Tampere Triple Helix Workshop: Soft Sciences Boosting SMEs’ business

University’s societal engagement with the industry has been seen mainly in the fields of engineering and natural sciences. What is the role of social sciences and humanities in boosting business, especially in the contemporary society with increasing demands regarding sustainable development? The one-day workshop is aimed to share innovative thoughts and hands-on experience on how social sciences and humanities in university could support business development of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The workshop is a pre-event of the 2020 Triple Helix Conference, held on 15.–17.2020 in Tampere and will engage actors from university, industry and government sectors. One of the founders of the Triple Helix Model, Professor Henry Etzkowitz, will be the keynote speaker of the event. In addition panelists from regional government, universities and SMEs are invited to share their views. Participants will have an opportunity to share their experiences and join discussions on the following questions:

• What are third mission of university in the field of social sciences and humanities?
• How may SMEs benefit from the collaboration with scholars of social sciences and humanities?
• What is the role of regional government in facilitating the collaboration between university and industry with respect to the field of social sciences and humanities?

The preliminary programme:

• 9:00-9:20 Opening words by Juha Teperi, Vice President of Tampere University
• 9:20-10:20 Keynote speech by Henry Etzkowitz
• 10:20-10:40 Coffee break
• 10:40-11:50 Panel discussion on the role of soft sciences in boosting SMEs’ business

 

About the keynote speaker Henry Etzkowitz

Senior Researcher, H-STAR Institute, Stanford University, Visiting Professor at School of Management, Birkbeck College, London University and Edinburgh University Business School, President of Triple Helix Association

Professor Etzkowitz is a scholar of international reputation in innovation studies as the originator of the ‘Entrepreneurial University’ and ‘Triple Helix’ concepts that link university with industry and government at national and regional levels. As President of the Triple Helix Association, he is at the centre of a unique international network of several hundred scholars and practitioners of university-industry-government relations. Henry is also the co-founder of the Triple Helix International Conference Series, which has produced a series of books, special journal issues and policy analyses since it started in Amsterdam, 1996.

Prior to coming to Stanford, he held the Chair in Management of Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise at Newcastle University Business School, UK and served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Technology and Society, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, US. He has developed several innovative concepts for university-industry-government linkages together with colleagues in the Triple Helix Research Group at Newcastle University Business School, including: (i) the ‘Professors of Practice’ (half-time dual positions in high-tech firm and academia held by high-tech entrepreneurs with academic backgrounds and research interests), implemented with the support of the Regional Development Agency One Northeast as a signature feature of Newcastle Science City; and (ii) the ‘Novum Trivium’, a undergraduate degree program proposed as a contribution to the Bologna process, which combines a specialized academic field (e.g. science, arts, engineering, etc.), with training in entrepreneurship and innovation and a foreign language and culture.

Professor Etzkowitz is the author of Triple Helix: University, Industry Government Innovation in Action (Routledge, 2008), MIT and the Rise of Entrepreneurial Science (Routledge, 2002) and co-author of Athena Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Public Venture Capital (Harcourt, 2000), and Universities and the Commercialization of Knowledge: New Dimensions for the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, In Press). Recently he co-edited The Capitalization of Knowledge: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government (Edward Elgar, 2010) (with Riccardo Viale). He publishes regularly in Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, R&D Management, European Planning Studies and Minerva.