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Latest episodes from Talking Tech Transfer

Season 4 Recap: Building blocks in place for university venturing to take off in 2025

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2024 27:44


Is 2025 the year that university technology transfer will see a big boost? It certainly looks promising, particularly in the UK, where a government-led spinout review has encouraged universities to lower equity in spinouts to 25%. Most universities in the UK have adopted the guidelines. The debate over equity stakes is a discussion that Michele Barbour, associate pro vice-chancellor for enterprise and innovation at the University of Bristol, says she actually welcomed because it gave tech transfer a visibility that had so far lacked.

Create more spinouts, more quickly with standard deal terms and willingness to fail

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 27:41


To date, 49 universities in the UK have adopted a recommendation to take between 10% and 25% equity in their life science spinouts. The recommendation was inspired by the USIT Guide, published last year by tech transfer group TenU, making it the guide's arguably biggest impact yet.

More proof of concept funding is needed to create impactful spinouts

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2024 28:52


The UK government has committed £40m ($50m) to proof of concept funding over the next five years. How should the money available be deployed? One idea — inspired by the Flemish approach — is to set up investment committees of industry, VC and university experts to allocate the money.

How the UK’s spinout review settled “myopic” equity debate

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2024 26:40


A year ago, Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Andrew Williamson, chief executive of venture capital firm Cambridge Innovation Capital, published their UK government-sponsored report into the spinout ecosystem with a list of 11 recommendations on how to uplift the sector.

Landon Borders, Alexa Narel: How the University of Kentucky makes whisky more sustainable

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2024 38:18


Whisky may not be the first industry to come to mind when you think of university innovation, but for the University of Kentucky — based in a US state known around the world for its bourbon industry — it's an obvious next step in its tech transfer activities.

Pearse Coyle: Incubators are a distraction, acquire customers early instead

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2024 38:19


Researchers with promising technology in the UK can apply for public innovation agency Innovate UK's pre-accelerator programme ICURe, which supports them in reaching out to 100 potential customers to understand the market viability of their idea.

Asia lags behind other regions for university venture funds

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2024 14:52


Just over a fifth of academic institutions in Asia have access to a dedicated university venture fund, with a third of all funds found in Japan — that's the finding of GUV's latest regional analysis published last week.

Maria Roche: Professor-led spinouts have poorer outcomes

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2024 36:50


Should professors be spinout founders? An increasing number of universities are pushing their faculty to be more entrepreneurial but data suggests that that's not always a good thing — for the professor, the spinout or the students.

Why university venture funds are still uncommon in US and Europe

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2024 20:46


Despite the benefits of universities having a venture fund they can draw on to invest in companies they help commercialise, they are still a rarity in places with mature venture capital sectors like Europe and the US.

Season 3 Recap: Groundbreaking incubators and ideal startup founders

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2024 26:15


We look back at some of the highlights of season 3, which featured many a discussion about university incubator and accelerator programmes, including insights from Jim Shaikh (The Greenhouse at Imperial College London), Paul Devlin (Cardiff University), Brandon Paschal (LaunchLab at Stellenbosch University), and Duncan Johnson and Miles Kirby (NG Studios powered by Deeptech Labs).

Andy Shenk: New Zealand’s remoteness makes it ideal for space tech (rebroadcast)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2024 40:53


Andy Shenk, the chief executive of Auckland UniServices, the commercialisation subsidiary of the University of Auckland, knows that collaborating with the Māori people is important. He also knows that big data and AI offer great opportunities, but tells me about some of the challenges too.

Anita Nel, Brandon Paschal: South Africa is building a world-class innovation ecosystem

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2024 44:58


Setting up a venture fund in 2020 was a “huge paradigm shift” for Stellenbosch University in South Africa, because, for the first time, the executive leadership at the institution became interested in spinouts, says Anita Nel, the chief director for innovation and business development, because they understood that academic research had commercial value and a way to build, for example, local pharmaceutical expertise (the country had to wait six months longer than the northern hemisphere for a covid-19 vaccine because there were no vaccine developers or drug discovery companies in all of Africa).

Panel discussion: Can we fix “insane” immigration policies to attract entrepreneurs?

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2024 54:00


Immigrants are profoundly entrepreneurial people: they leave behind everything they know for a new country and new opportunities, often at a financial risk. This willingness to embrace change and build a new life from scratch means it should not be a surprise that in the US alone, 43% of Fortune 500 companies have been founded by immigrants.

Paul Devlin: Cardiff is at the forefront of social sciences commercialisation

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2024 39:14


Commercialising social sciences research is such a new area of technology transfer that when you spin out a company “you might be the first to do that type of deal,” says Paul Devlin, the head of research commercialisation and impact at Cardiff University.

Ilian Iliev: Here’s why NetScientific is doubling down on Cambridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2024 23:19


Last month, EMV Capital, a fund management subsidiary of British investment firm NetScientific, took over Martlet Capital, a Cambridge, UK-focused investor that had been the corporate venture arm of aerospace and defence company Marshall Group for nine years until 2021. The decision was the natural conclusion to EMV's earlier decision to become an investor in Martlet and allows the investor to further tap into the Cambridge cluster, NetScientific CEO Ilian Iliev says.

Fernando Moncada: Five lessons for would-be academic founders

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2024


Universities, by their very nature, have always been strong centres of innovation. Scientific discoveries are routinely made in university research labs – but spinning those discoveries out into an operational business comes with numerous hurdles.

Duncan Johnson, Miles Kirby: NG Studios helps entrepreneurs think big

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2024


Duncan Johnson argues that spinout founders in the north of England need to learn to think bigger. That's not just a question of access to capital (his investment firm Northern Gritstone has £312m at its disposal) but also of infrastructure to mentor and nurture these founders.

Jim Shaikh – Corporates drawn to climate tech innovation at Imperial College London's Greenhouse accelerator

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2024


Some of the most innovative clean energy and climate technologies originate in the labs of the world's research universities. At Imperial College London's climate innovation accelerator, The Greenhouse, startups address solutions in niche areas such as bio-textiles, waste management and green hydrogen.

Season 2 Recap

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2024 35:04


We take a look back at some of the key insights shared by guests on season 2 of Beyond the Breakthrough.

TU Darmstadt has developed a unique approach to licensing

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2024 20:41


Licensing intellectual property to a spinout can take frustratingly long and end with terms for a spinout that a venture capital investor might not be comfortable with — the university taking too large a share is a typical argument that you'll hear particularly in the UK. There are initiatives to speed this up. The US has BOLT and the UK has the USIT Guides, template term sheets co-developed by tech transfer offices, investors and law firms to significantly speed up the process. Ireland even has a national IP protocol.

Panel discussion: What does the hospital of the future look like?

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2024 64:08


How do you get beyond the many roadblocks stopping cutting-edge technology from being adopted by healthcare providers – which naturally have a lot of safety concerns, and often sizeable budget constraints too. Are hospitals moving to being completely decentralised in the future? And is AI about to revolutionise how hospitals are run?

Karin Immergluck: Stanford’s biggest challenge is complacency (rebroadcast)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2024 46:25


Stanford may be a recognised world-leader when it comes to startups, but it mustn't rest on its laurels. Sometimes that even means launching initiatives that others have long had — that is just one of the lessons that Karin Immergluck, executive director of Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing, has learnt. Karin also tells us what the US can learn from its international peers, why TenU is an important component of her work and she examines the importance of erasing bias in hiring processes, including in leadership positions.

Panel discussion: Funding for all — unlocking diversity in spinouts

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2024 47:47


Diversity is not just about making sure more women and underrepresented minorities are on founding teams. When they do create businesses, they are typically ignored by venture capital investors who look for the same type of founders that have previously made money (creating a vicious circle). In the US, female founders raised just 2% of the VC money in 2023, and in Europe it was even less at 1.8%, according to PitchBook.

Halo has researchers on speed dial for corporates

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2024 35:42


Imagine your corporate R&D team is facing a problem so complex it requires the world's top researchers to solve. How do you find the right expert? You could scour endless academic papers or slowly build relationships with individual universities. You could invest in startups that are developing a solution. Or you could go to Halo, a matchmaker for cutting-edge research and real-world problems.

Panel discussion: The key ingredients of successful spinout teams

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2024 50:54


A PhD student who sets up a spinout and becomes its CEO is 21% better at returning an investor's money than a serial founder would be if installed in the same spinout. Even more impressively, a PhD student turned chief executive is 46% better at making a venture capital fund money than a former CEO from a large company would be.

Kelley Rich: Fighting poverty with university spinouts

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2024 47:41


Can university spinouts help fight poverty? That's a question Kelley Rich, interim vice-president for innovation at the University of Notre Dame, is trying to answer as head of the institution's innovation hub IDEA Center. It's part of a campus-wide initiative launched in January 2024 that will see increased poverty research taking place — it gets to the heart of the private Catholic university's mission of bringing about positive societal change.

Mark Billingsley: How to launch spinouts when there are no VCs (re-broadcast)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2024 40:45


Mark Billingsley, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks‘ Tech Transfer Office and Innovation Hub, joined Beyond the Breakthrough in April 2022 and today we're revisiting this conversation because it's still one of the most unusual places covered on the podcast.

Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak: Overcoming Georgetown’s spinout challenge

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2024 45:00


Weirdly, being located at the heart of the US capital doesn't always help Georgetown University when it comes to creating spinout companies. State universities often have economic development mandates that they can follow, but in Washington DC Georgetown is in something of a vacuum — with little direction for what to focus on, less set funding and fewer people pushing to advance the technologies coming out of the institution.

Jennifer Kuan: How to steal Silicon Valley’s secret sauce

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2024 47:49


Silicon Valley is the home of venture capital and startups — but drive an hour or two outside of the city and you are in a different world. Take Monterey, the site of our own GCVI Summit (March 12 to 14 — listen to the episode to get a 10% discount code on tickets). It is a beautiful city with a world-famous aquarium and a gorgeous golf course, but it is a city of extremes: the median household income is $98,000 while at the same time more than 10% of the population lives in poverty.

Tony Boccanfuso: UIDP is bridging the divide between corporates and universities

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2024 48:24


Tony Boccanfuso has spent the past 17 years trying to work out how to get universities and corporations to collaborate better on research. Boccanfuso is the chief executive of UIDP, a non-profit association between large companies and leading research universities around the world. The invitation-only organisation has more than 200 members.

Season 2 Trailer

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2024 5:12 Transcription Available


Beyond the Breakthrough returns 9 February. Here is a trailer with some of our upcoming guests this season.

Season 1 Recap

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2023 40:31


We revisit the highlights from the past season and find out the key lessons from every guest, from dealing with failure to delivering entrepreneurial training for PhDs to building a cluster that spans more than a dozen institutions.

TenU: How do you build critical mass?

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2023 57:20


Today, we're bringing you a recording of a recent discussion organised by our friends at TenU, the international collaboration between ten tech transfer offices in Belgium, the US and the UK. The panel, led by KU Leuven's Paul Van Dun (listen to our interview with him in episode 31), tackled the question: how do you build critical mass to create innovation ecosystems? Offering their expertise were University of Michigan's Kelly Sexton (hear more from her in episode 13), Ouest Valorisation's Vincent Lamande, Innovate UK's Geeta Nathan and Northern Gritstone's Marion Bernard (and you can learn more about that firm in our interview with her colleague Duncan Johnson).

CVC Unplugged: Owen Thompson

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2023 47:23


We're bringing you an episode from Mawsonia's other podcast, CVC Unplugged, featuring an interview with Owen Thompson, CEO of Cambridge Future Tech.

ceo unplugged owen thompson
Marty Reid: How SETsquared supports founders from idea to exit

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2023 51:08


SETsquared has achieved something few have: it's built an ecosystem that spans six institutions across England and Wales and a programme that provides end-to-end support to founders both within and without the universities. Banding together means the six universities don't just rival their peers in London, Oxford or Cambridge (portfolio companies have raised some £4bn to date), but in some areas are setting the pace: Bristol, for example, is responsible for a third of all quantum computing companies in the UK.

Prof Susie Speller: Will superconductors allow us to achieve net zero?

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2023 46:58


Prof Susie Speller is a fellow at St Catherine's College and researcher in the Oxford Centre for Applied Superconductivity at the University of Oxford, where she helps corporates like Siemens Healthineers (which manufactures MRI scanners), fusion energy developer Tokamak Energy and scientific instruments company Oxford Instruments solve challenges around superconductors.

Nick McNaughton: Turning academics into entrepreneurs is a matter of national security

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 53:36


The Australian government wants to get 1,800 more PhD candidates to commercialise their work over the next decade, as part of the A$2.2bn University Research Commercialization Action Plan. But turning PhD students and early-career researchers into entrepreneurs is not a simple task. How do you identify the right people and train them to embrace a more commercial way of thinking?

Tas Gohir: Creating an NHS fit for the 21st century

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2023 42:57


The NHS, the UK's national health service, is often seen as slow to adopt innovation. But Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, located in London and linked to King's College London — has actually created a highly sophisticated unit to commercialise innovations developed at their hospitals.

Mark Mann: How to build social venture spinouts

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2023 47:40


Can British university research help families in South America secure a mortgage? That's what the University of Oxford did with its social venture spinout SOPHIA Oxford, which analyses contributing factors to poverty from the state down to the corporate level and helps companies make better choices for their employees.

Fiona Neary: University of Galway

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2023 42:12


University of Galway has long been a leader in medtech, so it makes sense that Fiona Neary, innovation operations manager in the institution's Innovation Office, created the country's first medtech accelerator programme in 2018.

university galway neary innovation office
Beyond the Breakthrough

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2023 3:46


It's time to let you know what we have planned. We're re-launching as Beyond the Breakthrough! Over the past three and a half years, and 100 episodes, one key takeaway has been the fact that the public still doesn't understand how university research gets into the marketplace — and that needs to change.

Christophe Haunold: University of Luxembourg's Office for Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer (PaKTT)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2023 37:49


A global platform for tracking tech transfer data — is creating something like this even possible? That is what Christophe Haunold, head of the University of Luxembourg's Office for Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer (PaKTT), wants to get off the ground. If anyone can create this it would be Christophe, a seasoned builder who founded the tech transfer office at the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, as well as Toulouse Tech Transfer (one of 13 regional tech transfer companies in France) and then the tech transfer office at the University of Luxembourg.

Treasure hunting for seed pearls

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2023 52:22


Today's is a slightly different episode of the podcast as we're bringing you a recording of a recent webinar, Treasure hunting for seed pearls at universities and national labs.

Tom Flanagan: NovaUCD

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2023 39:07


University College Dublin has racked up a number of firsts, including creating Ireland's first spinout unicorn, Wayflyer. Tom Flanagan, director of enterprise and commercialisation at the university's innovation office NovaUCD gives us the insider view on how the ecommerce company was born.

Andreea Serban: KIDoc & PhylloPharma

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 10, 2023 34:07


Andreea Serban is a doctor specialising in paediatric surgery and an entrepreneur who's founded her own healthtech, KIDoc, and joined another, PhylloPharma, as chief operating officer. She's also a 2022 fellow of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders, a US Department of State programme that invites young entrepreneurs from Europe to the United States, that brought her to the University of Pennsylvania and introduced her to her mentor Michael Poisel, a previous guest on this show.

Bryn Rees: CU Boulder

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2023 47:33


Bryn Rees is the associate vice chancellor for research and innovation, and managing director of Venture Partners at CU Boulder — one of two tech transfer offices in the University of Colorado system.

Neil Gordon: Trinity Innovation

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2023 38:56


Ireland, despite its small size, is home to major global tech and pharma companies, and punches above its weight in terms of spinouts that tackle global challenges from sustainable agriculture to cancer vaccines to AI-driven language monitoring, Trinity College Dublin's Neil Gordon tells us.

USIT Guide: A live discussion

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2023 47:50


Earlier this year, TenU — an international collaboration between 10 tech transfer offices in the US and Europe developing best practices — launched the University Spinout Investment Terms (USIT) Guide. Developed together with law firms and VC firms throughout the UK, the USIT Guide aims to accelerate negotiations between universities and investors and solve some of the common sticking points in these discussions.

Trailer

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2023 6:36


Some snippets of upcoming interviews plus an explanation for why we've been on a break which involves a peek behind the scenes of Talking Tech Transfer.

Break

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2023 1:01


Hello dear listener. You're probably wondering where the latest episode is and so I wanted to give a quick update, as scheduling conflicts — life…

Jacek Kasz: Cracow University of Technology

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2023 45:59


Jacek Kasz is the director of the Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) at Cracow University of Technology, Poland's second oldest TTO. He tells us how…

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