Professor Jin agreed it was difficult to convince existing PIs to work together, so they had tasked new hires with team building. “They can recruit new faculty or recruit faculty already on campus who are willing to work with them. This is how we were able to establish more than 40 new research institutes,” he said. Professor Freshwater concluded the session by considering how the participants had engaged throughout the day, which was through storytelling about their
universities and analogies about things like snails. She remarked, “I’m left with a question from today, which is the role of social sciences in supporting, leading, advancing, generating and contributing to innovation, research and discovery. It’s been quite peripheral, but it’s been the way we have narrated the day. How do we ensure that we don’t keep those important elements on the periphery, and understand that without them, we wouldn’t be communicating here today the way that we have?”
We are known for producing competent students but there was also a feeling at that time that our students were not risk-takers, that they were good as managers but not as entrepreneurs. We wanted them to be more daring and be able to fail.
Professor Eng Chye Tan President, National University of Singapore
Professor Ping-kong Alexander Wai, President and Vice- Chancellor of Hong Kong Baptist University, noted that it was human nature to resist change, citing his own experiences in restructuring programmes. He said academics are no exception. “How can you successfully foster a culture in universities that encourages risk-taking so that we can lead by example?” he asked the panellists. Professor Tuan acknowledged the challenges and cited Newton’s first law of motion, that things will not change path or speed without external force. “The push should come from students who demand that professors innovate. Students have all kinds of ideas and we should give them a lot of opportunities to challenge the faculty,” he said. “On the pull side, we need to learn from leaders in the community on what made them successful and what hurdles they had to overcome.” Professor Block said universities could also encourage academic staff to take risks by making it easier for them to return to their faculty position if their venture fails, without much loss. Professor Tan shared that NUS had appointed practice professors, who could bring in expertise such as from the defence, agricultural and other industries, to
stimulate both students and staff. Professor Jin felt it was easier to influence students but much harder to change faculty attitudes, so Fudan University had allocated resources and revised regulations regarding faculty involvement in commercialising their IP, and this had proven to be successful. Professor Tom Luo, Vice-President of CUHK, Shenzhen, picked up on the teamwork aspect of innovation and the conflict between this and individual pursuit. “Our country is calling all the universities to organise their research, but we have to inspire or incentivise faculty members who are otherwise individualistic. How can we wrestle with these two factors?” he asked. Professor Tuan suggested that innovation, including a teamwork metric, should be part of the evaluation process for candidates or promotions, alongside teaching, research and service. Professor Block said they found multiple-authored publications to be a stumbling block to collaboration because everyone wants to be the first or last author and get credit for the work, so they were educating committees to look more carefully at individual contributions.
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