Academy funding for research into Academic Entrepreneurship
The Academy of Finland has granted over 750 000 euros to the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Turku to pursue the Academic Entrepreneurship as a social process (ACE) research project. The four-year project studies academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education and training in the transformation of universities, that are marked by financial pressure and the growing importance of societal impact.
Using surveys, interviews, observation and documents combined with novel methods of analysis, the project sheds light on the change, diversity and durability of entrepreneurial activity in universities. The four work packages compare the strategies, forms and experiences of academic entrepreneurship in different universities while studying the construction and evolution of academic entrepreneur identities on an individual level.
“The project will contribute a holistic picture of the forms, opportunities and problems in Finnish academic entrepreneurship. The results of our research will offer decision-makers, researchers and universities new knowledge on the goals, forms and attractiveness of academic entrepreneurship.” Says, head of the research consortium, Päivi Eriksson from the University of Eastern Finland.
The multidisciplinary project combines research in entrepreneurship and innovation leadership with perspectives from psychology and education. The researchers aim to develop theory that will help understand the construction and change of academic entrepreneurship as a social process.
Head of the research group at the Turku School of Economics - University of Turku, Ulla Hytti notes that, “As researchers we are especially interested in what kind of different forms of academic entrepreneurship researchers and staff at universities perceive and how they identify with them. In addition, we are curious whether every member of the academic community can become an academic entrepreneur regardless of field, gender, age or position.”