News and Events

Innovation is the lifeblood of progress, and on the 7th of September 2023, the second edition of reSHAPE brought together visionaries, innovators, and thought leaders to celebrate and explore the dynamic world of SHAPE ventures.

On the 11th of September we’ll be holding the final live activity as part of Aspect Festival23 with the Dutch Knowledge Transfer Office Social Sciences & Humanities Working Group, hosted by Aspect member Leiden University.

Join the M4C team online from 11.30 – 12.30 Wednesday 13th September 2023 for the Aspect Methods for Change Showcase event!

reSHAPE is back and it’s bigger than ever!
reSHAPE – the world’s only showcase event for impact at scale SHAPE ventures is back at the the RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) on the 7th of September 2023. 

Expect a day packed full of discussion around the SHAPE commercialisation landscape, inspirational and influential speakers, and of course plenty of fantastic SHAPE ventures from universities across the UK.

Zinc VC is looking to invest in 70 innovative individuals who want to redirect their careers and build a mission-driven business from scratch on their next Venture Builder focused on eliminating environmental threats to our health.

As part of Aspect Festival23, Aspect Member Oxford University presented the online event “Innovation Funding Opportunities for the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities”.

This innovative catalyst commercialisation programme runs from 2023-2026 and is open to UK researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities. It will support researchers within these disciplines to develop and bring new products, processes and services to market.

Forget Netflix this summer – Aspect Festival23 is kicking off on the 14th of June with its own media channel showcasing videos, podcasts, interviews, blogs, research commercialisation findings and much much more. New items will be released every day. In a celebration of the Aspect community we’ll be streaming a huge amount of content from […]

Online event, 90-minutes We are delighted to present the online event “Innovation Funding Opportunities for the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities” as part of the Aspect Festival 23. Join us as we bring together experts from the ESRC, AHRC, Innovate UK, Innovation Caucus, Zinc and the ARC Accelerator to present the funding landscape for researchers […]

Limited spaces are remaining on the upcoming SHAPE Pre-Accelerator Programme. Open to all SHAPE researchers, this five-session online training will explore market validation and routes to generating sustained impact. It will support researchers to identify the next steps to progress their ideas and meet colleagues from universities across the UK undertaking a similar journey.

In this session hosted by the Cultural Capital Exchange, we will consider what is meant by ‘commercialisation’ and how this aligns with the understandings and value systems of academics working across Arts and Humanities disciplines.

We are very excited to announce the launch of Aspect Angles with Aspect members the University of Reading and Henley Business School!
This new Angel network will be the first of its type to connect and educate investors around the relevance and impact of SHAPE, and provide opportunities to invest in research-backed ventures from leading universities.

Corporate investment is moving away from tangible assets like machines and buildings and towards intangibles — things that are hard to measure, like research & development, business processes, and human capital. Horatio Mortimer writes that the pressing need for measurements that are hard to make and results that are hard to manipulate presents opportunities for social scientists, who are stepping forward to provide solutions.

This useful tool from Aspect member the University of Edinburgh looks at the dimensions across which SHAPE subjects have a significant role to play in developing new technology.

We are thrilled to announce that the Aspect Research Commercialisation (ARC) Accelerator will be delivering the Social science, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy (SHAPE) Catalyst programme with ESRC and AHRC.

The University of Plymouth are running an innovative workshop to explore a strategic approach to true market engagement, and provide ideas to refresh your own KTP marketing plan and approach.

The Aspect Network is seeking a supplier to conduct an evaluation of outcomes and impact (social and economic) from Aspect members’ commercialisation activities.

LSE Generate are running a brand new entrepreneurship bootcamp for Founders to develop their practical business skills and a brand new intrapreneurship experience which aims to help students (and alumni) better understand the importance of nurturing an enterprising mindset and its crucial role within corporate innovation.

The Catalyst Awards support researchers to take an entrepreneurial approach, using their research to create impactful and scalable products and services that improve later life.

The SHAPE Pre-Accelerator is an online programme that supports researchers from the Social Sciences, Humanities
and the Arts explore routes to generating sustainable impact at scale.