Discover Israel – Dr. Priya Nagaraj
Priya Nagaraj, Bioincubator Manager was part of a 20 member delegation visited Israel as part of a “Discover Israel programme for young leaders in Innovation, Higher Education and Start-Ups” organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a part of the trip, she visited many educational & research institutions, and government bodies to explore and understand the Israel innovation and startup ecosystem and explore possibilities of future collaborations. Her places of visit include: Tel Aviv University, Weitzman Institute, Taglit Innovation Center, Havayada Center, National Digital HQ, and Bar Ilan University.
Top takeaways from the Israel Innovation Ecosystem
- Quality innovations come out of educational and research organizations. It is therefore important to incentivize and support student and faculty inventors & create lucrative means to commercialize their inventions with good tech transfer & IP policies.
- Failure at any level, especially at the student level should not be perceived negatively. It is important to let students try and test their ideas out, encourage debate and give them chances to learn from their mistakes.
- Good branding and story telling takes an entrepreneur/company a long way. It is essential to understand the importance of this and learn the knack of doing so early in their startup journey.
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Chevening Gurukul Fellowship – Soma Chattopadhyay
Soma Chattopadhyay, Manager Incubator, was one of 12 fellows selected for the very prestigious Chevening Gurukul Fellowship. This is UK FCO’s flagship fellowship for India and has been running for more than 20 years. As a part of the fellowship, she spent ~10.5 weeks at Oxford University.
Top takeaways from the UK Innovation Ecosystem
- UK universities have evolved innovation ecosystems
- UK has emerged as a leader in University Venture Funding
- Many instances of corporation-backed Proof-of-concept funding
- Innovation ecosystems in universities are highly decentralized and independent of central authority
- There are close ties and frequent collaboration between companies and a network of top universities
- Plenty of favourable and accommodative policies to support UK businesses
- Important resources like “Catapult centre” that focus on translating technology at later technology readiness levels (TRL 3-7).
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