Spearheaded by Marquette University president Mike Lovell, the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Innovation in Milwaukee initiative (MiKE) is exploring the potential in measuring what is generally considered to be an intangible quality — innovation. As the Milwaukee Business Journal has frequently written, "innovation" may be a near-constant business buzzword, but it's not the easiest to define. Indeed, we've tried. But MiKE is exploring a specific set of measurements, which form an "innovation index" meant to make the concept more concrete.

Venture capital funds may play a bigger role in the EU’s quest to jump-start 75 billion euros ($80 billion) in investment funding for small and medium-sized businesses, EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said. The EU has earmarked a quarter of its investment plan to help smaller companies, while also seeking private investors to join forces in financing and project management. The Luxembourg-based European Investment Fund last month announced a 1 billion-euro pact aimed at helping venture capital and mid-market funds pursue new deals.

Explaining scientific concepts like string theory to non-science geeks can sometimes be difficult. Any little bit of help in the way of analogies or visual aids can spell the difference between learning more about our universe or being intimidated by unfamiliar science for life.

To that end, animator Eoin Duffy employed the talents of actor David Tennant (Doctor Who, Jessica Jones) to break down Einstein's general theory of relativity.

How would you engineer a baby? I mean really, actually do it.

Last April, Chinese researchers reported that they had tried genetically editing human embryos for the first time to correct a disease gene. Out of more than 80 embryos, however, only a handful came out correctly. In the rest, the gene didn’t get fixed properly, or they ended up with unintended alterations to their DNA (see “Chinese Team Reports Gene-Editing Human Embryos”).

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com