Northern Accelerator’s Building Momentum showcase saw a range of speakers bring to life their research commercialisation journey. The event at The Catalyst in Newcastle aimed to highlight the support Northern Accelerator introduced through its Research England CCF Momentum project.
Building on the success of its existing support model, the funding allowed the partnership of six universities to introduce further support for academics spinning out research-driven businesses.
Attendees at the event heard from academics across Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Teesside and York Universities who have benefitted from enterprise fellowships allowing them to focus on their commercialisation projects.
Neil Loxley, CEO of Newcastle University spinout Ocular Systems, shared his experience of a new £10,000 fast-start grant, now awarded to all Northern Accelerator spinouts.
And John Baines of Dragonfly Advanced Materials spoke with overwhelming praise about a new Spinout Leaders’ Network. The network brings together academic founders, CEOs and senior executives of spinout businesses, to connect and share experiences through a range of events.
An honest account of a lockdown spinout
Alton Horsfall, academic founder of Durham University spinout Nascent Semiconductor, treated the audience to a warts and all account of his own research commercialisation journey. With humour and honesty, Alton shared some of the highs and lows of embarking on his journey to spinout during the 2020 UK lockdown, likening being given official ownership of his new business as “bringing your first baby home from hospital, and thinking ‘now what’.”
In highlighting his key challenges and learning points, the importance of Northern Accelerator’s newly added support mechanisms became even more apparent.
Flying the flag for SHAPE research commercialisation, Durham’s Sara Uckelman took the audience on an entertaining journey from arts and humanities research to upcoming spinout. And Sunderland’s Andy Cook shared candidly how his own enterprise fellowship has opened his eyes to the need to slow down and focus on his business model before going full steam ahead.
The enterprise fellowship programme was supported by Zuas, providing business training, support and advice alongside a buy-out of academic teaching time.
