Innovator, Entrepreneur, Leader: The Tripartite Drug Discovery Neuroscientist

The trend toward a knowledge-based society is accelerating. As a consequence, creativity, idea generation, innovation, and the translation of these ideas into action are vital capabilities for many organizations. The ability to translate faster in a coherent manner increasingly determines competitive advantage, especially in fields invested in finding solutions for highly complex problems, such as discovering and developing new treatments for psychiatric and neurologic diseases. This requires additional competences, besides being creative, innovative, and an expert in a technological area. Professionals also need to have entrepreneurial competences, such as proficiency in developing ideas into successful new treatments, and, finally, (transformational) leadership competences that meet the demands of a creative workforce seeking for sense-making. The drug discovery field places a premium on such “tripartite experts” who are committed to lifelong learning to develop, master, and perfect their innovative, entrepreneurial, and leading competences. Acquiring these competences gradually by “learning on the job” is history. To meet the challenges of our transforming times, we need to foster a receptive mindset in students. Consequently, we have to renew their education to structure and accelerate the process for becoming proficient champions in these three areas.