NXPO Recovery Forum recently took place on 23 July 2020, with guest speaker Assoc. Prof. Dr. Natcha Thawesaengskulthai, Vice President for Strategic Planning, Innovation and Global Engagement, Chulalongkorn University. Her talk was titled “Leading Futures: Chulalongkorn University Innovation for Society”. She shared with the audience the current strategy of Chulalongkorn in order to be ranked among the world’s top universities, to contribute to the nation’s sustainable development goals, and to produce adaptable graduates.  

In term of encouraging innovation, Chulalongkorn established CU Innovation Hub aiming to promote innovation creation. The program provides training on an innovation process to students and any interested individual and offers innovative solutions to the new normal. Chula Marketplace was set up to support startups. CU Enterprise (CUE) is a holding company that invests in enterprises that commercialize innovations originated from various departments in the university. CUE has proven to be instrumental during the COVID-19 crisis in bringing together innovators and investors to accelerate the advancement of research to market.  

As for the future generations of university graduates, Dr. Natcha pointed out that they must possess morality, knowledge and skills. They should strive to continually develop knowledge and skills. Current useful skill set consists of Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration, or 4C. 

NXPO President Dr. Kitipong Promwong praised Chulalongkorn University for having a clear model to promote innovation. One of the policies of Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation is to reinvent universities to draw out the potential of universities and their people to help drive the nation’s economy and provide solutions to social problems. The strategy includes manpower development, knowledge development, and system reform. NXPO has been implementing a number of projects in collaboration with several universities to promote the development of technology and innovation, including Entrepreneurial University & Enterprise, Excellence in R&I, Lifelong Learning & Future Workforce and Brain Circulation & Mobility.