Advice on balancing business and the academia behind it
14 Dec 2015
First ever Enterprise Exchange shows colleagues how to combine academia with commerce
The University has held its first Enterprise Exchange panel event, in association with UMIP’s recently launched Innovation Optimiser.
Increasingly academic staff are encouraged to create new businesses and to secure economic and societal impact from University research. However, balancing this commercial activity with the multiple demands of an academic career can be challenging.
At this event, a panel of academic entrepreneurs recounted their own experiences in striking this balance, and debated their conclusions with the audience.
The panel members covered the spectrum of start-ups from preformation through to recently spun-out and established companies thereby enabling the audience to appreciate the full entrepreneurial journey from differing viewpoints.
On the panel were:
- Dr Stephen Franklin, founder and chief executive of Evgen Pharma, a clinical stage drug development company focused on cancer and neurological disease;
- Professor Geoff Parker of Bioxydyn, an established University of Manchester spin-out, providing ground-breaking MRI applications and imaging CRO services;
- Professor Shôn Lewis, developing Clintouch, a mobile assessment technology for schizophrenia which will be a social enterprise.
The panel was chaired by Professor Graham Boulnois, a senior academic who switched to industry and later became a successful venture capitalist at SVLS.
Dr Curtis Dobson, academic entrepreneur and chairman of Microbiosensor Ltd, commented: “This exciting series of events has been designed to provide a means to exchange views on key subjects of interest to potential academic entrepreneurs. We’re beginning with the topic most commonly raised, namely how to find time for commercialisation alongside all the other demands of an academic day job.”
Tony Walker, Director of Innovation Optimiser UMIP, added: “This was a fitting event to announce our Innovation Optimiser support for aspiring innovators wishing to develop a spin out or start up business. Judging from the attendance and number of audience questions, it’s an area many more academics and research students are becoming switched onto. The panel gave a great case for the benefits of taking a venture forwards and we are pleased that we now have a specific set of Roadmap workshops that people can attend to help shape and grow their venture.”
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