Academic Entrepreneur

Posted by suzanne  at January 17th, 2013

As an Academic Entrepreneur, I see the value of transferring knowledge including research and theory into practice. A key aspect of academic entrepreneurship is moving knowledge production to knowledge, resource and technology transfer within organizations and businesses. By achieving this, knowledge and awareness are promoted within the community and the broader society.

Knowledge translation (or knowledge mobilization) means finding innovative ways to share my research and theory and put it into practice. How am I ‘spreading the word’? I am connecting with the stakeholders who are invested and involved in my work. Hence, in addition to making conference presentations for academic audiences, I am speaking to organizations and groups who are interested in my research. While I continue to write academic manuscripts, I am working on a guidebook to retirement. Finally, I am making a documentary film that will challenge our attitudes towards aging.

What are the benefits of doing this? I am able to build stronger connections to the community by ‘getting out there’ and making myself available to businesses, organizations and individuals. My connections to the community help me to focus on and continue to research the topics that matter to people. Plus, by speaking and presenting, there is greater awareness regarding these issues in our society and I am contributing to the social dialogue.

Transferring knowledge into practice is important. I am passionate about my work and believe my next steps include sharing my knowledge and expertise with those who can most benefit from it. This is the direction I need to take my research because I believe my work can make a difference in people’s lives.

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