Northumbria University’s IP and Commercialisation team scooped Team of the Year at Praxis Auril’s Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023.
As a core partner in Northern Accelerator, Northumbria has demonstrated how a modern university with high-quality research can build a high-performing, sustainable technology transfer office without decades of investment and development.
The team achieved this through clear strategy, innovative approaches, passion and dedication, and belief and support from the University leadership and Board. The Northumbria Team believe the commercialisation of intellectual property should be an accessible and sustainable route to achieving impact for all universities.
Dr Chelsea Brain, IP and Commercialisation Manager at Northumbria and a project lead for Northern Accelerator, said: “We’ve moved from limited commercialisation activity in 2018 to a project portfolio of over 120 opportunities, a 5-fold increase in our invention disclosure rate, our first active spinout company, a future spinout pipeline, and over £750k in external funding for commercialisation activity today.
“We now have a strong foundation to achieving significant impact for our research and want to inspire others who wish to make technology transfer a viable mechanism for knowledge exchange at their institution.”
Chelsea believes that collaborating with partners in Northern Accelerator has significantly helped Northumbria on this journey: “Not only have we had access to funding and training to develop our academic entrepreneurs and their commercialisation projects, we’ve also benefited significantly from working alongside universities such as Durham and Newcastle who readily share best practice from their established technology transfer offices.
“Northern Accelerator is a true partnership and we’re each able to progress and grow, building our teams and providing support from idea inception through to launch of a business and beyond.”
Northumbria University research commercialisation projects
Some of the opportunities that have benefitted from Northern Accelerator support at Northumbria University include:
- Dr Moschos’ PulmoBiomed – Northumbria’s first spinout company as part of Northern Accelerator
- Dr Muhammad Wakil’s Solar2Water – A solar-powered device to create potable water from moisture in the atmosphere
