Based on a theme of enterprise, innovation and commercialisation, i-sense's students and early career researchers met for the first annual Education Alliance Enterprise workshop at Newcastle University, on the 25th and 26th of November 2014.
The programme was designed to complement the i-sense research agenda, build generic skills and provide researchers with confidence in their own abilities.
To kick of the event, researchers were asked to give a 3 minute presentation on their work, using only one slide and props. This gave the group an opportunity to gain some insight into each individual's research as well as helping to hone their presentation skills.
Next, participants were asked to discuss key societal challenges and create pseudo companies to solve these challenges, leading to final group pitches at the end of the workshop. During this process, the group were exposed to various different aspects of the journey from idea through to enterprise, including Intellectual Property, commercialisation models, business planning tools and finance options.
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Content for the event was compiled and delivered by Gareth Trainer, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurial Development at Newcastle University, and Dr. Neil Keegan, Chair of the Education Alliance Committee. The following objectives were achieved during the workshop:
- Gain a greater understanding of the skills, knowledge, ideas and interests of our colleagues.
- Explore and deliver three minute research presentations.
- Conceptualise future Education Alliance activities.
- Accrue a greater knowledge and understanding of intellectual property.
- Investigate key commercialisation considerations and approaches.
- Introduce and put into action the main elements of an investment pitch.
The Education Alliance aims to expose students and researchers to the holistic perspective of end-user needs for diagnostics and early-warning systems. It provides a supportive and exciting environment for students, creating new working cultures, building relationships between teams in universities and forging lasting links with industry.
The workshops are a commitment by i-sense academics to provide our early career researchers with professional development opportunities, in parallel to delivering internationally leading research activities.
