The Next Leap

2025 marks 100 years since the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) became the first-ever tech transfer office. It’s been a very successful first century for the non-profit organisation as we heard last week, but that does pose an interesting challenge: how can WARF keep innovating and make sure it not only survives but thrives for another 100 years?

The organisation is certainly not resting on its laurels. WARF today ...

Stuart Wilkinson, chief executive officer of Knowledge Exchange UK (the professional body for tech transfer practitioners in Britain), has personally experienced the myriad ways university research commercialisation can impact people’s lives. It’s given him a holistic view of the sector far beyond what his previous two decades focused on the University of Oxford might have you think.

But while spinouts are the easiest s...

If you’ve never been in a licensing negotiation, you might think big pharma always has the upper hand over startups desperate to get a deal done to secure licensing fees and milestone payments. Actually, these are two parties that share the same goal, and sometimes, a startup has a product so good it holds all the cards.

But is it always straightforward?

Deal negotiations between pharma companies and biotechs are the bread an...

So, you’ve spun out of a university to sell your shiny new invention. How do you attract customers?

You’ll need a marketing strategy, which isn’t a fancy way of saying “put ads on Google” or “post on social media”.

Rather, marketing is everything that comes between your company and your customer. It’s the art of figuring out your value proposition (you have a technology, but what’s the pr...

What does the future hold for quantum technologies, what are the pitfalls and how can academia, startups, industry and government work together to solve the challenges ahead?

Earlier this month, I chaired a panel tackling these questions for Bristol Innovations‘ first Foresight Live event, featuring Ruth Oulton, professor of quantum photonics at the University of Bristol, Zoe Davidson, a research specialist in optical network...

Towards the end of last year, the University of the Arts London secured a grant from Research England to lead a consortium of six universities that would develop a shared TTO focused on creative and social sciences. The pilot project, dubbed Shared Technology Transfer Office to Accelerate the Growth of Self-Funded Spinouts (STAGE), has now come to a close so it’s the perfect time to reflect on what’s gone well and what ...

There aren’t many university venture funds in central and eastern Europe but that could all be about to change if Károly Szántó has his way. The COO of OUVC, the venture fund and studio set up by Óbuda University in Budapest, is working on a playbook that other institutions in the region can use to create their own venture capital funds, an interest Károly has identified at several universities.

But his ambition goes beyond j...

How can universities instil the entrepreneurial mindset in faculty, staff and students? Is this even something you can teach? And if you can, what are some of the challenges and pitfalls?

Figuring out the answers to these questions, and more, is a panel of experts from around the world: Kirsty Collinge, the head of research strategy at the University of Edinburgh; Linda Koschier, the head of entrepreneurship at the University of Ne...

At the end of last year, Uniseed CEO Peter Devine stepped down after two decades at the helm of a venture fund that has not only survived and thrived for a quarter of a century, but which has completely reshaped the Australian innovation ecosystem. It was a good excuse to sit down with Peter and reflect on how far the world of research commercialisation has come, what lessons have been learned, and what more remains to be done.

We ...