The Entrepreneur Fund of Guðfinna S. Bjarnadóttir
The Entrepreneur Fund of Dr. Guðfinna Bjarnadóttir, former RU Rector, was established on 3 May, 2007. Behind the establishment of the fund are Bakkavör Group, the Iceland Chamber of Commerce, and RU. The fund rewards those RU students who each year submit the best business plan in connection with projects worked on within the school. The fund bears the name of Guðfinna Bjarnadóttir because of her contributions to entrepreneurship teaching within RU. Bakkavör Group contributed 5 million ISK in initial capitalisation for the fund.
Guðfinna Bjarnadóttir brought a new way of thinking to the Icelandic academic environment when she assumed the position of RU Rector in 1998. The vision of RU management has always been shaped by her belief that the nations's people are its most valuable resource. To support the initiative and creative energy in each individual, innovation has from the start been one of the hallmarks of RU.
The Arrangement for Granting Scholarships from the Fund
The arrangement for granting scholarships from the fund is that the best business plans from the course, Entrepreneurship and Starting New Ventures (mandatory for law students, engineering students, and business students), in the spring and summer semesters, and from the course, Management and Innovation (mandatory for technology students in the fall semester), are automatically registered to participate in the competition for the best business plan. All RU students are also free to submit business plans before the deadline of 1 June. The teachers who supervise the aforementioned courses then select three to five business plans for the finals of the competition. Finally, a selection committee picks out the winning business plan. Business plans are only eligible for the competition if they have not been deemed confidential because of issues pertaining to cooperating parties.
Information on the scholarship can be gotten from Gréta Matthíasdóttir, Lóa Hrönn Harðardóttir and Sigríður Hulda Jónsdóttir at Student Services.
Entrepreneurship Teaching at RU
Among the principles which guide work at RU is that it is wise to build on the work of those who have achieved exceptional results in their endeavours. When teaching and research in entrepreneurship was being prepared in the first year of RU, the school looked into where in the world such operations had best been implemented. The answer did not necessarily have to be correct but it had to be good, and the answer was: Ireland. After coming to that conclusion, RU started working with two Irishmen, Les McKewn and Will McKee, both of whom had devoted themselves to innovation teaching for many years in Ireland with great results. Building on their experience and also knowledge from other sources, entrepreneurship courses were created at RU, all of which have since then been further developed. These courses were, for example, an important factor in an RU project which focused on strengthening innovative ventures started by women (“Auður í krafti kvenna”).
An example of a project-based entrepreneurship course taught at RU is a three week cross-disciplinary innovation project which first-year students in business, law, and engineering work on together at the end of the spring semester. The project focuses on the establishment of companies; students develop a business idea and prepare its implementation entirely on their own as if an actual business venture was being started. Representatives from industry then evaluate the results of the students' work. The experience which student derive from the work serves them well and there are even examples of companies having been started as a result of projects. Entrepreneurship courses are also offered to students in later stages of their studies. Research projects in entrepreneurship studies have been conducted at RU, the best known of which is the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) research which has been carried out annually since 2001.
Guðfinna Bjarnadóttir is an entrepreneur who established and ran her own company in the United States. She had specialised in management and had worked as a consultant all over the world before she returned to Iceland in 1998 to supervise the development of RU. Initiative and energy always characterised her work at RU. It is hoped that scholarships granted from the fund which bears her name will encourage students to show initiative and to develop companies and create jobs for the betterment of Icelandic society and industry.
