Catalyzing Regional Innovation Ecosystems to Address Global Challenges: Toward the Fourth-Generation University?

OVERVIEW: The fourth-generation university (4GU) represents a fundamental shift in how universities engage with innovation ecosystems. While entrepreneurial universities emphasize commercialization and direct economic engagement, 4GUs explicitly organize their teaching, research, and valorization activities around societal transformation missions while orchestrating regional innovation ecosystems. For R&D managers, this transition creates new strategic opportunities: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gain access to research infrastructure and collaborative networks otherwise beyond their reach, while large corporations can externalize exploratory research and participate in system-level solutions to grand challenges. We develop a working definition of the 4GU and demonstrate its practical implications through Eindhoven University of Technology’s evolution within the Brainport ecosystem, showing how this model creates value for R&D managers through ecosystem participation rather than bilateral knowledge transfer. We provide a staged implementation framework that guides firms from ecosystem assessment to co-orchestration, supported by multitier performance metrics that balance traditional innovation outputs with ecosystem development indicators. This article contributes to innovation management practice by reframing university–industry collaboration as ecosystem development—essential for addressing the complex, interdependent challenges that define contemporary innovation.

PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS
• Reframe university partnerships from transactional knowledge transfer to active ecosystem participation. Move beyond bilateral research contracts and engage in multistakeholder platforms organized around societal missions, to gain access to complementary capabilities, shared infrastructure, and policy alignment.
• Use a staged implementation framework to systematically build ecosystem capabilities. Map your regional innovation ecosystem to identify positioning opportunities, then progress from participating in platforms to investing in shared infrastructure and taking on co-orchestration roles.
• Adopt multitier performance metrics that balance traditional R&D outputs with ecosystem development indicators. Track joint publications and patents alongside metrics such as network density, shared facility utilization, and strategic capabilities like absorptive capacity and mission alignment