Science, Technology & Innovation Deputy Secretary General Dato' Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad is signing the plaque to launch UCSI University Business Ideation & Innovation Centre (BIIC)

UCSI University Vice-Chanc​ellor Dr Robert Bong; Science, Technology & Innovation Deputy Secretary General Dato' Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad; UCSI University Deputy Vice-Chanc​ellor (Academic Affairs and Research) Professor Emeritus Dr Lim Koon Ong; and

uala Lumpur, 8th December 2011 - UCSI University has launched its Business Ideation and Innovation Centre (BIIC) in its Kuala Lumpur campus today. The Centre is primarily tasked with the responsibility to support the early stages of business ideation at the University by providing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for UCSI University staff and students as well as the community to thrive. 

Administered by the Centre of Excellence for Research, Value Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CERVIE), The Centre is also a part of the University’s aspiration towards becoming a Praxis University. Designed and facilitated by practitioners for practitioners, the Praxis approach exposes students to fundamental industrial practices and the underlying forces that make them work. This is achieved through work-based learning modules which fuse the acquisition of professional experience with one’s studies. 

The private sector should assist the Government in creating a sustainable ecosystem for innovation, said Science, Technology and Innovation deputy secretary-general Datuk Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad. 

This, she said, was necessary as Government policies, incentives and legal frameworks had to be coupled with commercialisation opportunities and the right environment and institutional settings. 

“The Government recognises that a large part of its responsibility lies in empowering the private sector to drive the innovation agenda and to produce the actual results,” she said in her speech during the launch. 

“A market-driven approach is a key approach identified in the National Innovation Model and the Government is committed to the innovation agenda as it plays an important role to move Malaysia out of the middle-income trap.” 

Congratulating UCSI University for the launch of the Centre, Dr Sharifah Zarah said that private sector initiatives like the BIIC were important to the larger strategy to transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based economy. 

She added that by bringing researchers, students, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors together, the BIIC would create many opportunities for deserving individuals. 

Understanding the strategic implications of entrepreneurship on the development of a nation’s economy, UCSI University has embarked on a mission dedicated to helping and nurturing future generations of young entrepreneurs. The Centre of Excellence for Research, Value Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CERVIE in short, was established in December 2009 with the mandate to facilitate researches that would lead to value innovation and entrepreneurial ventures. 

Since its inception, UCSI University has allocated an internal grant totalling RM10.3 million from 2009 going into 2012 as research and commercialization grants for our faculty members and students to cultivate research and for seed money to prototype some of the research outputs as viable commercial ventures. 

“UCSI University is launching its Business Ideation and Innovation Centre, as a focal point to support would-be entrepreneurs during the crucial stage of conceptualization of their innovation which we call ideation. The Centre also serves as a platform for an ecosystem filled with resources to assist the entire ideation process,” said the University’s Vice Chancellor, Dr Robert Bong during his speech. 

“It is important to have innovative ideas but it is equally important to put your innovative ideas to the test. Commercializing your ideas is one of the most robust methodologies and meaningful approaches to test your innovations. Even if you fail the test, you would still have learnt a great deal from your attempt to be and your journey to become an entrepreneur,” he added. 

BIIC has been given 2,000 square metres of space initially to be fitted up as a working lounge studio complete with all the information technology and communication network supports, multimedia devices like Apple iMac, iPad and iPod, LED TV, state-of-the-art digital smart board, and a kitchenette. 

Some of the resources that will be available to budding entrepreneurs are sound advice from a panel of subject matter experts from the industry, blue ocean strategy formulation from our blue ocean strategy regional centre, and networking events with venture capital funds, industrial collaborators and investors.