Dr. Hargo Utomo, M.B.A., M.Com.
Director of Business Development & Incubation
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Gadjah Mada University has always been committed to taking on the role of a tertiary institution capable of producing innovations that have the potential to be generated and utilized by industry and society in order to increase the strength of the domestic economy and build national independence.
In addition to facilitating innovators and inventors consisting of lecturers-researchers, the priority of innovation rotation is also done to equip students to do creativity and innovation based on digital technology, as well as encourage students to produce innovative work and dare to start a step forward as a startup business (startup business ). One of them is through Innovative Academy which is managed by the Directorate of Business Development and Incubation in collaboration with industry partners.
The Innovative Academy curriculum was developed with a semi-structured approach that is intended to equip participants with content on entrepreneurship and strengthening technological capacity to help solve various problems and it is hoped that the application of the resulting technology will be able to bring about large socio-economic impacts.
The uniqueness of Innovative Academy activities is the involvement of participants from various fields of science (science, technology, and business) into one productive activity group that impacts on the improvement of the collective spirit in solving social-community problems. Participants are selected, guided and directed to develop new cultures in managing digital technology-based startup businesses. Next, participants are introduced to actors in the novice business development ecosystem, such as venture capital, private investors, and other accelerator activity units.
During the period of time, Innovative Academy activities have produced a number of prospective business start-ups who are now entering the stage of acceleration to be introduced to investors and novice business developers.
Some teams have received public appreciation both at national and international levels. In the future, the development of Innovative Academy activities is expected to be able to involve more industry players, potential investors, accelerators, and mentors or mentors to improve the quality of processes so that new innovations emerge with better levels of technological mastery and greater impact on Public.