RSU Innovation Centre is open to students, researchers and industry representatives

Innovation has been a development priority for Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) for many years. Last December, the University took a new step by establishing the RSU Innovation Centre. The director of the centre, Līga Žūka (pictured) spoke to us about its benefits.

Describe how the idea for the new centre came about.

RSU has long been promoting innovations within its various departments, research centres and laboratories, both in medicine and social sciences. 

The aim is to bring all innovation activities under one umbrella.

We have started developing so-called roadmaps for different target audiences of the Innovation Centre – students, researchers, industry representatives – to ensure that everyone involved in innovation knows where to turn and what to do. The aim is to make it clear and understandable for everyone how to actively participate in the innovation process and become a part of the innovation ecosystem at the University. An important emphasis is placed on cooperation with entrepreneurs, as the aim is to transfer the knowledge and technologies generated by researchers to the industry for the development of new services and products. 

You mentioned that the Innovation Centre is like an umbrella structure for various opportunities. Can you talk more about that?

Our centre was established on 14 December 2023. Following the decision by the RSU Council, it was formed by merging the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), which already has 15 years of experience, and the B-Space business incubator, which has been operating since 2019. The TTO deals with various contract research, the creation of joint projects, and the commercialisation and licensing of the products developed. It is more of a tool for connecting researchers with industries.

B-Space has hitherto mainly been for students from all years and levels, not only from study programmes related to economics, but also from public health and social sciences programmes. I must admit that not all of the plans that the business incubator had have been fulfilled due to the pandemic and the fact that many people work remotely. The initial idea of B-Space was to create a place for people to meet and generate ideas together, we therefore gradually we want to bring back face-to-face interactions. B-Space hosts various face-to-face activities – workshops and trainings. 

The Innovation Centre plays an important role in the overall RSU ecosystem. As we look at the bigger picture, the university's mission is not only to train high-level specialists for the labour market and conduct high-quality research, but also create knowledge and technologies that can be transferred to the private sector, contributing to the overall development of the national economy. 

You have developed a special map of the innovation ecosystem where everyone involved can find their place. How does it help?

Students with a desire to work and develop innovative solutions can apply for the Student Research and Innovation Grant. Another option is to apply for the B-Space pre-incubation programme. This is a starting point. If a student group wants to develop their idea further, they can come to the business incubator, participate in the incubation programme, and get help from a mentor. After that, teams that complete the business incubator programme can already join the inter-university start-up development platform Unilab. Here, there are more funding opportunities and they have access to the support of an international mentor. The various activities of the EIT Health Hub that RSU coordinates can also be an important support tool.

If industry representatives are interested in research and research results, they turn to the TTO and meet with our experts, who in turn help find and match them with the most suitable research team.

By communicating with TTO experts, industry representatives also learn about other studies, results and prototypes that they previously did not know about, but that could be of great use to their business.

How do you assist researchers who want to commercialise their discoveries?

The TTO helps researchers attract funding for further prototype development or licensing. Part of the funding goes back to the researcher. Researchers can also set up a science-intensive spin-off start-up to develop their prototype, rather than giving it away to other entrepreneurs. That is why we want to create a course for researchers on the basics of entrepreneurship at the Innovation Centre. They could, for example, learn how to commercialise products and how to protect intellectual property.

Are you already open to students and researchers to visit the RSU Innovation Centre?

For sure.

If you already have a business idea, or just a desire, a study or a prototype, you are welcome to visit us.

We will start our cooperation with a 30-minute conversation to clarify the student’s expectations, what has been done so far, and what still remains to be done. The next steps will follow from there. We invite you to come to the Innovation Centre even if you don't have a particular idea yet, but have a desire and a rough idea of what you want to achieve.