Micro-credential bridges gap to help researchers mobilize intellectual property 

A new course led by Athabasca University aims to help researchers take their ideas from knowledge to the commercial space.

Intellectual Property (IP) for the New Innovator is a first-of-its-kind micro-credential that helps academics understand IP basics but also how to manage it strategically, make ethical decisions, and innovate their entrepreneurial ventures.

Funded by the Government of Alberta and set for launch in 2025, the new micro-credential is being developed with 10 post-secondary and industry partners—and delivered by PowerED™ by Athabasca University.

“As a research university, we know that there are various degrees of problems that communities, localities, provinces, and countries face that go all the way to the global scale. How do we try and bring our research expertise to not only solve problems but shape a better future?” said Dr. Andrew Perrin, associate vice-president of research at Athabasca University (AU), during Canada Innovation Week.

“We want to be an academic community that thinks creatively and thinks about innovation, not as an afterthought, but as something that’s embedded throughout.”

Bridging the gap between idea and commercialization

Knowing how to bridge the gap between idea and intellectual property and the market was a major challenge for social entrepreneur and academic Natasha Freidus. While volunteering in France during the 2015 European migrant crisis, Freidus needed a tool to help organize other volunteers with crisis response in real-time.

“I couldn’t find anything, so we ended up building it,” she said.

In 2016, the Toronto resident co-founded NeedsList, an app that helps people connect and respond to crisis by sharing a list of needs that can be fulfilled by partners around the world.

Taking that idea and turning it into a viable commercial product came with its challenges, trial-and-error, and on-the-job lessons, from knowing how to raise capital to developing technology, and navigating myriad legal matters.

“The first year was a crash course in pitching, raising capital, and product development,” Freidus said.

Freidus’s experience is not uncommon in post-secondary or innovation circles. By leading the micro-credential course development with its partners, AU hopes to help foster a culture of innovation and build capacity to help researchers turn their ideas into something marketable.

Filling gaps with IP for the New Innovator micro-credential

Consisting of two stackable micro-credentials, IP for the New Innovator will be developed in collaboration with partners that include Wood Buffalo Regional Innovation, Northwestern Polytechnic, Keyano College, MacEwan University, Grand Prairie Regional Innovation Network, Data for Good, Centre for Social Impact Technology, Social Impact Lab Alberta, Edmonton Unlimited, WTAL Canada, University of Lethbridge, and Concordia University of Edmonton.

“This is very much a collective effort. For an innovation strategy in the province, we need all of us,” said Perrin.

The courses will be delivered through PowerED™, AU’s professional development unit that provides on-demand learning for organizations and individual learners.

“PowerED is looking forward to digitally enhancing the course material developed by AU and industry partners in order to help new entrepreneurs take their innovations to the next level,” said Brock Olive, director of PowerED.

“The course content will provide participants with the tools needed to help them effectively commercialize intellectual property in an engaging way.”

More details about the new micro-credential will be available in the coming months. If you have any questions, please e-mail the PowerED team.