The University of Glasgow split its funding from Aspect to support three initiatives: (1) Innovation Audit, (2) Entrepreneurship/ Challenge-led placements, and (3) Zinc and investor relationship building.
INNOVATION AUDIT
The Innovation Audit set out to uncover and develop existing research for innovation activity. The University IP & Innovation team ran these ‘audits’ in the STEM colleges regularly and began to look at how to adjust the model to work for SHAPE disciplines.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP/ CHALLENGE-LED PLACEMENTS
This part of the project aimed to empower SHAPE researchers to deploy entrepreneurial skills to short-term placements around specific challenges for business partners to develop the depth of private sector relationships with strategic partners alongside building innovation confidence in keen researchers.
ZINC & INVESTOR RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Across SHAPE disciplines, the team recognised the need to grow a base of investors who understand the nuances of early-stage investment and how that differs from our STEM counterparts (i.e., often earlier stage and potentially lower growth but high societal good, different business models, etc), while helping shape suitable business models that excite investors. This part of the project enabled travel for both academics and professional support staff to attend Zinc events in London, providing a variety of options to catalyse innovative growth from research.
Glasgow Mini-Projects Summary Report
Summary of three Glasgow projects: Innovation Audit, Placements Scheme, and a Zinc collaboration