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Institutional CommitmentService Alignment

Embedding Entrepreneurship within a Research-Intensive University

Discover how a research-intensive university can harness its core strengths to foster a strategic culture of entrepreneurial thinking, empowering its community to innovate
Written by Brian McNicoll

The role of universities has evolved far beyond lecture theatres and research labs. In an unpredictable, fast-changing world, they must redefine their purpose to meet diverse stakeholder needs while maintaining a competitive edge for student recruitment and research funding. In parallel, entrepreneurship has never been as important for universities to promote, support and encourage, (Leal Filho et al., 2024). It is therefore imperative for the modern-day university to nurture an entrepreneurial culture within its community.

The University of Dundee, a mid-sized, research-intensive institution, has embraced entrepreneurship strategically as a central tenet of our identity, implementing a culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and measured risk-taking across teaching, research, engagement and ultimately, impactful, high growth venture creation.


Entrepreneurial Scene Setting

The University of Dundee’s Centre for Entrepreneurship is consistently acknowledged as a leader in practices and outcomes, tirelessly working to build the profile of entrepreneurship at Dundee. The Centre has successfully partnered with academic schools and directorates such as Research & Innovation Services (RIS) and Student Services to grow all aspects of enterprise education and support provision for would-be entrepreneurs from the University’s staff, students and alumni, whilst helping to support the wider entrepreneurial community within the region. Examples of these entrepreneurial offerings include: the annual “Venture” new business ideas competition with a total of £78,500 prize funding (and up to 89 entries); piloting the “Spin-out Academy” – an intensive programme providing training, coaching, and support to a cohort of 15 research staff – in partnership with RIS; and initiating and leading the “EdenTay.com” regional founders’ community involving staff, students and alumni from Dundee and external universities.

Strategic Cultural Change
Through the University of Dundee Strategy 2022-27 (2022), co-designed with members of our community and leadership, the university identified “Enterprise and Engagement” as one of three foundational pillars alongside teaching and research – all connected to ‘Social Purpose’. This vision was further reinforced by creating the specific role of Vice Principal for “Enterprise and Economic Transformation” within the executive leadership team.

The 2022 strategy capitalised on these achievements, provisions and reputational outputs, delivering a cohesive approach to enhance staff and student experiences, drive local economic development, whilst sharing best practice with partner institutions.



Our Triple Intensity (University of Dundee Strategy 2022-27, 2022)


Embedding Entrepreneurship Across the Institution
While many universities have expertise in entrepreneurship support and education, making it a key part of our core strategy demonstrates an unambiguous commitment. This approach has re-enforced our culture, fostering confidence and freedom for staff and students to experiment with ideas and challenge conventions, creating an environment where innovation thrives.

To maximise impact locally and globally, we focused on leveraging areas of recognised expertise: Life Sciences, Medicine, and Design. These disciplines anchor our entrepreneurial strategy, showcasing Dundee as a hub for innovation and reinforcing our relevance on the international stage. However, the majority of Dundee’s spinout opportunities emanate from our globally renowned School of Life Sciences. To enable more life sciences spinouts and attract further companies to the city to grow, scale and thrive, a newly built innovation hub will open its doors in Spring 2025. It is forecasted to support over 800 new life sciences jobs by 2053, delivering over £190million of benefit to the local economy.



Independent analysis of the University of Dundee’s success in supporting spinout companies


A Strategic Approach for Success

Our efforts to embed entrepreneurship have aligned services and support structures to nurture innovation at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey, as follows:

  • Building on Key Strengths: Recognising that successful integration of enterprise into an institution’s core identity requires proven expertise and established case studies. For Dundee, decades of entrepreneurial success from outputs related to life sciences, medicine and design provided the necessary foundations.

  • Focal Point: The physical Centre for Entrepreneurship is a public access facility based in the City Centre campus that has become a beacon of entrepreneurship for the university.

  • Wider Community Engagement: The importance of the university’s crucial role to help the local community is re-enforced in Feld’s (2012, p128) analysis where Brad Bernthal of CU Boulder (an entrepreneurial community building expert) states that a leading entrepreneurial research university should be:

    • 1. “A community catalyst: a nerve center where the startup community convenes and information spillovers occur;

    2. A magnet, teacher and pipeline for the next generation of entrepreneurial talent into the region; and

    3. A source of insight, ranging from innovative ideas that can be commercialized, to broad and fundamental understandings about what makes startups as well as startup communities work.”

  • Persistent Improvement: such as applying unsuccessfully numerous times for the Times Higher Education UK Outstanding Entrepreneurial University award before finally achieving success in November 2024. This determination reflects our belief in the entrepreneurial activity being undertaken and our commitment to continuous growth and excellence.

  • Embracing Challenges: It is essential to highlight that Dundee's journey has been far from a linear trajectory to success. The most significant insight we can convey is that our entrepreneurial experience has been, and continues to be, marked by substantial challenges. These challenges can be classified into four categories:

    • 1. Academic Environment – it is likely that most lecturers and researchers will not have come from an enterprising or entrepreneurial background. Therefore, they will tend not to have any real interest and/or understanding of the value of entrepreneurship which can make it difficult to have the required impact within specific academic disciplines.

    2. Navigating Geographic Challenges - our location in the north-east of the UK presents unique challenges. Dundee, with a population of 150,000, doesn’t have access to significant venture capital and networks found in larger hubs like London or Scotland's central belt. University-related businesses aiming for rapid growth have been relocating to bigger cities for better workforce availability and funding opportunities. While these moves are understandable, they can be frustrating given the university’s commitment to fostering local economic growth and creating jobs within Dundee.

    3. Amplification of our Impact – based on our size (17,365 students and ~3000 staff (2022/23)), our global ranking (301-350th in the Times World University rankings 2024) and geographical location (as mentioned above), it has been difficult, particularly outside of our region, to raise awareness of our successful entrepreneurial initiatives, startups and spinouts.

    4. Limited Resources – at Dundee and at most UK institutions, the enterprise and entrepreneurial support provision is funded centrally without an immediate and obvious return on investment. However, we believe, like the way academic research works, that the outputs more than recompense the resourcing commitments due to:

    I. the increasing requirement from government and research funding bodies (Impact) for universities to encourage and support entrepreneurial activity,
    II. the reputational benefits of being known as an ‘entrepreneurial university’ (beneficial for student and staff recruitment, graduate outcomes and institutional cultural building),
    III. the ongoing strengthening of relationships with the new ventures that have emanated from the university as they grow (including equity stake and/or revenue sharing upsides, knowledge transfer, student recruitment and commercial research opportunities)


Despite these advantages it can be challenging to grow dedicated university entrepreneurial support teams, particularly in the current economic climate and university funding landscape. An entrepreneurial university must evidence and leverage the benefits as clearly and as effectively as possible to increase this provision.


Crucially, embedding enterprise into a university’s identity cannot be a quick decision. It requires deliberate effort, supported by authentic achievements and a cohesive strategy, led and driven forward by a community of like-minded individuals across the institution to provide the required impetus, advocacy and energy to enable it to become a cultural norm.


Conclusion
The University of Dundee’s recognition in being named as both the UK’s Outstanding Entrepreneurial University (Times Higher Education Awards) and the Triple-E-Awards European Innovative and Entrepreneurial University for 2024 is testament to the institution’s strategic focus and perseverance over a prolonged period.

For a university of Dundee’s size and standing, these accolades underscore the transformative power of embedding entrepreneurship into its core identity. It has enabled our community to deliver impact by recognising opportunities, being open to collaboration, and innovate on a global scale.

We hope our journey can inspire and provide a case-study for other mid-sized, research-intensive institutions who are seeking to thrive and adapt in this ever-changing world.


Bibliography

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Azoulay, P., Jones, B. F., Daniel Kim, J., & Miranda, J. (2018, July 11). Research: The average age of a successful Startup founder is 45. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-successful-startup-founder-is-45

Balasubramanian, S. (2021, November 30). Best buy ventures into healthcare, paying $400 million for current health. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2021/11/30/best-buy-ventures-into-healthcare-paying-400-million-for-current-health/

Burns, P 2022, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London

Feld, B. (2012). Startup communities: Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

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Kollewe, J. (2021, October 1). Welsh scientist makes potential $539m fortune from biotech flotation in US. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/01/welsh-scientist-makes-potential-539m-fortune-from-biotech-flotation-in-us

Leal Filho, W., Kirby, D. A., Sigahi, T. F. A. C., Bella, R. L. F., Anholon, R., & Quelhas, O. L. G. (2024). Higher education and sustainable entrepreneurship: The state of the art and a look to the future. Sustainable Development, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3167

Octopus Ventures. (2023). Gateways to growth Entrepreneurial Impact Report 2023. https://octopusventures.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2023/09/OV-Spinout-Report-_Sept-2023-1.pdf

Parkwalk, & Beahurst. (2022). Equity investment into UK Spinouts 2022. https://parkwalkadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Parkwalk-Beahurst-Equity-Investment-into-UK-Spinouts-2022-FINAL.pdf

Tuffee, R., & Little, J. (2023). Scottish Government. Entrepreneurial Campus: The Higher Education Sector as a driving force for the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. https://www.gov.scot/publications/entrepreneurial-campus-higher-education-sector-driving-force-entrepreneurial-ecosystem

University of Dundee Strategy 2022-27. (2022). University of Dundee https://www.dundee.ac.uk/strategy



Keywords

entrepreneurial universities higher education innovation startup ecosystem knowledge transfer
About the author

Brian McNicoll
Head of Entrepreneurship, University of Dundee

Brian is an experienced entrepreneur and dynamic leader with a passion for designing engaging digital products and fostering entrepreneurial talent. With over 13 years in higher education, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the University of Dundee’s entrepreneurial strategy, securing major accolades, and supporting hundreds of startups and spinouts. In 2024, his leadership helped the university earn two prestigious awards: • Times Higher Education Awards – UK’s Outstanding Entrepreneurial University • ACEEU Triple-E Awards – Most Entrepreneurial University in Europe These honours reflect over eight years of work developing Dundee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including establishing the Centre for Entrepreneurship, launching the university’s first business accelerator (working with Elevator), and leading the creation of the Path for Potential podcast. Brian’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2003 when he founded Dynamo Games, a BAFTA-winning mobile and social gaming company. As a pioneer in smartphone gaming, Dynamo developed the Championship Manager mobile series for Square Enix, produced over 40 innovative titles, and played a key role in shaping the early mobile gaming landscape. He has pitched to global brands and spoken at industry-leading events, including Mobile World Congress, E3, and GDC. Brian holds an Honours degree in Applied Computing (2003) from the University of Dundee and a Master of Science (with distinction) in Design for Business (2022) from Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design.

LinkedIn Profile
Acknowledgements

Cover Image: University of Dundee’s Life Sciences Innovation Hub (architects’ impression), opening Spring 2025


Image References

Images courtesy of the author.