Introduction
Innovation centres and how universities adopt the concept is the key issue to be explored in this article. These hubs work to generate new business, attract investment and produce knowledge, ideas and innovations. Higher education institutions apply their own centres to bring knowledge and opportunities into the market, therefore, the below sections detail the concept of innovation hubs and their typologies with a focus of university-based Centers and third-generation ones.
Innovation Hubs
The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines an incubator as an institution that offers a variety of support services, such as office space, funding, training opportunities, and networking creation, in order to help startups, expand faster. They can use hybrid, non-profit, or for-profit methods. Their major objective is to create prosperous start-ups that can support themselves. Incubators offer the essential infrastructure to facilitate the formation and growth of start-ups because they often have limited resources. They promote the growth of local economies by establishing connections between the entrepreneur and its surroundings.
According to “Technology innovation hubs and policy engagement” a paper by Sambuli and Whitt, published in 2017, they relate innovation hubs with innovation incubators, accelerators, and labs “are one embodiment of a larger lab conceptual space which encompasses everything from incubators and accelerators through action labs and living labs to co-working spaces.” Incubators gained popularity in the 1980s, they provide office space for several start-ups in one location. It is obvious that lack of business experience hinders company development evolving to support and give necessary skills for its business growth. Incubators had to broaden their offerings due to the rising demands and needs of startups. Since the 2000s, a new sort of incubator concept known as “Innovation Hubs” has been developed. Hubs offer services to assist new businesses to overcome their first obstacles and succeed as Advice on business fundamentals, Engaging in networking, Promotional Support, Market Analysis and Access to the internet.
Innovation hub projects primarily aim to foster business relationships between small businesses and established corporations. Social communities, workspaces, or research institutes known as innovation hubs offer industry-specific insights, an understanding of current technological trends, and strategic innovation management. These hubs make it possible for researchers and industry professionals to actively share information with those in business, government, and academia. Here, decision-makers may network with scientists and industry professionals and brainstorm solutions to their difficult business problems. Additionally, they facilitate the development of networks by creating an environment of collaboration and communication with the people as they support the growth of technology-based businesses with significant room for expansion. They serve as springboards for new ideas and innovation to develop it and produce a sustainable solutions to problems of society. it brings together researchers, creators and innovators to nurture ideas into industry-changing products and services.
Prieto Mejia, et al, stated in their article “A Hub-based University Innovation Model” published in 2019 the existence of three types of definitions for the concept of an Innovation Hub. The first is the term “Innovation Hub” refers to regional innovation hubs and the bringing together of internal and external partners interested in the growth of the region, such as the university, NGOs, corporations, and the government, another definition of the concept is associated to the understanding of the university as an innovation centre that including various agents under its leadership. A final definition of an innovation hub is that of a “small physical location with meeting spaces, technological support, and specific characteristics that promote social innovation, technological entrepreneurship business innovation”.
Since the 1950s, innovation centres have gained popularity on a global scale, with Silicon Valley startups based in Stanford Industrial Park serving as the primary example. Since then, innovation hubs have appeared all over the world as locations where ideas are developed and put to use to address current societal issues and market demands. Toivonen and Friederici stated that an innovation hub should have the following characteristics: (a) a large, voluntary, and self-directed collaborative community; (b) a diverse, heterogeneous membership; (c) physical and digital spaces that encourage creative, collaborative work; and (d) bringing the global entrepreneurial culture to a specific location.
It is the fulfilment of initiatives and programs to provide a sustainable and effective solution to the existing social, environmental or cultural problems for the benefit of society. Over the past several years, a particular kind of small-scale, specialized, technology-based hub has emerged in Africa and a few other parts of the world, showing enormous promise for entrepreneurship and innovation. This kind of hub fills a demand for venues that may be used for gatherings, community improvement, and the production of new commercial goods. An innovation hub is a compact area equipped with wireless internet access, workstations, seats, conference tables, and portable laptops. Presentations, gatherings, follow-up meetings, and little artistic competitions take place here. The London Hub, established in 2005, was the first organization to possess these qualities that identify a technological and/or social innovation hub. The Nairobi iHub, formed in 2010, is another sort of Hub that exhibits these qualities. It is the organization that has used the term “Hub”. There are also other types of technical or innovation centres, such as those developed by tech firms or in collaboration with governments and international organizations, or employ different terminology such as the living Labs.
University facilitated Hubs
Launching third-generation Universities that play a significant role in tackling pressing issues by tying together business and the labour market to create jobs alongside education and research represents a revolution in how higher education is approached around the world. Third-generation universities, often known as 3GUs, have emerged from government-funded, science-based universities to become “international know-how hubs” They actively engage in knowledge exploitation and serve as effective incubators for emerging science- or technology-based commercial endeavours. As the wave of entrepreneur universities emanates in globally, Universities from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda collaborated to create Innovation Hubs, new structures designed to offer workspace, advice, and support for stakeholder engagement in research and innovation, this initiative is a part of AHEAD project (African Higher Education Leadership in Advancing Inclusive Innovation for Development)
Hub objectives are included
- Organize stakeholder input into research agendas, curriculum design, and delivery
- Support entrepreneurship and start-ups through consulting or applied research (incl. for scaling of grassroots innovations and social entrepreneurship)
- Continue to assess the institution’s capacity for innovation and make suggestions for development.
- Encourage the formation of consortiums and the creation and execution of projects in the areas of research and innovation with the goal of acquiring funding.
It is anticipated that diversity in people’s backgrounds and knowledge in many disciplines will foster an innovative environment because these factors contribute to the development of new and unique ideas. In Somalia, the concept of innovation centres of higher institutions or business companies is not widely accepted a limited number of universities adopted and intend to grow as an entrepreneurial university
Over the past 20 years, the idea of innovation hubs has gained popularity across Africa to discover solutions for sustainable development., there are more than 600 operational hubs in Africa, and there is a lot of interest in starting new ones. Three elements, according to Schmitt and Muyoya (2020), have stated three factors led to the growth and expansion of innovation centres in Africa: “improved ecosystems and operating environments, increased volume of venture funding raised by startups, and pre-existing hubs re-working their business models to better suit their markets and scaling out”. Innovation centres can take different forms on the bases of supporting sources. The key enablers for them are governments, businesses, and higher education institutions.
Government-facilitated innovation initiatives aim to develop the innovation capacity of SMEs to increase their productivity. Business-facilitated innovations are established as testbeds for the market viability of invested goods and services. On the other hand, university-sponsored innovation spaces are typically created as platforms for achieving engagement and impact goals. On the prospect of their functions, university-facilitated innovation hubs can be divided into different types including.
- Entrepreneurial hubs: platforms created to encourage people, primarily corporate stakeholders, to co-create and appropriate innovations, frequently in an online or offline community environment.
- Experimental hubs: operated as research labs for sensing, prototyping, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and evolving real-life contexts.
- Technology labs: operated as technology-diffusing environments where technology takes shape in real-life contexts and end users are seen as co-producers.
- Pragmatic or translator labs: Dutilleul and other authors define pragmatic labs as “designed as launching pads for catalyzing the integration of research findings into real-life environments where user-led insights are cultivated to direct efforts to leverage research skills, knowledge and ICT in order to investigate complex industry problems and surface tacit, experiential and domain-based knowledge that can be further codified and communicated”.
Effects of innovation hubs
The hubs provide access to knowledge for addressing societal needs and wants, they support developing human-centered knowledge as they facilitated interactive learning, knowledge sharing and transformation among a variety of actors. Pancholi and other authors addressed 2014 in their article on “Urban knowledge and innovation spaces” that Hubs foster the development and spread of knowledge-intensive activities in the global economy by generating and disseminating new ideas. These knowledge activities as business management and analysis, product design and market research are supposed to enhance the co-creation and transfer of knowledge and innovations.
On the other hand, hubs enable people to launch their own businesses, grow them, create jobs, and find new business opportunities. Hubs provide people with entrepreneurial skills and business opportunities with co-creation space for sharing experiences and best practices. these centres function as social enterprises that promote startups and new businesses to improve the living standards of the people. Innovation hubs foster an entrepreneurial culture, provide access to financial resources, and promote in the establishment of new businesses. Hubs have seen significant developments in social inclusion, capacity building, employment and income generation. In general hubs is the root of entrepreneurship that opens the way for innovations.
Conclusion
The key actors in the creation and dissemination of knowledge, technology, and innovation have traditionally been regarded as universities and research and development (R&D) institutions. Innovation hubs and labs are emerging and have the potential to be knowledge and technology transfer networks as well as generators of socioeconomic development. The application of generated knowledge, improving interactive learning, connecting different stakeholders, and facilitating the transfer of technology have all been shown to have immense potential by the centres and laboratories. Innovation hubs include crucial components such as networks, collaboration, co-creation of knowledge, and innovation. Higher education institutions implement the concept through foundation centres as they contribute transformation of the traditional university into third generations (3Gus) to bring knowledge into the market. They are characterized as collaborative community, diverse and heterogeneous membership, physical and digital spaces and bringing entrepreneurial to specific locations.
Dr. Abdukadir Nor Jibril, Dean, Faculity of Social Sciences, SIMAD University
