New report on translation and entrepreneurship
Dear members of the MIT community,
We write to share the final report of the Committee on Accelerating Translation and Entrepreneurship (CATE).
As we said in January when we charged the committee, given the evolving landscape of technology and translation, we need to make sure we’re providing MIT’s community of entrepreneurs with the most effective support. We are pleased to report that the CATE committee responded to our charge with a comprehensive, creative, and actionable set of recommendations.
After consulting extensively with stakeholders across and outside of MIT, the committee developed recommendations that expand on and make the most of MIT’s existing strengths in translation and entrepreneurship. The committee recommends that MIT:
- Appoint a senior leader to coordinate and support translation and entrepreneurship across the Institute.
- Build, revamp, and scale resources that help faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students move ideas from the lab to the market.
- Provide an integrated pathway for students to build entrepreneurial skills and move ideas from the dorm to the market.
- Engage alumni as force multipliers who can supply expertise, mentorship, capital, connections, and more.
- Reduce institutional frictions by standardizing and modernizing relevant policies and processes, such as leave-of-absence policies.
We encourage you to read the full report to see the details in these five areas.
The work of implementing the CATE recommendations begins now: We will soon announce a search for MIT’s inaugural vice provost for translation and entrepreneurship. This new leader will be responsible for advancing the report’s other action items. Please stay tuned for details. In the meantime, if you have ideas that will help us implement the recommendations, please let us know at catefeedback@mit.edu.
We are grateful to CATE’s co-chairs, Professors Jeffrey Grossman and Antoinette Schoar, and to all the committee members, for their hard work and comprehensive approach to this important subject.
Thanks to the talent and ambition of the people of MIT, the Institute has a remarkable record of turning ideas into impact. Implementing the CATE recommendations will ensure that our institutional strategy, resources, and systems keep pace with the needs of our community.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
President
Anantha P. Chandrakasan
Provost