POSITION: Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Executive Director, Center for Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
POSITION: Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Executive Director, Center for Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship ORGANIZATION: Washington University in St. Louis www.wustl.edu REPORTS TO: Vice Chancellor for Research Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD LOCATION: St. Louis, MO Washington University in St. Louis (www.wustl.edu), a leading national independent university with world-class academic, research, and clinical programs, is dedicated to challenging its faculty and students alike to seek new knowledge and greater understanding of an ever-changing, multicultural world. The University is counted among the world’s leaders in teaching and research, and draws students and faculty to St. Louis from all 50 states and more than 125 nations. The University is highly regarded for its commitment to excellence in learning. Its programs, administration, facilities, resources, and activities combine to further its mission of teaching, research, medicine, and service to society. Total University research funding was $617 million during the 2012 fiscal year, including $451 million in federal funding (of which $404 million was from the NIH) and $142 million in private and foundation funding. Washington University School of Medicine is the fourth-largest recipient of NIH funding in the US. INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Washington University has taken a bold step in announcing a fundamental expansion of the University academic and research culture to encompass research innovation and entrepreneurship and to move the results of research to benefit society as rapidly as possible. This cultural expansion will emphasize multiple non-exclusive outputs for new knowledge, including intellectual property creation, technology commercialization, and new-venture formation, alongside traditional outputs such as publication in high-quality research journals and scholarly presentations. 1 1700 Sansom St. Suite 1100 Philadelphia PA, 19103 215-790-1188 www.opuspartners.net To effect this transformation, the University is creating the Center for Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship (“CRIE”) to foster a culture and environment in which innovation and entrepreneurship flourish and to accelerate the commercialization of new and innovative technologies for the public good. The CRIE initiative emerged from several years of development by University leaders and began to take a public form in the March 2011 Special Address by Chancellor Mark Wrighton, "A Vision for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis” (http://research.wustl.edu/Pages/SpecialAddress.aspx). The CRIE initiative has been most recently foregrounded by Chancellor Wrighton in his design of the $2.2 billion University capital campaign, Leading Together: the Campaign for Washington University, which he announced formally on October 6, 2012. One of the four themes of the campaign is “inspiring innovation and entrepreneurship.” With this level of planning and attention already focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, University leaders have articulated a range of aspirational drivers for CRIE, namely to: • Leverage the intellectual capital of University faculty, staff, students, and other trainees • Maximize the benefits to society of the University’s investment in research by developing new means of value creation that fulfill the University’s mission and expand its impact • Engage the University as a more active participant in and contributor to the dynamism of St. Louis’s research and development environment, further strengthening and diversifying the synergies within the greater St. Louis innovation ecosystem • Attract, recruit, and retain the most talented faculty, staff, and trainees through the creation of a fertile, energizing, and supportive environment within and beyond the University • Expand the academic culture of Washington University to embrace and support research innovation and entrepreneurship in faculty, students, and staff • Provide educational, experiential, and formative career opportunities for graduate students, postdoctorals, and other trainees that will supplement traditional academically focused education and training 2 1700 Sansom St. Suite 1100 Philadelphia PA, 19103 215-790-1188 www.opuspartners.net The CRIE will catalyze a significant expansion of institutional culture, including the expanded commercialization of valuable WUSTL intellectual property, entrepreneurship education of faculty and trainees in the domains relevant to intellectual property commercialization, and marketing and communication of the results of these efforts – both tangible and intangible. THE POSITION The Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Executive Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, in a newly created role, will report to the Vice Chancellor for Research and will be responsible for operational and programmatic areas that are central to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiative. The AVC will work with an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advisory Group consisting of internal and external leaders from academia, business, science, and investing to help to define, launch, and advance CRIE’s mission. Operationally, the AVC will work with the Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of the Office of Technology Management (OTM), the University’s intellectual property and technology commercialization group, to re-mission, re-brand, and expand its services as central components of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. The OTM website is http://research.wustl.edu/Offices_Committees/OTM/Pages/OTM.aspx. Programmatically, the AVC will coordinate with leaders of the University’s schools and centers to foster an environment of cross-cutting initiatives and services, engage and align energies and resources, and develop a framework that will underpin the CRIE effort. For instance, the AVC will engage and leverage existing institutional efforts and strengths such as the Olin School of Business and the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, but will also develop additive new programs that focus on the commercialization of university research and on the experience of participants in activities related to research, development, and commercialization. Working with the Advisory Group and with partners and stakeholders on and off campus, the AVC will develop a set of appropriate short- and long-term objectives and measures of success for CRIE. The planning done to date suggests that some or all of the following will pertain in appropriate measure and over appropriate timeframes: • The quality and relevance of technology development and commercialization activities, especially value creation of new technologies through company spinouts • The level of organization, intensity, and purpose of internal and external constituents collaborating in an entrepreneurial culture and pursuing innovation, notably but not only in the St. Louis area • Recognition locally and nationally that Washington University is a dynamic and collaborative contributor to and partner in the St. Louis innovation ecosystem 3 1700 Sansom St. Suite 1100 Philadelphia PA, 19103 215-790-1188 www.opuspartners.net • Recognition among research-university peers that the University is achieving new levels of success in fulfilling its mission through research-related innovation • Increased research-related engagements with industry such as sponsored research agreements, SBIR and STTR grants, etc., joint ventures, partnerships, and other collaborations • The effectiveness of communications about CRIE to an array of constituents – faculty, students, staff, alumni, donors, Trustees, peer universities and medical centers, government agencies, investors, etc. • The University’s success in recruiting and retaining entrepreneurial faculty and students • The impact of events, collaborations, and other programs on the engagement of University constituents in research-related innovation and value creation • Performance against standard commercialization metrics such as invention disclosures, licenses, capitalized startups, and royalties. As CRIE gains momentum, the relative value of these measures will become clear and other relevant measures may emerge. ATTRIBUTES, COMPETENCIES, AND QUALIFICATIONS Washington University seeks a dynamic and visionary leader for its Center for Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship who will bring a strong grasp of institutional strategy, domain expertise, and the ability to engage on- and off-campus constituents in an important, new, and disruptive project. This new leader must be a collaborative and generous colleague who can create alignment in a decentralized environment; can influence by means of credibility, expertise, and demonstrated success; and can work effectively across and beyond a complex institution as a visionary, catalyst, guide, and partner. Alongside these core competencies and behaviors, sponsors of this initiative believe that the leader of this important project will possess some combination of the following: • The ability to serve as facilitator, convener, and partner for stakeholder groups so as to identify areas of cooperation, commitment, and collaboration • Experience in one or more R&D-intensive startups (strongly preferred, though substantial experience in R&D and business-development areas of established companies may substitute) • Strong science, engineering, or technical background • Substantial deal experience • The c.v. and gravitas to generate the support of the WU faculty (a PhD is desirable but not required)