dAt UMSL Accelerate, the entrepreneurship platform at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a culture of service is central to its mission. One of its key components is promoting innovation through relevant co-curricular and interdisciplinary opportunities, with the belief that it is important for students to have both in-class and out-of-class educational opportunities. The program’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program is responding to just that.

For the past decade, which translates into two to five product cycles for most industries, broad-based innovation has been on the decline. The research of Dr. Robert Cooper, the creator of Stage-Gate, indicates that companies typically spent almost 60% of R&D funds on New-to-the-World, New-to-the-Market, and New Product Lines. The remaining 40% went to Additions to Existing Product Lines and Improvements to Existing Products. These figures are now inverted. Most companies now focus on extending the life of existing products and assets, and they will until GDP clearly outpaces inflation again. There are now indications that top-line pressures may lessen in a year. Let’s get a jump on likely good news by revisiting the alternatives companies have to spur innovation.

Image: http://www.machinedesign.com/ 

Raleigh-Durham, USA (ECONOMYNEXT) – A little-known American grant programme for research has been critical for the success of startup technology companies, some of which, like chip maker Qualcomm and cyber security firm Symantec Corp., are now multinationals.

The United States federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme emerged out of concerns about U.S. competitiveness in the late 1970s, especially in the face of competition from Japanese exports, particularly in electronics.

Every year, KMPG and Advance take a handful of high-performing Australian start-ups on a tour of the United States, and this year Pam Wayfinding was lucky to be among the chosen few.

Six Australian start-ups were taken on a tour of Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and New York. For 10 days we pitched and re-pitched our ideas to some of America’s most successful (and intimidating) investors.

Image: Stephen Minning with Stephen Robinson - http://anthillonline.com

Many of the misconceptions you unknowingly cling to don’t do you any real harm. Your mistaken belief that the Great Wall of China is visible from space won’t jeopardize your professional success, let alone your survival.

Nonetheless, we all hold more false beliefs than we realize, thanks to what one brain scientist, writing last year for Fast Company, called “a powerful shortcut that our brains use every day,” known to researchers as “processing fluency.” What that means, in short, is that our minds are more receptive to information that’s easier to process.

Innovation is sought after by most businesses. It is an aspiration of companies seeking to be leaders and brands of choice. But, the sad truth is that much of what is touted as innovation is often simply a desire to be ahead of the curve and too frequently represents incremental product and service benefits or features rather than real innovation.

A study carried out in mice may help explain why dieting can be an inefficient way to lose weight: key brain cells act as a trigger to prevent us burning calories when food is scarce.

“Weight loss strategies are often inefficient because the body works like a thermostat and couples the amount of calories we burn to the amount of calories we eat,” says Dr Clémence Blouet from the Metabolic Research Laboratories at University of Cambridge.

Success in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment requires a total alignment between the needs of each business function and the priorities of all team members. If you see signs of internal misalignment, such as too many meetings, overload of emails, or lack of engagement at any level, now is the time to take action before customers and employees both sense it and leave you.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The process of knowledge or technology transfer from universities and PRIs has been well covered and followed for decades, including by the prestigious Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in the US, ASTP-Proton in Europe, Praxis-Unico in the UK and the United Nations-led Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology, while Sweden-based UBI Global has successfully started tracking university incubators and accelerators around the world this decade.

Image: http://www.globaluniversityventuring.com

Tomorrow, the Venture Development Center hosts “Success Stories & Strategies for International & Immigrant Entrepreneurs.” In anticipation of all of the questions we’re going to be asked about the Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program, I’ve penned this post. It is based on our experience helping 35 entrepreneurs fight through the U.S. immigration system to launch new companies in Massachusetts. Their companies have raised $28,777,265 in funding and have a headcount of 115 employees. I hope this post helps other entrepreneurs.

Image: http://blogs.umb.edu/

Every time I read "The 4-Hour Workweek:Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich," I can't help but picture laptop millionaires sitting on the beach sipping Pina Coladas while watching their PayPal account balances grow with every round of drinks.

Ten years after Tim Ferriss first sold us this dream in his # 1 New York Times Best Selling book, the notion of entrepreneurship has become wildly popular.

For the past decade, which translates into two to five product cycles for most industries, broad-based innovation has been on the decline. The research of Dr. Robert Cooper, the creator of Stage-Gate, indicates that companies typically spent almost 60% of R&D funds on New-to-the-World, New-to-the-Market, and New Product Lines. The remaining 40% went to Additions to Existing Product Lines and Improvements to Existing Products. These figures are now inverted. Most companies now focus on extending the life of existing products and assets, and they will until GDP clearly outpaces inflation again. There are now indications that top-line pressures may lessen in a year. Let’s get a jump on likely good news by revisiting the alternatives companies have to spur innovation.

Image: http://www.machinedesign.com

It would certainly be quicker to list what algae can’t do than what it can. The latest breakthrough by three American universities – in sequencing the genome of a type of alga – will support the development of advanced biofuels and new medicines.

The data gathered by biochemists from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UCLA, is from the genome of a green alga named Chromochloris zofingiensis. This plant is particularly relevant to the production of sustainable biofuels as it produces a large amount of a compound called triacylglycerols, which is suited to making them.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - May 23, 2017) - Fenwick & West today announced the results of its First Quarter 2017 Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey. Notably, late stage VC investment activity increased and the hardware sector was a standout in terms of valuation increases.

The survey analyzed the valuations and terms of venture financings for 191 companies headquartered in the Silicon Valley that raised capital in the first quarter of 2017.

The uncertainty of what automation will mean for employment can be unsettling. That’s true not only for mid-career professionals but also for the millennial generation just embarking on their careers.

Workers born after 1982 do believe automation will bring positive changes such as increased productivity in the workplace; however, they’re concerned it will come at the expense of their jobs. That’s according to the Deloitte Millennial Survey, which asked 8,000 college-educated young professionals from 30 countries about job security.

Since 1986, every innovation workshop I've facilitated has included a poster of Albert Einstein.

Somehow, Einstein's smiling countenance inspires everyone in the room -- no matter what their social style, gender, or title.

The only thing I find more fascinating than this is the incredible amount of powerful quotes he left behind.

Should we all emulate Mark Zuckerberg and embrace speaking Mandarin? In April this year, U.S. President Donald Trump’s grandchildren (aged 5 and 2) engaged in soft diplomacy at the highest level when they sang in Mandarin for the Chinese president and his wife. Ten years ago, investor Jim Rogers even moved to Asia to provide his daughters with a strong Chinese learning environment.

Chinese investors have begun to shift target industries in the US to the high-tech sector and the trend just took a big step in Boston.

The city's first innovation center founded by a Chinese pharmaceutical enterprise － Qilu Boston Innovation Center － its grand opening on Friday.

After launching, "QBIC will be serving as an incubator for biotech startups, with the aim of helping biotechnology startups implement their ideas, to sooner transform their research results into medicine to meet clinical needs and improving Qilu's domestic product lines," said Larry Cai, head of business development in New England at Qilu.

We have gotten a bit carried away with the “entrepreneur” label. Stop it. So many business people are now considered entrepreneurs that it is now easier to figure out who’s who if we just have the non-entrepreneurs raise their hands.

Too often, I see people confusing entrepreneurs with small-business owners. A lot more people are qualified to run a Jamba Juice than take companies from inception, through market traction, funding, growth and eventual IPO or exit.

As we know, Silicon Valley is home to the majority of the Unicorns in the world, partly because that is where over 43% of the global venture capital is deployed. It's impressive that this small geographic area has such wide impact to largest economy in the world. Evidence suggests that venture capital has had direct impact on the national economy in the United States by producing one fifth of the public companies and growing. No wonder so many economic indexes that measure economic productivity and competitiveness use the amount of venture capital as one of the key indicators.