Technology transfer is a highly trained and multidisciplinary scientific endeavour, providing the crucial link between academic research and commercial development.
Our Technology Transfer Fellowship was launched in 2018, in conjunction with Imperial College London, Queen Mary Innovation and UCL Business, three of London’s leading technology transfer environments.
The Fellowship combines training and practical experience to develop understanding of the drug discovery process, intellectual property management and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Experts from organisations such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute, AlbionVC, Bristows and Mewburn Ellis have supported the programme by presenting to the fellows during induction week.
All four fellows from the scheme’s first year found employment in technology transfer. One, Dr Elliott Jennings, joined LifeArc as a Business Manager. Elliott described the Fellowship as, “a fantastic introduction to the industry [which] exposed me to a range of new technologies, ways of working and TTOs. The network I began to build has been one of the lasting outcomes of the programme.”
Tom Hockaday, author of ‘University Technology Transfer: What It Is and How To Do It’ and former Managing Director of Oxford University Innovation, has presented to the fellows. He sums up the value of the Fellowship: “There are very few similar opportunities available to get such a detailed insight into the workings of technology transfer offices, the challenges, the opportunities to support researchers and to see the brilliance of scientific research results having an impact in society. The roles into which alumni have moved clearly demonstrate how the Fellowship develops skillsets that the participants will benefit from as their careers progress.”