About the Program
The Upgrade Innolab Academy for Business Incubators Development is a comprehensive three-month program aimed at helping Higher Education Institutions, non-government organizations, and government agencies in setting up and running business incubators. The program is designed to provide participants with the skills needed to establish a full-fledged business incubator, cultivate an entrepreneurial environment within the university or organization, and offer support during the initial stages of its operation.
Participating teams from higher education institutions, NGOs, and GIs will receive hands-on mentoring and training focused on capacity building and strategic planning. Throughout the program, the participants will be trained using Upgrade Innolab’s incubation playbook and will have access to its e-learning materials library. Moreover, the program provides continuous support from Upgrade Innolab to establish a network of practitioners in business incubation.
This immersive training program spans three months and delves on developing competencies among future incubator management teams in various areas such as leadership, incubation program development, business management, partnership, negotiation, networking, and community building.
The program also assists incubator managers in garnering support from their host university or organization to establish and sustain a Business Incubator (BI). The BI’s goal is to commercialize research outputs showing business potential and to support local innovators and entrepreneurs in building, launching, and scaling their startup businesses through the incubator.
The training is structured into three main phases:
- Skills building for the business incubator team
- Hands-on sessions for operating a business incubator
- Mentoring support for building the incubator’s ecosystem
The program offers comprehensive courses to the management team of a new business incubator on how to establish, manage, and sustain a university-based business incubator.
Key objectives of the program include:
- Providing comprehensive training on the fundamentals of business incubation and its role within the university and regional startup ecosystem
- Sharing best practices from established incubators and accelerators
- Setting realistic expectations for running an incubator and nurturing start-ups
Expected outputs of the program include:
- Developing a deeper understanding of the role and functions of a university-based incubator
- Assessing the profile of personnel in the TBI management team of HEI applicants
- Conducting a Stakeholders Validation for establishing a Technology Business Incubator for the HEI
- Creating a startup ecosystem map for a university
- Evaluating the university’s existing resources that contribute to establishing an incubator.
Learn more about the program here: https://bit.ly/UIABIDProgramBrief