Events

Here’s what our attendees have said about past events and what they found most useful:

Circles encapsulating quotes below

  • “Learning about the process that occurs from idea to commercialisation and how industry can help.”
  • “It is a great introduction on how to start to collaborate with industry, provides useful contacts.”
  • “The openness and honesty of the speakers.”
  • “Hear the experience of other postdocs and the tools I can use to make the transition.”
  • “The current picture of recruiting worldwide and the importance of networking.”
  • “To have an overview of a different career path rather than staying in academia.”
  • “Learning about the personal experience of someone who has created start-ups in the past.”

Venture Science Series

Overview 

Join the PFDC and Imperial Enterprise Lab for a series of interactive workshops and talks that will broaden your skillset and give you exposure to industry. The series will introduce early career researchers to the building blocks of developing an idea or technology for commercial environments, covering ideation, testing an idea, business strategy, building a team and more*.  During this series, you will also develop transferable skills to manage your entrepreneurial journey and succeed. 

Key areas 

  • Think Like an Entrepreneur – Wed 10 November 14.00-16.00 (Online) – register here
  • Are We There Yet? An Introduction to Commercial Readiness – Fri 19 November 14.00-16.00 (Face-to-face with online streaming)
  • Product Market Fit & Testing Your Idea
  • Entrepreneurial Finance
  • Gathering the Dream Team
  • Business Strategy for Beginners 

*Please note IP knowledge, strategy and development will not be covered by the series as this is covered in the course How Intellectual Property Rights Can Impact Your Research. You can also watch the Imperial IP strategy video here and a talk about IP and IP law here.

ECRs who attend the series as a whole course and will be given a certificate at the end, however you are invited to attend only the sessions you feel more appropriate for you. If you are considering participating in Techcelerate or MedTech SuperConnector we strongly encourage you to register for a few of the sessions. 

 

Wings for ideas Challenge – more information for ECRs in November, register your interest here.

The Wings for Ideas Challenge runs from October to February and is a unique setting that will join entrepreneurial mindsets and technical skills together and allow you to make that breakthrough for your business idea. Throughout the Challenge, you will participate in workshops on how to pitch business ideas and will take part in the final showcase where you will compete to win prizes.  

We are keen for you to expand your network, grow your business skills and develop your entrepreneurial thinking that will open new and exciting doors in your career. 

The Challenge is comprised of three phases: 

  • Applications: 
    • Student idea applications (November) – this is where postgraduate students submit their applications with brief descriptions of their business ideas, the solutions they are trying to implement and the technical challenge they are facing. 
    • Early career researcher applications (December) – the business ideas are disclosed to the postdoc/fellow experts, and they get to apply to the ones where their expertise fit. 
  • Pairing & Working together (January/February) – The Challenge teams will work together for four-five weeks, solve the technical challenge proposed, create/improve a business plan and a pitching slide deck.  
  • The final showcase (end of February) - this will be held at the end of February. Challenge Teams will present their pitches in front of a jury. 

IPFEN past events

Do you want to know more about how the college deals with IP disclosures? Have you looked at the Invention Disclosure Form and got a bit confused? The IPC teams from Engineering, Natural Sciences and Medicine are here to help you. In this session you will also hear about what to keep in mind when writing fellowship / grant applications and developing ideas – how to maximise the impact of your research; What happens if IP comes from a side project that the postdoc conceived but PI funded; and what happens if the college decides not to file patent for an invention.

Be bio-inspired and join us in this collaborative event between IPFEN and Built With Biology, as we celebrate the Imperial synthetic biology community (academic and industry), and its wider connections to the growing global bioeconomy. Learn from a panel of experts about how biology is transforming science, society, and the translational career opportunities that are available to Imperial researchers.

Discoveries from research activities can be transformed into commercial products, increasing research capabilities and economic impact. Transferring technology from a university into industry is rewarding, both in finding a potential financial investor for your startup or looking for a suitable licensee to develop your technology.

In this session Dr Emma Toumi (Head of IP Strategy) and Neringa Barmute (Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation Executive (FoM)) will discuss IP strategies at Imperial and how the Industry Partnerships and Commercialization Team can work with you identifying routes to commercialise your invention, including protecting the intellectual property in technologies and Imperial’s Reward to Inventors Scheme.

Working with industry during your academic career opens doors to new funding opportunities, raises your academic profile and increases the real-world impact of your research. Join us to hear first-hand from Imperial academics from each of the Faculties, and representatives from industry about the benefits of working together and find out how your Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation Team can support you in working with industry. 

Jessica Eastwood and Clare Roskell have backgrounds in Chemistry and Biology and recently transitioned into careers as Patent Attorneys at Mathys & Squire, a UK and European Intellectual Property law firm.

They will give a talk on their professional transition to the roles, including the integrated training process, sharing insights into life as a trainee in IP law and their experiences on this career path.

Join your fellow postdocs and early career researchers for an exciting event where you can learn about the world of Intellectual Property (IP), the benefits of patenting and how your IP might preserve your academic freedom and enhance your future career ambitions.

Sara Holland, Jack Livsey and Robert Cogger-Ward from Potter Clarkson will guide you through this journey and show how patents can complement your academic publications. Who knows? Maybe the real treasure will be the patents you publish along the way…

IPFEN is pleased to welcome Imran Haq, Business Development Manager at the Medicines Discovery Catapult.

Catapult is a network of technology and innovation centres established by Innovate UK with the aim of bridging the gap between research and industry.

Imran is responsible for academia connections at the Medicines Discovery Catapult and will talk about his personal experience with start-ups as well as the Catapult Network and how it can help entrepreneurial researchers.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Hiten Thrakar, the MedTech SuperConnector (MTSC) Programme Manager, for an online event about Imperial’s Accelerator programmes for staff (MTSC and Techcelerate).

Hiten will be joined by Dr Nicolas Moser, that went through both Techcelerate and MTSC programmes to talk about his journey through the accelerators and how these supported him and his venture ProtonDx.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Professor Deeph Chana, Co-Director of ISST and Zarine Khurshid, Special Projects Manager, for an online event about how ISST is supporting innovation in security and defence science at the White City Campus. They will give an overview of the projects and partners of ISST, the benefits of becoming involved with their networks and funds you can access.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network are pleased to welcome Dr Anmol Bedi (Bedi Consulting Ltd) for an online event on the civil engineering consultancy sector.

Anmol will talk about his experience as a tunnel & geotechnical engineer and founder of a successful civil engineering consultancy firm. They will talk about their path at Imperial and the motivations for setting up their own consultancy company. Come to learn more about exciting opportunities and to hear the challenges and strategies for setting up your consultancy business.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to start your own company as a postdoc? And what are the main things you need to be aware of in the initial stages?

The purpose of this event is to give potential postdoc founders an opportunity to learn from colleagues that already went through that journey.

This event will provide you with the opportunities to:

• Learn from the experiences of postdoc founders from different backgrounds and areas of expertise
• Discuss strategies to address the most common challenges faced in the founder journey
• Interact in an informal and relaxed setting

Our panellists are:
• Alalea Kia – Civil & Environmental Engineering - Founding Director of Permia Ltd
• Vladimir Yufit – Electrochemical Engineering - Co-founder & CTO of Addionics and Techcelerate Alumni
• Nuria Oliva-Jorge – Bioengineering - TrAPs technology product and MedTech SuperConnector Alumni

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network are pleased to welcome Govind Pindoria, Executive Director at Imperial innovation, for an online event about Imperial’s start-ups' ecosystem.

Govind is responsible for start-ups formation support and will talk about the different avenues you can take as a potential founder and how Imperial can support your ideas. Furthermore, he will discuss both internal and external funding opportunities.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network are committed to supporting postdocs and fellows who are interested in knowing more about entrepreneurship and enterprise opportunities and activities.  

We are pleased to have joined forces with Imperial MBA students at Imperial Launch to bring you the 2021 Product development hackathon!

MBA students have submitted business ideas but need technical support and to develop an understanding of the challenges their business might face.  

The goal of this event is to match interested Innovators and Leading Researchers with business ideas. 

This is a great opportunity for you to develop your networking and consulting skills. You will work with potential business leaders in order to overcome technical challenges and produce a business plan. 

The teams will work in their own time, but you are expected to commit at least four hours per week working on this.

The IPFEN and Start Codon are pleased to welcome Imperial College Postdocs and Fellows to a panel discussion on business careers in life sciences and healthcare.
Whether you plan to stay in academia or not, join us to discover what options lay in front of you in the business area of life sciences, where you can capitalise on your valuable skills, expertise and technical knowledge.
With diverse backgrounds and roles in healthcare, our panellists will briefly talk about their career journeys, which will be followed by a panel session with your participation.

Our panellists are:

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Naveed Chaudry, Accelerator Lead at the Grantham Institute, for an online event about how the Grantham institute is supporting innovation in the areas of Climate Change and the Environment.
Naveed will talk about the Grantham’s mission and some of the support the institute provides to innovators and entrepreneurs through their Accelerator and Cleantech Entrepreneurship Programmes.

IPFEN Consultancy Series “Intrapreneurship and new collaborations within management consulting” - Tuesday 15 September 2020

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Fady Khayatt from Oliver Wyman for an online event on intrapreneurship and new modes of collaborations in the management consulting industry.

Fady, a partner at Oliver Wyman, will talk about how recent internal innovation and research developed into business propositions as well as how the OW Forum is opening new types of partnerships and collaborations.

IPFEN Consultancy Series: “Connecting with businesses as an expert” - Tuesday 14 July 2020

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Graham Mills, co-founder of Techspert for an online event on consulting as an academic and the wider field of knowledge exchange in the life sciences.

Graham will talk about his journey from external consulting as a PhD student to forming a company. Techspert connects businesses with healthcare and life sciences experts using AI.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Smart Tribe for an online event about knowledge transfer and transitioning from academia to industry.

Beatrice Zatorska and Kris Jack, the founders of Smart Tribe, will talk about their company’s path through Antler, a global venture capital and start-up generator & accelerator, and will introduce the Smart Tribe platform and community. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Enterprise Network and the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation Team invite you for an online seminar on industry/academia collaborations.

Join us to hear first-hand from Faculty of Medicine academics, Dr Tom McKinnon and Dr Claire Fletcher, who have led successful industry collaborations, and Dr Jon Wingfield – Principle Scientist from AstraZeneca – one of the Imperial’s key industrial partners. A panel session will follow. 

The Imperial Postdocs and Fellows Enterprise Network is pleased to welcome Neringa Barmute from Imperial Enterprise. She will give an online presentation about the research commercialisation process at Imperial and her career experiences in technology transfer. Q&A will follow.
Microsoft Teams Video Conferencing Meeting Link: Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

Please follow us on Twitter, @ImperialPFEN and on our website for updates about this and future events.

Imperial Postdocs and Fellows Enterprise Network aims to raise awareness on opportunities in business and science-based entrepreneurship.
We have joined forces with MBA Connect to host a lunch-time meet up event on Friday 14 February – 13:00-15:00.

The purpose of the event is to connect postdocs and fellows who are interested to explore commercialising research with MBA students who come from a variety of industry and professional backgrounds.