University-based Incubation Programme: A Guide To Creating a Sustainable and Impactful Initiative
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Are you thinking about launching an incubation programme at your university? Or do you already have one, but can’t seem to figure out why it’s not sustainable or getting enough traction? Or maybe… you're just out here thinking, what exactly is an incubation programme? Whichever it is, this article has you covered.
Over the past two and a half years, I have immersed myself in start-up ecosystems, interacted with various stakeholders, and gained first-hand experience with building up an incubation programme from scratch at a leading art and design university in Hungary.
I learnt a few things along the way, and I’ve decided to condense my experience into several insights, to be shared over a series of articles. I also share "top tips" and draw on personal experiences throughout the article to make my inputs more practical, tangible, and actionable.
*** This first article focuses on considerations for laying the groundwork before launching any university-based incubation programme, whereas the second article (coming later) is more about the structure, content, and professional support that an incubation programme requires.
And yes...
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are my own, and therefore do not necessarily represent any particular institution that I may be affiliated with when it comes to my work in innovation management, community building, and talent management.
What is an incubation programme? From a university perspective, it is typically an extra-curricular programme designed (1) to develop the entrepreneurial skills and mindsets of students, whilst also helping them (2) to develop their creative ideas into structured business concepts that could potentially enter the market. For example, a new invention or physical product, a new digital app, or a new service. It is typically something that a student is passionate about and believes could help solve a specific problem in society, address a market gap, or otherwise improve a human experience. Incubation programmes — not to be confused with acceleration programmes — therefore involve very early-stage ideas that require problem validation, market research, team development, and technical product development.
Setting up an incubation programme at a university is no easy feat, and any management team tasked with this challenge can certainly save a lot of time if they consider a few important things in advance.
Here are my top 5 considerations before launching any incubation programme at a university. In the sections below, I elaborate on each aspect in more detail.
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1. Ensure there is strategic alignment, across university faculties and at different levels of management.
This point is not as obvious as it may seem, yet it is important. An incubation programme must be integrated into the overall university strategy at the highest level, specifically when it comes to providing entrepreneurial education and support, innovation management, and technology transfer. Strategic alignment includes having a common definition of success for the incubation programme - one that all university faculties can get behind. For this to happen, the main goals of the incubation programme first need to be defined and agreed to by all faculties, upfront, as opposed to figuring them out along the way.
Strategic alignment includes taking a university-wide decision is either outsource incubation-related services to third parties, versus providing incubation-related services directly to students through an in-house incubation programme at the university.
As a default situation, I recommend that a university does not actively pursue both these options simultaneously. Among other challenges, I find this dual approach duplicate efforts, and causes unnecessary confusion among both students and staff — all whist creating avoidable competition for limited student time and talent.
Strategic alignment involves the establishment of clear goals and indicators of success for the incubation programme — something that the whole university and its staff can rally behind.
Examples of potential incubation goals:
The above list is not an exhaustive list of potential goals for a university-based incubation programme. Rather, it’s meant to stimulate one’s thinking about what the core objective could be.
Once there are common goals and indicators of success for the programme, you can then develop a clear understanding of the inter-dependencies between university faculties. To paraphrase, it takes a village to identify and nurture top talent and high potential ideas — from student projects and diploma works identified in the classroom to an extracurricular incubation programme to external investors and the broader market.
Top tip:
2. Set aside an incubation budget that is sustainable and appropriate
You cannot create a sustainable and impactful incubation programme with zero budget. Furthermore, receiving limited grants from national innovation funds may be great in the short term to initially establish a university-based incubation programme. However, it often happens that these funds dry up quickly, and that an appropriate internal budget is typically not set aside to financially sustain things going forward, thus hindering future progress.
Offering students money to support deserving projects should always be part of the value proposition of an incubation programme. Students need money to develop their ideas. More specifically, they need money to buy materials, create prototypes, and to get support for their market research and validation efforts. On the flip side, under-funding an incubation programme likely leads to lost opportunities.
At the same time, financial support should also be set aside to have a dedicated incubation team at the university (i.e. salaries for a minimum of 3 persons, depending on the size of the university) to ensure the high-quality execution of the programme. Examples of positions include an incubation lead, project manager, and intern/assistant.
I also recommend setting aside a budget for external trainers and workshop facilitators to occasionally deliver sessions during the programme, money for social meetups among the incubation cohort, catering costs, and (symbolic) financial appreciation for expert mentors who dedicate their personal spare time to provide professional and personalised advice to incubation teams — regardless if such experts are internal or external to the university.
Top tip:
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3. Adopt a design-thinking approach when building up an incubation programme, and make sure it’s fully embraced by the university leadership.
Designers are good at what they do because they adopt a mindset and approach that is human-centered and iterative. The exact same mindset and approach should be adopted when prototyping, experimenting, and learning from trying different setups when it comes to a university-based incubation programme.
It’s a fact… you are not going to perfect the incubation formula the first time, the second time, and perhaps even the 5th time. But your accumulated knowledge and experience will position you in a multitude of ways to continuously add more value, in a way that is tailored to the needs of students.
Iteration and feedback loops are key to building a sustainable and impactful incubation programme. During the initial stages of experimentation to determine what works and what doesn't, management should also consider establishing indicators of success or KPIs that incentivise and reflect this iterative approach to learning. For example, by placing an emphasis on feedback loops, new iterations, and action plans following the determination of key learning outcomes.
It is important that the university leadership fully grasps and embraces the design-thinking mindset and approach, especially when goals and expectations are being set for the initial construction phase of the incubation programme.
With each incubation cohort I interacted with, I always experimented with different topics, specifically those that were outside of the typical startup programmes. I rotated facilitators, tried different kinds of soft skills training, changed locations for social meetups, and tried different things to help foster a sense of community among the group. I will elaborate on these aspects in the second article.
4. Create incentives that promote collaboration between university faculties.
Let’s face it: There is a lack of a collaborative mindset in many parts of the world, and, unfortunately, many people are determined to “build their own kingdom”, as they say, within a broader ecosystem or even within the structures of a university, for example.
When it comes to supporting student projects and talent, it is important to foster a culture of collaboration across university faculties, rather than a culture of competition or favour exchanges among colleagues. This can be achieved using behaviourial nudges, like KPIs and OKRs. Notwithstanding the fact that faculty leaders should also model and talk about cross-faculty collaborations.
At the university, staff should all want their student projects to be as successful as possible. And sure, you can’t force a collaborative mindset and culture among all peers all the time. However, management is able to introduce targeted behaviourial nudges that at least create the conditions for a collaborative culture to thrive at the university. This includes incentivising and rewarding university staff to collaborate with fellow colleagues — outside of their immediate faculty.
Behavioural nudges can lead to teachers and lecturers promoting various extracurricular programmes within their classrooms, or via programmes they involved with that are coordinated outside of their own faculty. Schemes could be created that lead to the fair recognition of student referrals by staff, or for their initial contributions that laid the educational or practical foundation of a student project for further development in, say, an extra-curricular incubation programme.
Top tip:
5. Establish a professional mentor network that is diverse and accommodating of different university faculties
Expert mentors are the backbone of any incubation programme, and having a diverse mentor pool is absolutely crucial to providing personalised support for student projects. Students have different needs, and providing tailored assistance can directly influence project success rates.
Firstly, I recommend establishing a centralised mentor pool at the university — one that appropriately accommodates different faculties, whilst leveraging off the broader network that staff may have outside of the university. Direct coordination with faculty leaders is crucial in this process to ensure their buy-in and involvement. Also, by integrating faculty-specific alumni networks into the mentor pool, it enhances the support available to students and strengthens inter-faculty collaboration and resource sharing.
It goes without saying that a diverse mentor network also includes internationalisation aspects that incorporate mentors from diverse global backgrounds. This provides students with a broader perspective and potential access to international markets and practices.
There are several reasons for having a diverse mentor pool. This includes reaching an obvious conclusion that it is unreasonable to expect one mentor to address all the needs and expectations of an incubation team.
As part of the value proposition of the incubation programme I coordinated, we introduced different “categories” of mentors, each offering something different. After a few iterations, I discovered the best setup is to allow teams to have access to a mentor from each category for 1:1 consultations. It worked the best, and teams would consult with each mentor a few times to build a relationship and gather constructive feedback in a particular domain.
The mentor network categories were as follows:
Business mentors—Expert mentors who have solid business knowledge and practical startup experience. They would help students to validate the problem they are trying to solve, assess the product-market fit, and develop a sustainable business model, among other things.
Design-orientated mentors—Experts who may not necessarily have a business background, but who possess expertise in technical design and design thinking methodologies. They would help students with aspects like UX/UI design, service design, technical/functional support, aesthetics, and prototyping advice, for example.
Subject matter experts—Expert mentors that have industry-specific knowledge or legislative know-how. They would help students by sharing best practices within a given domain and share deep regulatory knowledge—be it the manufacturing industry, food industry, waste management industry, logistics, emerging technologies, etc.
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In conclusion, establishing a successful university-based incubation programme demands more than just good intentions. It requires genuine strategic alignment, sustainable funding, and a collaborative approach across the faculties of the university.
It is important that the goals and indicators of success of the incubation programme are well-defined upfront, and that a design-thinking mindset and approach is adopted when building an incubation programme through various iterations.
Finally, fostering a culture of collaboration between university faculties and staff should always be a priority to help create a culture of collaboration rather than a culture of favour-exchange among staff simply to be able to tap into the expertise and broader network of faculty staff.
I appreciate the role I am playing to help develop university-based incubation programmes. I also find it rewarding to try build bridges between different stakeholders, and support innovation ecosystems simply by sharing my experiences.
For those of you considering this path, I wish you all the best. Embrace the challenge, and may your efforts be as fulfilling as they have been for me.
Call to Action:
✅ Join the Conversation: I would love to hear from those of you who are running, or planning to start, a university-based incubation programme. What challenges have you faced when trying to set up the foundations of it before launching it? Or what successes have you celebrated? Share your stories in the comments below!
✅ Feedback and Collaboration: If you have suggestions or want to discuss the points raised in this article, please contact me directly or leave a comment. Let’s refine our approaches together.
✅ Follow for More Insights: For more insights regarding my experiences with innovation, incubation, and talent management, follow my LinkedIn profile and stay tuned for more articles.