Innovation Management Framework in Academic Institutions M NORDIN A RAHMAN, NORLINA UDIN, FAUZIAH A WAHAB AND ROHANA ISMAIL Faculty of Informatics, Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia, KUSZA Campus 21300 Kuala Terengganu, MALAYSIA mohdnabd@udm.edu.my , norlina@udm,edu.my , fauziah@udm.edu.my , rohana@udm.edu.my Abstract – Innovation production becomes a most important mission in the Institution of Higher Learning in Malaysia (IHLs). The vast volume of innovation products in IHLs requires for a systematic innovation management model (IMM). The IMM provides a platform for innovators to manage the development of innovation products effectively. It also helps for sharing, promoting and re-use of innovations between IHLs- IHLs and IHLs-other organizations. This paper discusses the preliminary study of framework and strategy for effective IMM framework that can be implemented in IHLs. Three important elements in IMM are suggested: innovation management process cycle, the organization of innovation stakeholders and the functions of innovation management portal. Keywords: Innovation based economy, innovation management, innovation process cycle. 1. Introduction In general, the innovation process is not only focuses for the development of new science and technology products. It also considers for the process of improvement of the existing products by applying new technique or technology in order to achieve more benefit for consumer. In fact, innovation can be just an idea or knowledge from innovators which can be used for people to improve their quality of life. A new economy model has been introduced by Malaysian’s government which is based on the innovations. As agreed by many practitioners and scientists, technology and innovation must be managed in a proper procedure [7]. Some efforts must be executed to ensure that the Malaysians could capitalize on the innovation based economy. For instance, the public sectors such as institution of higher learning (IHLs) as well as research and innovations firms need to assist the government to achieve the innovation based economy objective. IHLs can promote the innovation activities and therefore a new innovation environment and paradigm can be created all around the country. A large volume of incentives are also been given to the private sectors to realize the mission. The innovations can be categorized into three; technology, product and services [7]. However, high quality product and services are developed based on new technology. A successful innovation product is one that can give profit to the innovators, and therefore a good management of innovation process is highly required. A major concern for many organizations is the need to prove that innovation management actually adds more value to development process. The organizations especially corporate sectors expect that with a proper standard for innovation management can increase the profit gained, market network and a step a head from their competitors. Innovation is the most important element in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs have to do research in order to get the new resources and then develop a new high quality product innovation. The agency that highly related to research activity is IHLs. Therefore, entrepreneurs and industry that involve in innovation activity should collaborate actively with IHLs. In 2009, Malaysia has more than 60 IHLs which are involved in research and development activities [8]. 20 IHLs are owned by government (public university) and others are owned private organizations. To encourage the successful of innovation activities, four (4) government universities are chosen as a research university; Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The characteristics for the research university are: quantity and quality of researchers, quantity and quality of research project, the number of postgraduate students, the quality of postgraduate students, the number of innovation activities, professional services, collaborations/networks and supporting facilities [8]. Proceedings of the 9th WSEAS Int. Conference on APPLIED COMPUTER and APPLIED COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE ISSN: 1790-5117 215 ISBN: 978-960-474-173-1