LESSONS LEARNED FROM A DESIGN-DRIVEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROCESS THAT BRIDGES ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND DESIGN EDUCATION

Research and education can be distinctly separate activities in institutions, where academics try to divide their time between the two roles. Many research initiatives necessitate large-scale funding to be completed. In response, this paper presents an alternate strategy in which educational design initiatives can promote academic research activities. The study looks at how a design-led entrepreneurial approach combines research and education to create marketable solutions. A literature review was undertaken to understand the disconnect between academic pedagogy, postgraduate, design-driven research and design entrepreneurship. An undergraduate Product Design degree course was also examined to understand the means through which innovative solutions are incubated. We then applied our findings to progress a final year project through master's level with a commercial focus to determine the viability of our approach. This study presents findings and lessons learned from a paradigm built inside a research cluster, in which viable design proposals are incubated as undergraduate final year projects (FYP) and then selected for postgraduate development with the goal of commercialization. A variety of difficulties and possibilities, as well as lessons learned, were recognized, including choosing the right topic to develop, forming partnerships with different disciplines, intellectual property, money, expertise, and resources. By bringing together the often-separate entities of research and education, this paper shows how research and educational activities are not mutually exclusive but can be combined to provide rich educational experiences along with meaningful research outputs.