Win win: Last year’s winner, SensorHut, collecting its cheque. L-R Bob Pettigrew, angel investor, Dr Andy Richards, angel investor, Dr Hakan Goker, director, Dr Kevin Johnson, partner at Index Ventures and Matthew Foy, partner, SR One
Taking place in Cambridge, the Innovation Leaders Forum outlines its life science event which aims to unite industry, government and academia
The Innovation Leaders Conference, run by the Innovation Forum – an international network of companies, researchers, entrepreneurs and pioneers – is an annual event that aims to bridge the gap between academia, industry and government. Its latest event at the Cambridge Judge Business School on 16-17 April, promotes innovation across life science, pharmaceutical, healthcare, engineering and clean tech sectors.
Over the last decade, Cambridge has fast become the hub of innovation and enterprise. Dr Marek Tyl, co-founder and chief executive of the Innovation Forum, set up the Leaders Conference to support the next generation of industry innovators and experts, and focuses on university student and academic participation. Tyl has a strong interest in knowledge exchange and education and is a member of an advisory committee for careers development of postdoctoral research at the Medical Research Council (MRC).
He said: “The Innovation Leaders Conference looks to facilitate communication, introduce partnering opportunities across disciplines and act as a channel for the next generation of technological innovation.
“The event is the perfect environment for up-and-coming innovators to be exposed to invaluable opportunities, from networking to collaboration and investment.”
There is also the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch business ideas to a panel of judges in a Dragons’ Den style, in the hope of creating new business connections and potential partnerships.
The event boasts a line-up of speakers from all sectors and occupations including: Kieran Murphy, CEO and president, GE Healthcare, Dr Jonathan Milner, co-founder of Abcam and angel investor and Dr Hermann Hauser, co-founder, Amadeus Capital.
Chris Hancock, a consultant at George James, a recruitment consultancy in the science and technology sector and Gold sponsor of the event, commented: “The Innovation Forum’s enthusiasm and passion to form better communication between industry, academics and investors is contagious. The conference provides the perfect opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to gain hands on experience networking and pitching business ideas to key, industry figures.”
The event, now in its second year, has been extremely successful and has had over 100 companies from around the world pitch their ideas to compete in the Business Idea competition. The winner of 2014’s Business Idea competition, Tanya Hutter, co-founder of SensorHut, an innovative business that has developed a chemical sensing technology that can be used in applications ranging from chemical process monitoring to medical diagnostics, explains the benefit of attending the event:
“I was impressed by the quality of the speakers. There was a good mix of academic speakers, as well as a broad mix of high profile professionals from industry. I felt very inspired by the talks and came away from the event on a real high. It was also useful to be able to talk to people from different disciplines, who were both interested in academic research but also technology commercialisation.
“The judges offered up some very interesting feedback and also pointed out a few problems we might have communalising our technology.”
The £10,000 competition prize, which includes cash and services by leading law, accountancy and consulting companies, opens up an array of opportunities for companies. From publicity to seed-funding investment from the government, the Innovation Forum hopes to accelerate local business and eventually extend the conference and network to other areas of the country.
Tyl commented: “Due to the large success of the Innovation Leaders Conference, our aim is to help entrepreneurs and promote innovation all over the country. It is an exciting time for The Innovation Forum and its members and we look forward to the future and evolution of today’s technology.”