April saw the inaugural Royce online commercialisation event aimed at PhD Students and researchers within an academic setting interested in finding out more about commercialisation and innovation, and taking the next step on their journey.
Dr Martin Carroll, an early-stage venture advisor and mentor who is supporting Royce in this space said: “Often researchers have a business idea in mind or are undertaking research they think has the potential to be commercialised, this important session set out a range of programmes that might support such ambitions, including presentations from several entrepreneurship and commercialisation programme providers – both academic and private sector.”
Professor Philip Withers, Chief Scientist at Royce, set out the Royce Vision and Mission and was followed by Dr Arnab Basu, MBE, CEO, of Kromek Group, who took the audience on his inspirational journey from academia to innovation; from university lab to commercial enterprise.
Presenter Dr Jonathan Bean, CEO, Materials Nexus was up next, and said: “When you’re a scientist things are all about facts, when you’re an entrepreneur, there are more shades of grey, more risk taking and the requirement to tolerate risk is quite high. But the rewards are unbeatable.”
Dr Beenish Siddique, CEO, AEH Innovation Hydrogel said that she had never thought she would be an entrepreneur, but realised academia wasn’t her long-term pathway and incorporated her company in 2018 whilst still doing her PhD, noting that getting lab space was her first challenge!
Dr Thanasis Georgiou, Royce Business Development Manager set the scene for a range of commercialisation and entrepreneurship programmes, stating scientists are ideally placed to be entrepreneurs; these sessions included presentations from Cambridge Judge Business School, Oxentia, Wilbe, Imperial College Enterprise Lab and the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre.
A recording is available here, which includes all the presentations, focusing on what these entrepreneurship programmes typically aim to achieve and the different formats they take, the methods used and course duration.
For any queries or support to determine which programme may be most applicable for you, please contact the Henry Royce Institute directly via info@royce.ac.uk, quoting ‘Royce Commercialisation’.
