Universities coping in the changing environment: Case LUT CST

The changing role of universities is a global phenomenon. Since the 1980s, Finland has been transforming its national technology policy into policy for innovation. At the same time universities are increasingly expected to take part on commercialization in addition to their teaching and research missions. One of the responses to this environmental change has been an attempt to transform universities more into ‘entrepreneurial’ institutions. University is not an entrepreneurial organization, but the third task of the university has immediate societal impact bringing entrepreneurial features to university. Entrepreneurship can be understood also an atmosphere and a way of working. This paper uses a case of one particular public research organization, Centre for Separation Technology (CST) at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland, and its activities and processes to manage the change. The challenge seems to be how balance and coordinate the entrepreneurial activities with the traditional university activities.