Saudi Universities must change and adapt swiftly for new roles. They must also encourage young entrepreneurs, incubate new ideas, finance and mentor them and work closely with local industries to convert knowledge into commercial products.
Academic entrepreneurship is key to achieving economic prosperity.

Knowledge-based societies and human capital are now at the forefront of developing economies of the world.

This means that today's role of academia is far more challenging than what it was three decades ago.

Apart from creating knowledge and doing research, universities must play a pivotal role in developing economy and it is because of this structural shift both in the US and Europe, universities are attracting a lot of researchers thus opening many opportunities for entrepreneurs to bring their dreams to reality.

It was the co-evolution of Stanford University and Silicon Valley way back in 1980s, which is still considered a role model for universities across the globe to contribute positively toward economic development.

Their close collaboration has created companies like Yahoo and Google that has brought thousands of jobs and generated billions of dollars.

If we analyze the factors that lead to the success of Silicon Valley, we can pinpoint entrepreneurial attitude, legal support, venture capital, space for setting up cluster of companies, educated workforce, research labs, risk taking, allowance for failure and celebration for success.

The same basic model is now adopted and modified as per local customs and culture by other countries to create Silicon Valley type environments to ensure that universities can perform their new mandate effectively.

Hence, academic entrepreneurship is not only responsible for creating knowledge but they go one step further and take various initiatives to facilitate the conversion of this knowledge through technology transfer processes into market environments.

In Saudi Arabia, similar types of initiatives have already been announced by various universities.

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) launched Dhahran Techno Valley, King Saudi University launched Riyadh Techno Valley, King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) initiated Al Badir for Biotechnology companies and, most recently, King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) launched its full-fledged economic development initiative.

Despite these initiatives that started a few years ago, the progress of incubating and turning ideas into reality has been slower than expectations.

This is understandable as the corporate world and the academia have totally different objectives of their existence and common ground must be found.

Companies always work toward advancing the interests of shareholders and increase their wealth while the academia focuses on developing the quality of education and research. On one hand, companies do not understand the internal process of the academia to convert a lab idea into a product that generates revenues. At the same time, universities must align their strategy to meet their entrepreneurial goals.

Universities need to take a multipronged approach. They should introduce changes to the curriculum so engineers and scientists can start thinking toward entrepreneurship and develop close links with industry and ask leading companies to set up their satellite offices in the vicinity of the campus. These steps would reduce the time spent on reviewing the patenting process and licensing, hire separate and specialized staff for technology transfer offices (filing patents, marketing and handling post-license relationship with industry partner). New policies are required to reward those who are able to raise revenues for universities and finally link with venture capitalists. Licensing deals or equity deals with new companies that deploy university technology would boost revenues.

It is important to understand that the whole process of ideas, patents and final commercial production may take several months or years.

Saudi Universities must change and adapt swiftly for new roles. They must encourage young entrepreneurs, incubate new ideas, finance and mentor them and work closely with local industry to convert knowledge into commercial ventures.

Academic entrepreneurship is key to achieving economic development.
Saudi Aramco has already launched its Wa'ed Program, which will be a boon for young entrepreneurs.

It is working closely with universities to promote new ideas and provide necessary funding to university projects that impact the Kingdom’s economy.
Wa'ed also accepts direct applications from young entrepreneurs.

In brief, if the academia in Saudi Arabia wants to play an active role in a company’s development, close collaboration between industry and academia is the need of the hour. At the same time, universities need to review and improve their internal processes so they can make a significant impact on the country's economy.