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 (https://www.universityofgalway.ie/innovation/), created the country's first medtech accelerator programme in 2018. 

She also helped build the BioInnovate programme, based on Stanford's Biodesign Innovation Fellowship, which puts would-be founders into real-life clinical settings to develop products for concrete patient needs. The programme is set to expand across Irish institutions.

This focus on medtech isn't without its challenges — demand for wet labs, for example, has far outstripped supply. Fiona is also keen that medtech doesn't overshadow Galway's other opportunities in energy, agritech and construction (and indeed, Galway is home to Ireland's latest research centre focused on construction). 

On this debut episode of Beyond the Breakthrough, Fiona also discusses the importance of US investors for Galway startups, the government's role through economic development agency Enterprise Ireland and local investors like Atlantic Bridge, whose University Bridge Fund II is backed by the University of Galway.

Beyond the Breakthrough

Fiona Neary: University of Galway

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.

It's one of the successes celebrated by Mark Mann, who started out in tech transfer at the BBC, moved to the University of Oxford and now runs his own consultancy business helping universities across Europe build spinouts with social impact at their core.

It's not an easy task and raising capital can be a nightmare — Mann has seen his share of failures, such as his attempt to raise a fund on behalf of social venture collaboration Impact12 in 2020. But examples like SOPHIA Oxford show that these social impact spinouts can have real benefits, and can be a powerful force in international development.

But what do you have to watch out for when setting up a social venture? How does it differ from setting up a social enterprise? And are those challenges the same in every country? (Spoiler: No. In some jurisdictions, like the US or France, social ventures don't exist as a legal concept.) Mann has advice for universities, would-be founders and PraxisAuril, the UK's knowledge exchange association which recently hired staff specifically to bring social venture spinouts into the mainstream.

Mark Mann: How to build social venture spinouts

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.

The Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is unique in England. Not only does it have this tech transfer office, but the team sits within a larger, well-resourced unit — the Centre for Innovation, Transformation and Improvement (CITI) (https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/citi) — that handles everything from spinouts to consultancy to identifying efficiencies that can guarantee the long-term survival of the NHS. It even has its own venture fund, KHP Ventures. 

Tas Gohir, senior intellectual property, innovation and commercial research manager at CITI, talks us through his office's work and shares advice for founders and SMEs that are looking to get their product or service into the NHS. 

He also tells us why money alone won't solve all the NHS's challenges, like long waitlists, why CITI works with local and international partners like the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and he talks about his own research which is looking at challenges in the recruitment of tech transfer staff (if you work in a TTO and would like to contribute to this research, reach out to him https://www.linkedin.com/in/tas-gohir-3a05505/).

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

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? 

Nick McNaughton, CEO of PD Plus, which specialises in commercialisation services, has some ideas. PD Plus won the contract to manage the National Industry PhD programme in February 2023 and has completed the first two rounds. McNaughton tells us what he has learned from the exercise so far.

Among other things, PD Plus uses a tool called the Curiosity Index to monitor and track an individual researcher’s engagement over weeks, months and years and deploys targeted modules to guide them towards commercialisation.

Other countries are already keen to learn from this. PD Plus recently expanded overseas to upskill Britain-based researchers. The company has also expanded into New Zealand (where it’s hired previous podcast guest Anne Barnett) and plans to enter the US and Canada in the coming years.

In targeting these markets — which already collaborate on intelligence under the Five Eyes monicker — McNaughton hopes to tap into the growing awareness that emerging technologies like quantum computing are national security concerns where university researchers will play an important role.

Get free access to PD Plus in the UK

PD Plus is offering complimentary access to its webinar series to our listeners in the UK through the remainder of 2023. Simply email Ben Morrell at ben@pdplus.co.uk to get access.

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

Superconductors can seem like magic when you watch magnetic levitation videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWojYBhvfjM), but they're far from a futuristic concept. They already have real-world applications: they are an essential component of MRI scanners, for example, which would otherwise take the energy of a small city to run (they really take about as much as boiling a kettle).

Superconductors are also used in the development of fusion energy (they generate magnetic fields strong enough to contain the chemical reaction), they're an integral part of the Large Hadron Collider, they're being used in some approaches to quantum computing, and they're being explored as transmission lines for the electricity grid and as a way to make offshore wind turbines smaller. 

They're not necessarily intuitive: superconductors must have defects to work — you might know that semiconductors are the opposite: they need to be (almost) pure. They're also not without challenges — MRI scanners continue to rely on lead because no alternative has been found yet and figuring out how to create kilometre-long cables that could serve as power lines has taken three decades.

Prof Susie Speller (https://www.materials.ox.ac.uk/peoplepages/speller.html) is a fellow at St Catherine’s College and researcher in the Oxford Centre for Applied Superconductivity (https://www.cfas.ox.ac.uk/) 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.

She is also a passionate science communicator and last year published a book on superconductors, A Materials Science Guide to Superconductors (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-materials-science-guide-to-superconductors-9780192858351), that offers an accessible entry point into the field without glossing over the fundamental science behind it all. We find out what prompted her to write the book and how her interest in materials science began with a trip to the University of Cambridge when she was 15.

*Global University Venturing chose to purchase a copy of Prof Speller's book.*

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

SETsquared (https://www.setsquared.co.uk/) 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.

Marty Reid, interim executive director of SETsquared, sees potential in sectors that may be less obvious too, such as creative industries. Indeed, he argues, technologies like immersive gaming could have far-reaching applications — even in sectors like healthcare.

But SETsquared doesn’t just want to be for founders: it recently won a £1.5m award from Research England to transform and enable tech transfer at its member institutions, helping them to engage investors earlier and forge more fruitful relationships.

And those investors can know that they’ll get an incredibly diverse offering: some of SETsquared’s members have already reached near-parity of funding going into women-founded startups and the rest is catching up fast. Reid has immediate, tangible advice for any tech transfer office looking to do the same.

SETsquared’s conference, Investment Futures 24, is happening on November 28 in Shoreditch, London. You can register here (https://www.setsquared.co.uk/programme/investment-futures-24-delegate/).

Marty Reid: How SETsquared supports founders from idea to exit

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

CVC Unplugged: Owen Thomspon

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.

Season 1 Recap

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. 

Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak, vice-president of the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) (https://otc.georgetown.edu/) admits she underestimated the problem when she joined from Rutgers University a year ago, but she is finding ways to work with universities in Maryland and Virginia and creating links with federal and city officials. 

One of the innovations that Litvin-Vechnyak has brought in since she joined the OTC is a highly structured — and large — internship programme. The first cohort of eight students is going through this programme right now. It's helping Litvin-Vechnyak, who started as an intern at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, not to lose sight of what she found exciting and challenging when she first joined the profession.

UMDNJ would merge with Rutgers University in 2013, and she tells us how she navigated the complex task of negotiating a new, unified IP policy with two legacy faculties and unions.

*Thinking of coming to our GCVI Summit (https://www.gcvisummit.com/) in March? Listen to the episode to get an exclusive 10% discount on tickets!*

Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak: Overcoming Georgetown's spinout challenge

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 (https://ideacenter.nd.edu/). It's part of a campus-wide initiative launched in January 2024 (https://strategicframework.nd.edu/initiatives/poverty-initiative/) 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.

Rich recently signed a partnership with High Alpha Innovation, an Indiana-based venture studio operator that will put a venture studio, with a first focus on poverty, on campus. High Alpha is also the general partner running the 1842 Fund (https://www.1842fund.com/), a fund that will invest in university spinouts, as well as student and community startups. The fund, which has a target of raising $35m, will work in close partnership with the IDEA Center to fund impact-focused spinouts.

This is Notre Dame's second university venture fund — its first, Pit Road Fund, is fully deployed. The university has decided against managing a second fund itself, in part because of a perceived conflict of interest, Rich explains in the podcast.

Follow Thierry on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierryheles/).

Kelley Rich: Fighting poverty with university spinouts

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 (https://www.halo.science/), a matchmaker for cutting-edge research and real-world problems.

Here’s how it works: corporates throw out their toughest challenges as precise questions like “how do we remove nitrogen from stormwater runoff?” (an issue that causes river pollution, and a problem Halo helped solve for Oldcastle Infrastructure). Researchers on the platform can then submit a proposal through a process that takes about half an hour — much quicker than writing most grant applications.

But what if the right professor isn’t on the platform? Halo also uses an AI tool to scan patent filings and contact experts directly. And it works with tech transfer offices to ensure they can bring opportunities to their researchers (and keep track of applications so all the paperwork is handled properly).

Best of all for researchers, tech transfer offices and startups: it’s completely free. Corporates pay an annual fee depending on the features they require. The model has allowed Halo, incubated at the University of Chicago’s innovation unit Polsky Center and founded in 2020, to attract more than 4,000 researchers across more than 100 countries. Its corporate clients include Takeda, PepsiCo and Unilever.

Kevin Leland, founder and chief executive of Halo, tells us how Halo grew out of an idea for a crowdfunding platform for early-stage drug development to a marketplace that now even handles philanthropic initiatives like Bayer’s Grants4Ag (https://www.bayer.com/media/en-us/bayers-grants4ag-program-awards-21-crop-science-research-grants-for-2023/) and enables startups to easily apply to corporate-run accelerators.

Further listening

Learn more about the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center, where Halo was incubated, in episode 34 of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast (https://globalventuring.com/university/talking-tech-transfer-jay-schrankler/).

Follow Thierry Heles on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierryheles/).

Halo has researchers on speed dial for corporates

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.

In terms of spinouts, these founders not only face this bias in fundraising but even when it comes to negotiating with tech transfer offices. Often, they sit at the negotiation table in front of a white man, as was the case for serial entrepreneur Allison Byers (https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-byers/).

Byers has learned to fight back — she helped pass a California bill that will force any VC active in the state to disclose diversity numbers for their portfolios from 2025. 

She tells us more about that work on this panel discussion, the second in our miniseries on startup teams and hosted once again by Imperial College London’s director of enterprise Simon Hepworth (https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-hepworth-b6b1662/). Rani Saad (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranisaad/), founding partner of Apex Black, and Jo O’Leary (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-o-leary-93a37186/), head of equality, diversity and inclusion at UK Research and Innovation, also offer actionable insights for founders, universities and investors.

Panel discussion: Funding for all — unlocking diversity in spinouts

Today, we are revisiting another favourite from the archives.

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. 

[You can find a transcript of this episode on our website](https://globalventuring.com/university/talking-tech-transfer-karin-immergluck/).

[Follow Thierry Heles on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierryheles/).

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

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.

Academics who go on to found companies based on their research have not just a steep learning curve to adapt to the new commercial environment, but also a wider shift in their mindset. The lab, after all, is a much different place than the market.

I spoke to a number of startup founders and investors for an article to learn more about what some of those things are that academics-turned-entrepreneurs have to deal with and navigate through to get their brainchild out of the university and into the real world. Getting up to speed with the business world, learning to choose the most viable path for your technology, getting used to the constraints of being a business that needs investment, and effectively communicating their technology are just among some of the things they need to reckon with.

Today I speak to my colleague Thierry Heles about some of the things that they told me.

CVC Unplugged

The transition from academic to entrepreneur

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.

And Cardiff is going all in: the institution is a founding member of Aspect, a UK-based multi-university organisation that was set up to drive the creation of social sciences spinouts. Two years ago, Cardiff opened a six-storey incubator, called sbarc|spark, which is dedicated to social sciences and home to the tech transfer office itself.

Devlin — who's been in the job for 18 months — can already claim early successes such as HateLab, a platform to detect online hate speech and crime, that began as a social sciences research project but last year was spun out as Nisien.ai.

Devlin is also working with his boss Vanessa Cuthill and vice-chancellor Prof Wendy Larner to make sure tech transfer is measured by impact, rather than just VC investment raised — a metric that makes sense for life sciences or software spinouts, but not for social sciences.

FURTHER LISTENING

Learn more about SETsquared in our interview with the enterprise partnership's interim executive director Marty Reid.

GET IN TOUCH

Follow Thierry Heles on LinkedIn.

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

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.

He also argues that the country’s remoteness actually makes space tech a strength for New Zealand, although the nation still struggles with a lack of serial entrepreneurs despite the fact that many people are open to trying their hands at a startup.

Auckland UniServices is also unique in that it doesn’t simply create its own spinouts and startups, but also operates businesses – including one that trained medical staff in delivering the covid-19 vaccine across New Zealand and several Pacific island nations.

Today we’re revisiting a classic episode from the archives. If you want to know more about Auckland UniServices, head on over to globalventuring.com/university where you can find a brand new op-ed from Andy’s colleague Will Charles looking at why university venture funds and low equity stakes are important.

GET IN TOUCH

Follow Thierry Heles on LinkedIn.

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

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).

This season also featured discussions around university venture funds (Anita Nel at Stellenbosch University and its University Technology Fund) and investing in the construction sector (Ilian Iliev at NetScientific).

We also tried to answer the question of what makes an ideal spinout founder with GUV's own Fernando Moncada, as well as an episode guest-hosted by Imperial College London's Simon Hepworth that specifically looked at immigrants as founders. John Dearie (American Center for Entrepreneurship), Alice Li (Cornell University's Center for Technology Licensing), Desmond Cheung (an investor with Foresight Group) and Dorian Haci (founder and CEO of Imperial spinout MintNeuro) all contributed to that panel discussion.

Beyond the Breakthrough is taking a summer break — but keep your eyes peeled for a bonus episode or two coming later this month!

GET IN TOUCH

Follow Thierry Heles on LinkedIn.

Season 3 Recap: Groundbreaking incubators and ideal startup founders

Today, we pause our coverage of the Reversing the Arrow conference to bring you a Creative Distillation treat: our annual Halloween episode! This time it comes with a twist. Instead of Jeff putting Brad through another ritual pumpkin beer tasting, we return to one of our favorite locations, Pits & Stems, to sample some handcrafted fall-flavored cocktails, created by our favorite bartender, Ethan Decker.

Joining Brad and Jeff is Bryn Rees, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation and Managing Director of Venture Partners at CU-Boulder. In short, Bryn and his group are at the center of tech transfer and new technological developments coming out of CU. As you’ll hear, there’s a lot to be excited about with regards to innovation here. Tune in to learn more about this, as well as Jeff’s horror film recommendations and other thoughts on this spooky season.

Enjoy and cheers - and Happy Halloween!
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This episode was recorded on location at Pits & Stems, Boulder’s best speakeasy. You’ll have to do some googling to find it, and then make a reservation, but trust us when we say it’s worth the effort.

Learn more about Bryn Rees and Venture Partners on his faculty page at colorado.edu: https://www.colorado.edu/venturepartners/bryn-rees


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Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

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CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

Whiskey Before Breakfast

70: Bryn Rees (Colorado) at Pits and Stems: Halloween Craft Cocktails and CU's Venture Partners

On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Ken Kring and Dave Ikenberry speak with Ajay Menon, President and CEO of CSU STRATA, and former Dean of CSU's Agricultural Sciences and Business Schools.

In this captivating discussion, Ajay walks us through his path from Marketing Faculty Member to Dean to his current role as Innovation Leader at STRATA, a non-profit supporting and serving the campuses and affiliates of the Colorado State University System through intellectual property management and technology transfer services; special project oversight; strategic real estate management and project development services; as well as operational management of regional, state, national, and international assets. 

As you might imagine, Ajay expertly touches on a broad swath of subjects in this interview, including:

• challenges and opportunities in academic leadership
• strategies for tech transfer and IP management
• interdisciplinary collaboration and faculty incentives
• tips on dealing

Learn more about Ajay Menon: https://csustrata.org/meet-our-team/ajay-menon-phd/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

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DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

56: Ajay Menon (STRATA/Colorado State) on A Second Career After a Successful Deanship

The CVC Unplugged podcast is a weekly show that brings you fascinating and wide-ranging conversations with leading corporate venture capital investors, subject matter experts, startup founders, journalists and other market participants to keep you informed of the most important trends affecting early-stage investing.

Hosted by Global Corporate Venturing's, Fernando Moncada Rivera, guests dive into strategy, market movements and drivers, best practices, macro trends and much more.

New episodes are available every Monday on your favourite audio platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or wherever else you get your podcasts.

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill  entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Beyond the Breakthrough is a weekly interview show with the brightest minds in university innovation tackling the question: how does research get from a lab into the marketplace?

New tracks tagged #tech transfer