09:45-10:00
Impact in an age of disruption
Dr Stephen Cook, Chief Commercial Officer (Technology), BP plc
Abstract
Many industry sectors are facing unprecedented disruption as the pace of innovation increases, digitisation creates new opportunities and business models, environmental concerns bite, new economies emerge, demographics shift, bioscience creates new possibilities and geopolitics becomes increasingly volatile. The need to translate invention into value – i.e. innovation – becomes an existential imperative for many companies. Many of the most valuable innovations occur at the boundaries between traditional disciplines. New ways of working in the start-up ecosystem fuelled by venture capital allows ideas to be demonstrated at pace. These factors mean that companies must be connected to research and experimentation at many levels in an ecosystem approach and must expect to collaborate to succeed in shared ownership models. As industry learns the business building and scale-up lessons from the start-up community this in turns creates new possibilities for partnerships to allow more frictionless translation and business and societal impact from research.
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Dr Stephen Cook, Chief Commercial Officer (Technology), BP plc
Dr Stephen Cook, Chief Commercial Officer (Technology), BP plc
Steve Cook completed a DPhil in Bio-organic chemistry at Jesus College, Oxford before joining BP in 1998. He managed various R&D projects before moving into a strategy role which led to the creation of BP’s strategic accounts organisation.
Steve then moved into BP’s Renewables business in 2002, managing collaborative demonstration projects in the area of hydrogen refuelling for fuel cell vehicles which included the construction and operation of the UK’s first hydrogen refuelling station in London. During 2005 Steve was part of the launch team for BP’s Alternative Energy Business and following launch led various commercial business development activity within that business.
In 2009 Steve moved to BP’s Technology organisation, leading long term strategy development and change management. From 2012 Steve created and led the Technology Commercialisation team which he established to maximise the value of BP’s innovation programmes. This team has commercialised a number of game-changing technologies and spun new companies out of BP.
Steve is now Chief Commercial Officer for BP’s Technology organisation. His remit includes long term energy trends work, thought leadership on emerging and disruptive technology, and building new energy businesses using venturing and other commercial structures.
Steve is currently leading BP’s new business building factor ‘BP Launchpad’ which is scaling new global energy companies for the future.
Steve is a keen rock climber and ceramic artist. He is a founder-trustee of two UK charities.
10:00-10:15
An SME perspective on research translation
Peter Brewin, Founder, Concrete Canvas Ltd
Abstract
1) How could universities support recent graduates and create more successful technology spin out companies?
2) Does a quasi-venture capital model for university spin out companies provide the best outcomes for the universities, the founders and UK PLC?
3)How can the barriers to SME engagement with universities be minimised?
Having founded and spun out two companies from a master’s degree and spent the last 14 years developing, commercialising and licensing technologies within a technology SME, I will provide an SME’s perspective on the above questions with some practical solutions.
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Peter Brewin, Founder, Concrete Canvas Ltd
Peter Brewin, Founder, Concrete Canvas Ltd
Peter is a director of Concrete Canvas Ltd, which he and Will Crawford founded in 2005 to develop and commercialise the award winning Concrete Canvas material and Concrete Canvas Shelters. Concrete Canvas now has offices on 5 continents, sales partners in 45 countries and projects in 80 countries.
Following a Short Service Limited Commission, as an officer in the Royal Engineers, Peter studied Engineering (MEng) at the University of Cambridge and then Industrial Design Engineering (MA) at the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Imperial College where he was funded by an 1851 Studentship. While at the RCA he developed a novel re-circulating shower technology and co-developed Concrete Canvas’s core technologies. Both projects have won multiple major design and business awards, have led to multiple granted patents and have been commercialised as start-up companies.
Peter’s work has won a large number of awards; most recently he was awarded a Silver Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) for his outstanding contribution to UK engineering.
10:15-10:30
Transforming UK translation: a university perspective
Dr Celia Caulcott, Vice-Provost (Enterprise), UCL
Abstract
Governments and global society at large expect universities to engage with a variety of outside partners in order to translate their research, knowledge and understanding into productive use within those societies and economies. It is well-recognised that the impact that universities can have through such partnerships, and other knowledge exchange activities, is both wide-ranging and profound.
To develop productive relationships that support innovation requires a mixture of bottom-up and top-down approaches. The former approach recognises that most partnerships, technology and ideas development, are driven by the individual researchers and their collaborations with external organisations. The latter approach enables integrated, interdisciplinary and cross-institutional outcomes. Innovative partnerships can be forged with companies, hospitals, governments, and a wide variety of organisations, large and small, private and public: in every case the relationship should be one of equivalence, recognising mutual benefit and shared aspiration.
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Dr Celia Caulcott, Vice-Provost (Enterprise), UCL
Dr Celia Caulcott, Vice-Provost (Enterprise), UCL
Celia Caulcott is Vice-Provost (Enterprise) at UCL. Following degrees in microbiology she joined the biopharmaceutical industry where she worked on and led research on the production of therapeutic recombinant monoclonal antibodies. Subsequently she worked on a variety of government projects and for the Wellcome Trust on the Human Genome Project. She joined the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in 2008 and moved to UCL in 2015.
At BBSRC she developed and led the innovation strategy, widening engagement with agriculture, food and other bioscience-using businesses in the UK, emphasising the importance of bioscience research and innovation in contributing benefit to society and the economy.
At UCL, Celia leads the cross-university Innovation and Enterprise Strategy. The focus is on widening the university approach to innovation and enterprise, drawing in all disciplines and seeking the widest possible benefit to society and the economy. This is supported by developing UCL strategic approaches to working with innovation partners, supporting entrepreneurship for students and alumni, translating research outputs to application and developing the UCL culture of innovation and enterprise.