Linking PhD talent with industry
Jan, 2012
"As a science PhD you tend to do a lot of work by yourself and the project is your own. The GCC got me focused on things like group dynamics, how to decide on the best course of action as a team."
Economies around world grapple with how to turn research innovation into business applications. In Australia, which has a long tradition of exporting its intellectual property, researchers and business leaders agree they need to work together, but often don't understand each other.
Since 2009, Melbourne Business School has delivered the Graduate Certificate in Commercialisation (GCC) for PhD students enrolled at the University of Melbourne. Researchers with backgrounds ranging from engineering to medicine, agriculture and science study four business units in the School's flagship MBA program.
"We know that only about 20 per cent of PhDs go on to permanent positions in academia," says the Program's Director, Associate Professor Graeme Cocks. "Yet repeated studies and surveys indicate that the business world is not drawing on this highly skilled workforce as effectively as it could, and that PhD graduates lack skills in business management, commercial acumen and the ability to manage teams."
"It's a great program - I bullied half my research group into it"
Asimo Karnezis, who completed the program in 2010 while finishing her PhD in organic chemistry, is now a research scientist at Plantic Technologies, a global biotech firm with its HQ in Melbourne's west.
"As a science PhD you tend to do a lot of work by yourself and the project is your own," Dr Karnezis says. "I think that's a problem with research students in Australia and everywhere, really - you learn research but not interaction with people.
"The GCC got me focused on things like group dynamics, how to decide on the best course of action as a team. I think MBA students have a lot to teach graduate students - how to look at things creatively. And graduate students teach MBA students how to look at things analytically."
Dr Karnezis studied Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Managing People for High Performance, Managerial Judgement and New Venture Creation. "It was a great program. I bullied half my research group into doing it," she says.
Researchers delivering value for the customer
Engineering researcher Liang Chen, who graduated in 2011, says the GCC inspired and challenged him to look for the true value and impact of his research projects. This year he's on his way to Bell Labs in the US, thanks to a Victoria Fellowship recognising his promising research on internet efficiency.
"A common problem among research students is that we are ‘trained' to know more and more, but sadly in a smaller and smaller area - until we know absolutely everything about almost nothing," Mr Chen says.
"Getting some exposure with the practical world of business and management enables us to think outside the box, achieving the right balance in making a more informed decision. To the end, scientific research is also about delivering value for the customer - our community."
Term 2, 2012 intake open
Melbourne Business School is now inviting applications for the Term 2 intake for the GCC - the last intake in its current form.
The program is funded under the Federal Department of Innovation Industry Science & Research's Commercialisation Training Scheme. It is delivered in partnership with the Melbourne Graduate School of Research at the University of Melbourne.
Under the present federal funding arrangements, successful applicants will need to complete the GCCRS requirement of four subjects by the end of Term 1 in April 2013.
Find out more:
Graduate Certificate in Commercialisation at Melbourne Business School
Melbourne Graduate School of Research
Liang Chen's noisy solution to internet efficiency on You Tube
Plantic Technologies
