INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared has delivered a unique, new innovation development course in partnership with AstraZeneca, which brought together academic staff and industry research scientists.

The three-day programme provided training on how to better communicate their research ideas in the form of business or investment plans to leverage funding or investment.

16 participants, including 7 delegates from AstraZeneca and 9 from the University of Bath, took part on the course which was funded via a Proximity to Discovery grant from the Medical Research Council.

Emma Woods from AstraZeneca commented: “We’re really pleased that the joint AZ-SETsquared Entrepreneurship course has proven to be a success.  We identified a need in our development teams to learn more about how to develop robust business propositions to support their innovation ideas internally so the opportunity to work with SETSquared to do this was an ideal opportunity.  As well as developing these skills amongst our scientists and project managers, course participants also took the chance to draw upon the experiences of academics which added further value to the overall learning experience.”

The overall aim of the course was to provide participants with key skills to support the commercialisation of research, whether that is attracting internal funding, applying to external funders or seeking venture capital funding.

This included support in being able to better communicate the opportunities, impact and commercial return for funders, leading towards a business proposition in the form of a short investor pitch, a business plan with a sharp executive summary and a focus on the end goal of the enterprise.