As governments grapple with deficits, the landscape of higher education will change. As has already happened in Britain, public support will shrink. Continuing to deliver high-quality teaching and research will require universities to find additional income streams while improving efficiency.

Before the financial tsunami, the University of Hertfordshire recognized the importance of business engagement. We became what we have termed a "business-facing" university, focusing our educational activities on supporting business and enabling social and economic growth in our communities and nation.

ECONOMICS: As Irish society gears up for a cathartic licking of economic wounds, it’s crucial that we continue the work done by the likes of the Innovation Taskforce and look to build new international relationships, writes CHRIS HORN

SOCIETIES CHANGE. Some behaviours, perfectly normal in earlier generations, are no longer socially acceptable. New understandings about the consequences of some actions on the health and wellbeing of a nation change the conventions of its populace.

Despite supporting Fianna Fáil for much of the State’s history, and rather passively accepting its policies, it appears the citizens of Ireland have decided to imminently remove that party from Government.

I sit through a lot of presentations. It’s usually people wanting to raise money and/or persuade me of something. Many of these are not as effective as they could be.

1. Understand Personality Types – One of the benefits of working for a big company (Accenture) was that we had lots of speakers come in and train us in topics like leadership, creativity, presentations, strategy, etc.  Most of them sucked.  But there were some that broke through and made an impact on me.  One of them was about better understanding personality types.  Not in a Myers Briggs way – we did that, too (I’m ENTP) – but it a more practical way: How people respond in meetings.

The hottest buzzword for startups in 2010 is “pivot.” The term, made popular by entrepreneur and venture advisor Eric Ries in an article on Lessons Learned last year, is properly used to describe successful startups that change direction quickly, but stay grounded in what they've learned. They keep one foot in the past and place one foot in a new possible future.

Over time, this pivoting may lead them a bit away from their original vision, but not away from the common principles that link each step. The pivot has to leverage previous learning about customers, technology, and the environment. The alternative is more risky, simply jumping compulsively from one vision to another, and is likely to lead to a death spiral.

Turning an innovative technology into a successful business can be a complicated and arduous process. Fortunately for would-be entrepreneurs, The National Science Foundation has programs in place to help turn dreams into business reality.

Errol Arkilic leads the software and services portfolio of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. He is one of ten program managers in the SBIR program at NSF where he focuses on IT and Security Technologies. The NSF supports high-risk innovation research projects in four areas: nano- and advanced materials and manufacturing; bio and chemical technologies; information and communications technologies; and education application.

As 2010 winds down, we've noticed an endless amount of online top 10 lists sputtering across the web. Trends, memes, social media celebs, darlings of the Internet--these rankings are eclectic in their range and subject matter. But most share one common thread: some mention of Ke$ha, Katy Perry, or Justin Bieber. These are artists who not only dominate sales charts, but social media, indicating the two have become inextricably intertwined.

We've lassoed all these top 10s--from Apple to Facebook to Last.fm--all in one convenient location. Here's how the year in trends has shaped up.

These life lessons certainly apply during the holiday season. But importantly, they’re life lessons which can help you embrace a more positive, successful perspective every day of 2011 and beyond.

• Recognize your personal limitations and become successful despite them.
• Your greatest challenges can be the seeds of your greatest successes.
• Humility can never be overrated.

Body Browser shows an interactive detailed 3D model of the human anatomy that includes multiple layers, such as the circulatory and nervous systems and the skeleton and muscles. It works like Google Maps, with special tools for viewing different types of body systems (nervous system, circulatory system, etc.), adding text, etc. You can send a link to any images you create by simply emailing the URL that currently shows in the browser address bar, as in this example:

IDG News Service has produced a video review of the year’s robot news, covering home, business, sports, and space uses.

As a Web journalist, I don’t need many tools. Give me a laptop, a smartphone, and an Internet connection, and I’m basically a roving newsroom. But don’t ask me to make anything other than words: in my loft, the closest thing to a power tool is the kitchen blender. To build, say, a robot dog, I’d first have to spend thousands of dollars on design software and metalworking equipment.

Or at least, I would have until this week. Now there’s another option: I could just get a $100-per-month membership at TechShop, a craftsmen’s clubhouse that plans a “soft opening” of its new San Francisco location this weekend. TechShop has almost every conceivable tool at the ready, from design workstations to computer-controlled looms, laser cutters, commercial-grade sewing machines, welding equipment, injection molding machines, an electronics lab, and a full woodworking shop. It’s a DIY enthusiast’s paradise.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has found that despite federal efforts to the contrary, constraints remain on the transfer of technology from federal laboratories to the private sector. These constraints include limits on conducting proprietary research at federal labs, difficulties in copyrighting or licensing certain types of research, and overly bureaucratic procedures.

Since 1980 Congress and the Administration have been trying to increase U.S. industries' access to technology developed in federal labs, which collectively spent more than $20 billion on R&D in fiscal 1987. Because of these efforts, government- operated labs can now enter into collaborative research ventures with private companies and grant exclusive licenses for commercialization of government inventions. Contractors who operate government-owned labs are permitted to retain title rights to inventions and technical data without having to first request that the government waive its rights to this intellectual property.

Ghana: Agricultural Innovation in Ghana

The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization based in Washington D.C., recently toured Ghana in search of innovations as part of a two year evaluation of sustainable agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa. While conducting research for the project, Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet team found that a new generation of agricultural innovators has emerged from farmers’ groups, private voluntary organizations, NGOs and universities.

While these organizations span a large variety of industries and disciplines, they all share the common goal of equipping Ghanaian farmers with the tools to alleviate hunger and poverty. Nourishing the Planet researchers met with a variety of organizations that are working to revive sustainable development in Ghana, such as the Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (ECASARD), based in Accra. Since its establishment in 1991, ECASARD has connected with over 32,000 farmers in 7 regions of southern and central Ghana in order to help them organize into business associations and cooperatives. By working with individual villages and especially encouraging women and youth to get involved, ECASARD “works with the root” and builds upwards. ECASARD’s dedication to small farmers, for example, is seen in the Abooman Women’s Group, who received funding to form a cooperative of women interested in learning how to raise and care for dairy cows.

In the first four posts in this series Nicholas and I have addressed big meaty questions – what is venture capital?, what exactly is an investor? and so on, which has been fun, but has been a bit like building a house before the foundations are down.  This week I want to look at those foundations – asking the question ‘where do VCs get their money from?’

The quintessential answer to this question is ‘institutional investors’ or ‘pension funds, insurance companies and endowments’.  These are all examples of companies that manage huge pools of money which they invest for maximum risk weighted return.  Generally speaking, they have a high level ‘asset allocation’ policy which splits their money across different types of investment with the major groups being equities (i.e. shares traded on public exchanges like NASDAQ or the LSE), fixed income (i.e. government and corporate debt), cash, and ‘alternative assets’ (which includes venture capital).  The idea is that if you have a large pool of money under management you should have a mix of low risk-low return, medium risk-medium return and high risk-high return investments and alternative assets/venture capital is one of a small number of high risk-high return options.  The allocation to alternative assets is typically 1-5% of the total, and the good news is that modern portfolio theory is pushing fund managers to increase their exposure to alternative assets and so this percentage is slowly rising. 

FORTUNE -- Some day early next year, Warren Buffett -- and 14 others including former President George H.W. Bush, Maya Angelou, and Stan Musial -- will descend upon Washington to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (The date is uncertain right now, apparently contingent upon the schedule of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, another recipient.) This has become a familiar destination for Buffett, who has kept himself in the news lately doing interviews and speaking out on issues -- much more so than he has done previously. Just this Tuesday, Buffett, along with his billionaire buddies Bill and Melinda Gates, met with President Obama in the Oval Office to discuss their Giving Pledge initiative and the economy. What's interesting to consider is whether Buffett's new higher profile contributed to his being considered for the medal (not that this was necessarily a goal of his).

Artist Evan Roth has a radical idea to help let our ideas live long after we die.

Taking inspiration from organ donation programs, Roth advocates donating intellectual property to the public domain to contribute to the ‘progress of science’ and ensure that your creative legacy lives on.

Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death.