skip to content

For staff

 

A new wave of entrepreneurial growth is forecast for the Cambridge region, and institutions across the University are working hard to stimulate academic-led innovation

Taking a low-tech bicycle ride along the Coton Path to the West Cambridge site, with its concentration of buildings dedicated to cutting-edge research, is a way to physically experience the resources the University has put in place to nurture innovation.

Lying at the southern edge of the site is the Hauser Forum, a shiny, three-year-old complex intended to become a magnet for entrepreneurship in the region. It is named after its benefactor, Cambridge PhD Hermann Hauser, who went on to co-found Acorn Computers and is now a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

Situated close to the Computer and Cavendish Laboratories, from which numerous successful spin-out companies have evolved, the Forum consists of the Broers Building and the Entrepreneurship Centre. With its striking contemporary exterior and colourful informal meeting spaces, it is designed to stimulate innovative collaboration between academics, start-up entrepreneurs and established businesses.

The Entrepreneurship Centre provides a natural home for Cambridge Enterprise. Chief Executive Dr Tony Raven explains that this University offshoot, with a staff of 47, has a mission to enable University researchers get their ideas out into the world, to boost the local and wider economies and to make a positive contribution to society.

“Cambridge Enterprise has a very specific skill, namely spotting ideas with real potential and offering specialist support throughout the commercialisation process,” he says.

Unlike some of the other University initiatives to support innovation, the organisation’s focus is on commercialising new technical inventions and services, with patenting and business support.

Advice and support

Raven emphasises that academics wanting to spin out their ideas can come to them for advice on the best route forward. “We may suggest you form a company around your idea, or to licence the intellectual property to another. Licensing is our bread and butter, more than forming companies. Each year we spin out an average of five companies. Last year 84 new licensing agreements were made. Cambridge Enterprise also supports academics negotiating consultancy contracts.”

Cambridge Enterprise has a £5 million ‘seed fund’ to enable academics to bring their concept to market: by developing a business plan, commissioning a market assessment and putting management in place. Cambridge Enterprise can also link them up with potential investors.

“Our companies have an 80 per cent survival rate after three years,” says Dr Raven. “There is no time limit on our support. We can take the long view, which gives us an advantage.”

The results of their efforts are impressive. Over the past five years, Cambridge Enterprise’s overall income from licensing, consultancy and equity transactions has exceeded £46 million. £38 million of this was returned to the researchers, their departments and the University.

Entrepreneurial activity is not limited to science and technology. Dr Raven points to new businesses coming out of the University’s departments of Music, Education and Divinity, where Dr Sara Savage and her colleagues have devised a series of original educational courses. These use multimedia and role-play to promote social cohesion by allowing young people to confront the tensions caused by clashes in values.

How do innovators who are at a very early stage get support? This is something in which Cambridge excels. One example is the ideaSpace opened in 2010 in the Hauser Forum – which is one of more than 20 University-wide initiatives that provide enterprise-related education and business support for ideas at a very early stage and on.

Explore commercial potential

ideaSpace is an informal communal space for those who have been working in isolation. Here people whose ideas have often – but not exclusively – emerged from a formal research programme come together and explore the commercial potential for their ideas.

A key policy at ideaSpace is that offices must be shared to ensure there is a cross-fertilisation of ideas. Stewart McTavish – a former Computer Laboratory graduate and entrepreneur who runs ideaSpace explains: “One of the worst things you can do at the early stages of starting a business is to hide away in a garage or bedroom until the idea is ‘ready’. ideaSpace is much more like a club house or shared space, giving people working up their ideas a chance to do so alongside others.”

The centre also has an ethical approach. “We recruit members who are tackling meaningful problems that, if solved, will benefit a large number of people,” says McTavish.

“Our members are not only selected for the problems they are solving but also their approach and attitude to creating meaningful new companies or charities.”

McTavish explains that ideaSpace members range from recent graduates to those on their fourth venture. “We help them by trying to help them focus on the things that really matter and pass by those that don’t. We host start-up masterclasses, skill surgeries, workshops, training events and investors mornings. Our members have 24/7 access.”

The encouraging news is that a second space has opened in Mill Lane, and McTavish has plans for a third at Addenbooke’s.

The practical, hands-on support for real-life projects that ideaSpace and Cambridge Enterprise offer is complemented by the educational role played by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.

CFEL is based within Cambridge Judge Business School, and runs a wide range of entrepreneurial education: Enterprise Tuesday is a series of free lectures open to all that introduces participants to the business world; Ignite is an intensive one-week training programme for aspiring entrepreneurs. And the Judge Business School itself is, of course, active in the field, highlighting the value of entrepreneurship in all its management education. It has also launched Accelerate Cambridge, an in-house initiative to help start-ups.

Industry contacts and business skills

Back at West Cambridge, the Institute of Manufacturing hosts i-Teams, another project that bridges research and commercial application: since 2006 they have trained around 500 graduate students in hands-on business skills. As part of their project work at i-Teams, students work on real-world business ideas that are being nurtured by Cambridge Enterprise. Students conduct crucial market research into the idea’s viability and, in the process, gain valuable industry contacts and business skills.

i-Teams is run by Trinity alumna Amy Mokady, a serial entrepreneur and mentor who spends much of her time helping people within the University turn their innovative ideas into commercial reality.

“We bring PhDs and post docs interested in commercialising new innovation together with Cambridge’s top scientists,” she says.

“Over a term, we assemble teams of seven students who work on a nominated University research project. They are guided by business mentors in their attempt to assess these inventions’ commercial potential. They are introduced to valuable commercial contacts and gain that market insight so hard to get when you are a researcher.”

It is not only the ‘for-profit’ sector that Cambridge supports. Mokady is also a trustee of the Humanitarian Centre, a lively network of international development organisations in the area, where she brings her expertise to NGOs and social enterprises. The centre runs annual Hackathons where students from the sciences and humanities come together over a week to brainstorm practical solutions that will help charities tackle global poverty. This year’s winner was a clay pot with solar-powered fan attached, so communities living in humid climates can keep their food cool.

Very cool – and a good example of how Cambridge’s innovation culture thrives on bold academic thinking and a multi-disciplinary approach.