Enabling Innovation: Designing Research Facilities

THIS COURSE MAY BE TAKEN INDIVIDUALLY OR AS PART OF THE PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY or the professional certificate program in biotechnology & life sciences.

Want to drive powerful innovation? Start by creating the right space. From Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), to Makerspaces and High Containment labs, the environment you work in and systems you implement can have a powerful impact on your innovation efforts.

In Enabling Innovation: Designing Research Facilities, you will explore recent trends in the design and operation of facilities designated for advancing and facilitating innovation, research, and development. Led by MIT experts, you will define the purpose and essence of innovation spaces, discuss the wide variety of options, and explore emerging issues in the field. 
 
Through case studies, discussions, and group activities, this interactive course examines the roles, alignments, expectations, and required skills of key stakeholders involved in innovation processes, including entrepreneurs, researchers, scientists, architects, design engineers, health and safety professionals, regulators, risk managers, facilities managers, construction managers, and financial managers.  
 
In addition to lectures and hands-on exercises with industry leaders and fellow participants, you will have the exclusive opportunity to tour top facilities at MIT, including nanotechnology laboratories, several types of makerspaces (including specialty makerspaces such as: chemical, biological and radiation), and incubator spaces. Following the tours, you’ll be able to acquire greater context by speaking with the leaders of these innovation spaces.  

The course is interactive with opportunities for active discussions of emerging issues with fellow participants, as well as leaders in the field who have developed many of these innovative spaces.

Participant Takeaways

• Gain broader understanding of and general competency in the design, delivery, and operation of innovation, research, and development environments
• Develop a better understanding of challenges, barriers, and pitfalls related to innovation spaces
• Increase your knowledge base through recent case-studies and example projects at MIT

Who Should Attend

Enabling Innovation: Designing Research Facilities is designed for directors and other senior executives who play a major role in the design, construction, operation, or ownership of innovation spaces. This course is appropriate for individuals at any company or institution—from global corporations to small start-ups—who are interested in developing an innovation space. Participants are welcome from a wide range of industries including pharma, biotech, healthcare, regulatory sciences, hi-tech/tough-tech, higher education, insurance, and energy.

Program Outline

Day One – Welcome and Introduction to Innovation Spaces (9:00am – 5:00pm)

• Course information and outline: the MIT Experience
• Defining innovation spaces
• Types of innovation spaces:
  • GMP / GLP Facilities
  • High Containment Labs
  • Makerspaces
• Defining success of innovation spaces

Day Two – Design and Construction (9:00am – 5:00pm)

• Taming the construction monster:
  • Process: conception to operating 
  • Project management case study
• MIT.Nano - owner’s rep case study
• Leveraging a key player - A&E Firms
• Facilities Engineering and Management

Day Three– Regulations, Compliance, and Risk (9:00am – 5:00pm)

• Human subject / animal research
• Integrated pre-clinical science 
• Human/clinical trials
• IP and export control
• Safety, compliance and risk considerations
• Day wrap-up with specific case examples

Day Four - Technology, Tools, and Operations (9:00am – 5:00pm)

• Incubators / core facilities
• Campus tours or presentations (participant dependent)
• Innovative space startup exercise (participant dependent)
• Course wrap-up: next steps