A University Incubator as a Catalyst for Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge transfer takes place whenever the discoveries or expertise of academics are disseminated more widely. Knowledge transfer from universities to the wider public is an extremely important factor, however ideas and knowledge do not benefit the society, before they are shared. Knowledge transfer can be done in many ways and in this paper a very practical approach is introduced by one efficient way of establishing a university business incubator. The university incubator will ensure diffusion of the knowledge transfer to the society. The incubator helps to induce entrepreneurship and commercialization in the community to such an extent that results are so convincing that more and more universities are becoming engines of economic development for their surroundings. Small business incubation provides assistance to companies which results in higher success rates for survival than non-incubated companies. Incubators can play a significant role as a catalyst for economic development by ongoing knowledge transfer. An introduction to the University of Central Florida Incubation Program (UCFIP) is given, including its formation, specific goals, operational information and lessons learned and objectives of the program. Best practices are presented with an emphasis on the incubation program being a catalyst to the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Greater Orlando region.