The Future University: Innovation power plants

This article is part of the Future of Universities Thoughtbook | Entrepreneurship Edition, the latest volume in UIIN’s FUT_ series that gathers international experts to explore how universities can evolve into entrepreneurial, innovation-driven institutions. The edition highlights 35 contributions that examine how higher education can cultivate innovation, entrepreneurship, and societal impact in the coming decades. You can download the full book for free until January 16th.

In his contribution, Søren Land, Head of Division at SDU RIO, draws on his extensive experience in innovation, business development, and leadership to explore how universities can become engines of innovation. He outlines practical strategies for embedding entrepreneurial mindsets, developing agile incubators, and fostering strong partnerships with industry, government, and society, ensuring universities translate knowledge into tangible impact.

Introduction

The global innovation race is heating up, and Europe risks falling behind. The stark reality, laid bare in the “Draghi Report,” is undeniable: Europe must dramatically enhance its innovation capacity to remain competitive on the world stage. But what does this mean for European universities?

Universities, long bastions of academic pursuit, must now transform into dynamic Innovation Power Plants, driving economic growth and ensuring Europe’s continued prosperity. This imperative extends far beyond Europe’s borders, as the need to accelerate innovation and harness the intellectual capital of universities is a global challenge.

Transforming the university

The transformation involves reimagining university roles, structures, and strategies to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. For some universities, this is already part of their strategy and DNA, while for others, steeped in centuries of tradition, this may pose a significant challenge. In this piece, I will touch upon some of the most important aspects of overcoming these challenges.

Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset 

The future university will play a crucial role in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset amongst academic graduates and researchers. Politicians are responsible for national and local policies and strategies to promote early-stage motivation for entrepreneurship through general and broad cultural entrepreneurship initiatives and, ideally, also through the implementation of mandatory youth education programmes. This will create the foundation or pathway where universities can take over and focus on academic culture with integrated activities to further develop the entrepreneurial mindset in all early-stage research and student education programs.

Engaging in political debate

University management must engage even more actively in political debates, providing politicians and civil servants with insights to support legislative adaptation. For innovation to occur at the necessary speed, more flexible legislative frameworks are essential to enhance innovation capacity, accelerate progress, and strengthen competitive advantages.

To secure political support for entrepreneurship initiatives, management will need to have access to robust economic impact data and tracking outcomes from incubators. Establishing advisory boards that include local and national policymakers can further increase political buy-in. Additionally, focused events that bring together students, entrepreneurs, investors and politicians can platform success stories and reference cases, helping to pave the way for supportive policies and funding.

Interaction with society

Future universities must interact seamlessly with both private and public institutions. It is time to make university walls more penetrable to fulfil the mission “for and with the surrounding society”. This poses a challenge to achieving the right sort of collaboration and integration between the university and external stakeholders.

Enhanced prioritisation of broad networks alongside more formal partnership agreements that can facilitate smooth and effective collaboration on development within crucial areas in academic research and education is part of the successful transformation.  Early stages of this transformation are already visible through practice involvement in education programs and specific entrepreneurship courses, which add relevance and quality, providing students with valuable insights and increasing the number of value-creating graduates.

The likely increase in externally funded chairs demands clear understanding of mutual expectations on outcomes, alongside explicit respect for the freedom of research. This clarity and respect are essential to ensure external funding is not viewed as an intrusive influence that undermines the integrity of academic knowledge.

Agile innovation houses 

We will likely see more companies on campus as universities set up agile innovation houses. These houses will respond to emerging technology and societal trends, bringing together companies, researchers, students, spin-outs, and startups to accelerate development based on the highest possible innovation synergy. 

Fostering a university culture of innovation 

Universities must focus on fostering a culture of innovation. Key actions include: 

• Action by university management: University top management must advocate for a nationally anchored entrepreneurial strategy with clear objectives, allocated financial means, and an added legislative framework that prevents obstacles for collaboration. This will enable universities to integrate external partners, including private and public companies, clusters, and NGOs. 
• Strategic partnership development: Universities should further develop partnerships, including public-private innovation (PPI) initiatives and international university partnership programs. This will facilitate high innovation speed, where each participant can leverage mutual best practices and knowledge sharing. 
• Technology transfer support: Universities could encourage research spinouts through incentive models that make it more attractive for researchers to initiate new enterprises and return to university research later. This is a central part of building an innovation culture. 
• Student incubators as engines: University management should fund student entrepreneurship centres and incubators to provide a stable foundation and focus over time, and prevent searching for funding for key positions year-to-year. Strategies that define the incubator pathway and set up clear objectives must be able to work with a medium to long-term perspective. 
• Entrepreneurship learning embedded in education: University management should provide entrepreneurship education for researchers and students to anchor the mindset that inspires both groups to engage in innovation for society. One way of doing this is by establishing cooperation between university teachers and incubator business developers. This will enrich the teaching with an extra hands-on perspective, and students will be exposed to the features of the incubator alongside the mandatory curricular demands. 

National perspective: Denmark as an example 

Using Denmark as an example, initiatives are being taken to strengthen the focus on innovation power. A national entrepreneurship and innovation act was passed in 2024, signalling its importance at a national level. This act provides a perspective on the global race for innovation and secures initial financial means to catalyse political ambition.

As a positive add-on, the press coverage of the public debate around the birth of the innovation act attracted even higher attention on the topic from several relevant stakeholders, including ecosystems, clusters, private and public companies and investors. This has proven valuable in securing the continuous high focus on both university spinouts from research and university student startup incubators.

Additionally, national initiatives targeted at younger researchers have been established, like the Danish “Spinouts Denmark.” Here, founders can apply for competence and business development support for their technology discovery, with a goal of establishing a company and an early-stage pathway. Both types of initiatives will represent internal and external statements to university research staff that this is prioritised, attractive and most of all – recognised.

Drawing on the knowledge and best practices housed within strong university student startup incubators, specially designed talent programs can significantly boost student entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, and startup creation. Initiatives like the Danish 20 ECTS extracurricular “Below Zero” are an example of offering university students agile and flexible formats. These programs are designed to cultivate essential entrepreneurial skills and foster a practical “doer mentality,” often focusing on relevant global topics such as carbon capture and general sustainability.

Conclusion

The university as an innovation power plant can only become a reality through strong, multi-sided value creation. Universities will play an essential role in future innovation, power and competitiveness as partners in various national and international partnerships. As listed here, the challenge calls for actions on many different levels.

Legislation and the urge to regulate must be adjusted to balance innovation quality and implementation speed against general safety when it comes to the development of new business and technology. At universities, we must reach a high level of innovation culture to make sure we can set free the maximum innovation potential within our university and its surroundings.

As university walls come down and strong engaging partnerships are built, universities must maintain freedom of speech, research, and education to deliver high-quality contributions and leverage partnerships for value creation with the surrounding society.

Ready for more?

If this vision of the future university sparked your interest, don’t miss the contribution by Judy Raper, A vision for entrepreneurship inspired by TEDI-London, in the upcoming FUT_ Entrepreneurship Edition. Drawing on her leadership across academia and innovation, she explores how universities can reimagine their structures, partnerships, and impact.

More articles from the Future of Universities Thoughtbook | Entrepreneurship Edition will be released in the coming weeks, but you can download the full book for free here until January 16th.

Stay tuned for more visionary perspectives on how universities can evolve as entrepreneurial, impact-driven institutions.

Søren Land (author) is the Head of Division at SDU RIO.