Director - Agri Entrepreneurship Centre

Role Overview:

To lead the Entrepreneurship Centre as a bridge between academia and industry by fostering learning, innovation, start-ups, incubation, industry partnerships, commercialization of research, and entrepreneurial skill development among students, farmers, faculty, and community stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategy & Leadership:

- Develop and execute the Centre's vision, roadmap, and annual operating plan

- Position the Centre as a hub for innovation, start-ups, and industry collaboration

- Build an entrepreneurial culture across campus and partner institutions

2. Academic Integration:

- Embed entrepreneurship into curriculum and experiential learning and implement the same for both students and farmers.

- Introduce minor/specialization programs including Post Graduation programmes from inception to implementation, incubation credits, live projects

- Facilitate faculty development in innovation and venture mentoring

3. Industry Collaboration:

- Forge partnerships with industries, start-ups, investors, incubators, and accelerators

- Create industry-mentored projects and internship pipelines

- Enable technology transfer and commercialization of academic research

4. Incubation & Start-up Development:

- Establish and manage incubation/acceleration programs

- Support ideation - prototype - market - scaling stages

- Facilitate access to funding, grants, angel investors, and venture capital

5. Student & Farmer Entrepreneurship Development:

- Promote student start-ups, rural entrepreneurship, and social enterprises

- Conduct boot camps, hackathons, innovation challenges

- Support farmer/grassroots entrepreneurship (especially relevant in Agri ecosystem)

- Extend classes in the entrepreneurship space to facilitate students and farmers to get knowledge and skill.

6. Governance & Ecosystem Building:

- Create advisory boards with academia, industry, and investors

- Align with government schemes and national innovation missions

- Ensure compliance with incubation and innovation frameworks

Key Deliverables / KPIs:

- Number of students converted to entrepreneurs.

- Number of farmers converted to entrepreneurs

- Number of start-ups incubated and sustained

- Industry partnerships and MoUs signed

- Funding attracted (grants, CSR, investors)

- Patents, technologies commercialized

- Student participation in entrepreneurship programs both in theoretical as well as action learning.

- Adept in rubrics management of students.

- Revenue/self-sustainability of the Centre

Competencies Required:

Strategic:

- Ecosystem building

- Innovation leadership

- Industry networking

- Teaching exposure for students and farmers

Functional:

- Entrepreneurship & incubation management

- Technology commercialization

- Fundraising and partnership development

Behavioural:

- Visionary thinking

- Influencing and stakeholder management

- Collaborative leadership

- Execution orientation

Ideal Profile:

- Senior academic / industry professional with entrepreneurship exposure

- Experience in start-ups, incubation centres, innovation programs, or industry partnerships

- Strong network across academia, industry, investors, and government bodies