About
Academic Groups
- Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management
Academic Area
- Behavioral and Policy Sciences
Centers & Initiatives
Fiona Murray is the Associate Dean of Innovation and Inclusion at the MIT School of Management and the William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship. She is the codirector of MIT’s Innovation Initiative and Faculty Director of the MIT Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. Fiona is an associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. She received her BA ’89 and MA ‘90 from the University of Oxford in chemistry. She subsequently moved to the United States and earned an AM ’92 and PhD ’96 from Harvard University in applied sciences.
Fiona serves on the British Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology and was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for her services to innovation and entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom. She is also a member of the Ministry of Defence Innovation Advisory Panel and the European Innovation Council Joint Expert Group. She also sits on a number of Boards including Prime Coalition (a not-for-profit creating new venture fund with catalytic capital to support start-ups focused on climate impact) and MassChallenge (one of the first large-scale accelerators in New England supporting entrepreneurs solving significant global issues).
Murray is an international policy expert on the transformation of investments in science and technology into deep-tech start-up ventures that solve significant global challenges and create national advantage – from defence and security to health, food and water security. Her work includes understanding new funding approaches for innovations that arise from scientific research, and educating the next generation of technical leaders to build effective ventures. She has focused on the particular issues faced by ventures who have dual-use (commercial and government) solutions and work in contexts characterized by complex global power competition. She also works with large public and private sector organizations to effectively drive their strategic goals by linking to external innovation ecosystems especially universities, start-ups, and risk capital.
Through her leadership role in the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, Murray has engaged across many global regions in designing and evaluating the policies and programs that shape vibrant innovation ecosystems: including across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. She is particularly focused on how regions can build more inclusive innovation ecosystems that allow for diverse innovators to focus on their most significant challenges and to build on their most substantial advantages. Her work on leading innovation from the perspective of public and private sector leaders is published in the Sloan Management Review and Harvard Business Review as well as in a series of case studies.
In her recent scholarship, Murray has emphasized the ways in which women and under-represented minorities are engaged in or excluded from innovation using large-scale data analysis, building metrics and indices of inclusion and using experimental approach. Her research has explored the ways in which different approaches to evaluating early-stage ideas can overcome the unconscious bias that she has documented in entrepreneurial funding. She has also done extensive economic evaluation of the impact of different policies (national and organizational) on scientific competitiveness and scientific communities. Her work is widely published inScience, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, American Journal of Sociology, Research Policy, Organization Science,and theJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Fiona brings her deep appreciation of science and technology to an understanding of global innovation economy and to the ways in which the next generation of global innovators and the policymakers who support them can be effectively educated. She teaches IDEA Week (Innovation-driven Entrepreneurial Advantage) to the MIT Executive MBAs, a series of Executive Education programs in corporate innovation, and has taught public sector executives (especially those in frontline settings such as security, defence and health) to effectively lead innovation in their organizations. Most recently, Fiona developed a new course joint with the MIT School of Engineering to educate the next generation of scientists and engineer to become chief technology officers taking ideas from inception to impact.
Honors
His Majesty King Charles III names Murray Dame Commander
Fiona Murray has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (DCMG) by His Majesty King Charles III. This honor recognizes “preeminent contributions overseas and in international affairs.” A DCMG is among the most prestigious honors bestowed in the United Kingdom.
The citation recognizes Murray “for a sustained and highly influential contribution to U.K. strategy and policy in science and technology over the past eight years as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology”; additionally, “she has supported and enhanced the country’s reputation in this field with the United States – the U.K.’s preeminent partner in science and technology – as associate dean of innovation” at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
This appointment was announced in His Majesty the King’s first New Year Honours List, published on December 30, 2022. Recipients traditionally receive the insignia of the Order from His Majesty or a senior member of the Royal Family at a Royal residence in the U.K., at an Investiture ceremony during the summer.
Fiona Murray named Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Fiona Murray has been honored with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) award for her contributions to innovation and entrepreneurship as part of the Queen of England’s Diplomatic Service and Overseas “New Year 2015 Honours List,” which recognizes Britons for their exceptional service to Britain overseas.
Fiona Murray has won the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research 2008 Best Paper Award
Fiona Murray's winning paper is titled "Trading in the shadow of the market: An analysis of layman-scientist exchange relationships in genetics."
Publications
Featured Publication
"Entrepreneurial Attraction: Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched By Attractive Men."
Brooks, Alison Wood, Laura Huang, Sarah Wood Kearney and Fiona Murray. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Vol. 111, No. 12 (2014): 4427–4431.
Featured Publication
"Developing Successful Strategic Partnerships with Universities."
Frølund, Lars, Fiona Murray, and Max Riedel. MIT Sloan Management Review, January 2018.
Delgado, Mercedes and Fiona Murray. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 120, No. 36 (2023): e220068412.
"Of Academics and Creative Destruction: Startup Advantage in the Process of Innovation."
Julian Kolev, Alexis Haughey, Fiona Murray, and Scott Stern. In Academy of Management Proceedings, Boston, MA: July 2023.
"Strategically Engaging With Innovation Ecosystems."
Budden, Phil and Fiona Murray. September 2022.
"What a Crisis Teaches us About Innovation."
Johnson, Elsbeth, and Fiona E. Murray. MIT Sloan Management Review, November 30, 2020.
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Recent Insights
Alumni
Celebrating 15 Years of the Legatum Center
The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT held a conference that celebrated its 15-year anniversary and highlighted its accomplishments.
May 23, 2024
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Ideas Made to Matter
Why female STEM PhDs are less likely to become new inventors
New research finds that female STEM PhD students are less likely to be advised by top faculty inventors or become new inventors themselves than male STEM PhD students.
Oct 12, 2023
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Media Highlights
Press Source: Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Santa Catarina
Strong ecosystem and access to venture capital are keys to the success o...
The solution is to build robust innovation ecosystems, capable of creating a favorable environment for the development of technologies.
Press Source: Bloomberg Law
Aspiring women inventors still stalled by university patriarchy
Women are more likely to stay within STEM fields if they have a deep connection to the mission of their research.
Press Source: The Boston Globe
How three Boston women are helping NATO scout for defense startups
The NATO Innovation Fund is an effort to "take the traditional VC model and adapt it to this extremely important mission and purpose."
Press Source: Women We Admire
MIT study offers ideas for closing the STEM innovation gap
Female STEM PhD students are 21% less likely than their male counterparts to have received mentorship from top inventor advisors.
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Executive Education
Executive Education Course
Corporate Innovation
In today’s dynamic and ever-changing economic climate, innovation is less of a choice and more of a business imperative. Similar to entrepreneurship, innovation requires a context of engagement and interconnection between people, stakeholders, and ecosystems in order to flourish — in other words, an innovation ecosystem. This executive program explores MIT’s research on the science of innovation ecosystems, offering you the tools and frameworks necessary to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in your organization.
- Oct 11-Nov 28, 2023
- Feb 21-Apr 9, 2024
- May 8-Jun 25, 2024
- Oct 9-Nov 26, 2024
- Jul 31-Sep 17, 2024
Executive Education Course
Accelerating Corporate Innovation
Based on MIT's research into the science of innovation ecosystems, this course equips executives with the high-level frameworks and tools necessary to understand corporate innovation and entrepreneurship in the ecosystems around them, shift to a more effective ecosystem-based open innovation approach, and design programs to engage effectively with external stakeholders.
- Nov 30-Dec 1, 2023
- Apr 22-23, 2024
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