Academic Involvement Benefits Everyone

While we have a lot of general business savvy people involved in our Company Assessment Groups (CAGs), but we are looking to involving more academics who might provide insights from a technical perspective. We also hope this will help promote a more enterprising culture by exposing participants to the commercialisation process. Maybe they will be inspired to start their own business or realise something they are working on in the lab has commercial legs. What's interesting is that the solution orientation of many fledgling companies coming from the private sector, contrasts the universities, where the technology comes first and the application second. Maybe we need to come at this issue from both ends to maximise our outputs.

Yorkshire has universities with world class research and teaching credentials. Almost 80 per cent of the departments at the University of York, for example, were given 5 or 5* ratings for research, meaning research was of international importance. Three of our universities are within the top 30 in the UK. Why then is the Yorkshire and Humber region languishing in 8th place for innovation in the UK? The way to ensure a better research to innovation ratio is to increase the amount of research inspired by commercial needs and bridge the gap between technology and commercial exploitation.

Any academics intrigued by all this, please contact Glen Hopkinson at Connect.

A Public-Private Partnership That Works

Connect is a perfect example of public-private partnership that works. As a not-for-profit company, Connect plays a pivotal role at the interface between technology, enterprise and business. We are part supported by a grant from Yorkshire Forward, but that’s only part of the story. Over thirty companies partner with Connect to deliver its programmes. The involvement of our sponsors is invaluable and contributes immensely to the quality and relevance of the product. In addition, Connect can tap into the skills of many of the region’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. This invaluable knowledge and experience is on offer to young technology companies across the region.

Yorkshire Forward Bioscience Awards

Prof. Heinz Woolf spoke after dinner and made a number of good points. According to Prof. Woolf, people who generate ideas may not be the best ones to sort the good from the bad (from a commercialisation perspective). What they need is input from a good 'editor' - someone who understands science and business, and has the scars to prove it! This involvement may be quite limited, but key to choosing the good ideas and driving them in a commercial direction. Once a proof of concept is achieved, someone then has to run with the idea and dot the i's and cross the t's. Again this may need someone else who is more operationally orientated: a details person. Rarely is one person good at doing all three (or interested in them). Indeed, it may be a mistake to try to make academics into entrepreneurs by asking them to cross over from being a generator of ideas to a running a business. Food for thought! The dinner was good also.

Investment Forum On A High

Record numbers of companies presenting, investors with cheque books at the ready, and a champagne reception to finish. What more could you want? The event got great media coverage, with a number of the presenting companies raising their profile by being featured in the local press. All the presenters benefited from our mentoring process and this resulted in some well honed pitches that impressed the panel. The general concensus seemed to be that this was the best event we have ever held. Check out the Connect Yorkshire website for Podcasts of each of the presentations.