What is pathfinder?
Pathfinder projects are co-designed to support your needs. It's the mechanism through which we can align the business needs and the challenges that your organisation is facing with the areas of Imperial’s science, technology and business expertise that are most relevant.
Through scoping, exploration and delivery phases, we’ll connect your organisation with almost four thousand academic experts and a thriving ecosystem of inventors and high-tech start-ups. We’ll identify the Imperial people and teams most relevant to your needs so we can start collaborating for innovation.
Our step-by-step guide will help you understand the Pathfinder process or contact our team for more information.
Imperial Business Partners - Your pathfinder journe
y
Pathfinder stage one: Scoping
Scoping
Scoping is the 'kick-off' stage of a Pathfinder project for our IBP members.
During the scoping stage of the Pathfinder journey, our team will support you to ask questions such as:
- What does your business need?
- Which areas of science, technology and business are most relevant to you?
- What challenges are your facing? Is your business future proof?
Through this process we can identify the best options for a project, as well as beginning to understand the academic insights and expertise at Imperial that may be best-suited to help you tackle your challenge or leverage the opportunities identified for your organisation.
Pathfinder stage two: Exploration
Exploration
During the exploration stage, we all start to get a bit more creative and hands-on.
Across Imperial we have over 4,000 academics and researchers, as well as a thriving network of entrepreneurs and startups from staff and students, all of which help inform some of the work during the exploration stage.
We work with you to further understand the insights you need and the most effective ways to deliver them, such as through workshops and forums, as well as from our extensive range of activities delivered across the College.
During this stage we develop opportunities to meet Imperial's experts and access their insights, tailor-made just for you.
Pathfinder stage three: Delivery
Delivery
During the delivery stage, work ramps up and different parts of a project come together to help inform the initiatives you can take away, as well as ideas for future activities with Imperial.
Whether it's curated workshops, a project involving Imperial Tech Foresight, consultancy or further academic partnerships, the delivery stage is all action.
Our account manager will have already taken you through the journey and will now be delivering a bespoke package of activities and initiatives designed to address the challenges identified through the scoping and exploration stages, while further academic engagement will now help you access the insights that can improve your business activities.
But it doesn't have to stop here. From the conclusion of a pathfinder project, more ideas may arise and more challenges or opportunities could present themselves.
Another pathfinder project, other IBP-related activities, or perhaps something more technical and specific - like a long-term research partnership or collaboration - may be right for your organisation as you build for the next steps Your dedicated account manager can make the connections and fastrack the future of your business.