The Next Leap

The Next Leap

Ever wondered how a discovery in a university lab becomes a game-changing product that impacts millions of lives? Join Thierry Heles as he explores the fascinating world of research commercialisation, where science meets innovation. Through in-depth conversations with experts – including tech transfer practitioners, venture fund managers, startup founders, and lawyers – you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the strategies and best practices that turn groundbreaking research into real-world solutions. From the anticoagulant warfarin to the sports drink Gatorade, and even the Covid vaccine, you’ll hear the fascinating stories behind some of the world’s most influential innovations, uncovering the secrets of turning research into life-changing products and services.

Episodes

March 18, 2025 46 mins
The story of technology transfer begins with Harry Steenbock's discovery of how to create vitamin D- fortified food. Steenbock, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, established the first-ever university tech transfer office not only to license his own invention to industry but also to support his colleagues present and future to do the same. This year, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) ...
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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 is sp...
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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 story to tel...
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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 and bu...
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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 product?), of crafting messages that resona...
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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 networks at ...
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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 needs to hap...
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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 just s...
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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...

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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 ...

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Wageningen University & Research is a truly unique organisation combining a higher education institution with an applied research institute. This dual nature makes commercialising research an interesting challenge, particularly with Wageningen’s focus on agtech and food tech, where, for decades, each component in the supply chain has been optimised for cost. So, how do you give spinouts a fighting chance?

We also look at ...

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War in Ukraine. Conflict in the Middle East. Daily cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. As geopolitical tensions spike, capital is flooding into defence, and even a growing number of universities are open to research in this space. Yet, money invested in security innovation is money not spent on global aid. So should we really be doing this?

Hetti Barkworth-Nanton says yes. As the CEO of Ploughshare Innovations, the...

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April 7, 2026 50 mins

Is AI about to steal your job? Today, we’re tackling the messy, complicated reality of generative AI, and asking a simple question: is it actually creating anything worthwhile?

Sue Turner OBE and Richard Cole from the University of Bristol, Ben Ackland from Meaning Machine, and Megan Butler from KPMG aren’t here to wax poetic about robots. They’re staring down a terrifying trend: AI is being shoved into everything, ofte...

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