Whether through consultancy, contract research, research commercialisation, or start up initiatives, business creation and business engagement offers fruitful and exciting pathways to research impact. Enterprise and business engagement require an innovative and entrepreneurial mind-set and a good understanding of business practices, relationship management, and opportunity recognition.
The Department for Academic Enterprise offers bespoke and tailored support to researchers looking to engage business with research and innovation. In addition, our resource base provides you with a comprehensive introduction to business essentials, intellectual property, and knowledge exchange for researchers.
Resources
What is Knowledge Exchange (Vitae) | Knowledge Exchange Concordat (UKRI) | Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: What are they and how to apply? (InnovateUK) | National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) |
Responsible Innovation Toolkit (COMPASS Project) | IP for Research Tools (UK Intellectual Property Office). | How to start a business after your PhD? (Vitae) | Looking at starting a social enterprise (Social Enterprise UK) |
The Enterprising Researcher Booklet (Vitae) | How to Apply for (and Win) an Innovation Grant (Dr Jozef Doboš CEng) |
Reading List
Etzkowitz and Zhou. 2018. The Triple Helix: University-Industry-Government Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 2nd Edition. Routledge..
Fenby-Hulse, Heywood, and Walker. 2019. Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher. Routledge.
Gretsch, Salzmann, and Kock. University‐industry collaboration and front‐end success: the moderating effects of innovativeness and parallel cross‐firm collaboration. R&D Management. 49:5, 835-849
Kenway, Bullen, and Robb. eds. 1997. Innovation and Tradition: The Arts, Humanities, and the Knowledge Economy. Peter Land.
Kuckertz, Kollmann, Krell and Stöckmann. 2017. Understanding, differentiating, and measuring opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. 23:1, 78-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2015-0290
Owen. 2014. The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s commitment to a framework for responsible innovation. Journal of Responsible Innovation. 1:1, 113-117. DOI: 10.1080/23299460.2014.882065
Perkmann, Salandra, Tartari, McKelvey, and Hughes. 2021.
Academic engagement: A review of the literature 2011-2019.
Research Policy. 50: 1, 104114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104114.