Innovation and entrepreneurship are a higher priority than ever at Imperial, and major expansion of our innovation ecosystem is afoot as we extend further across the South East through the WestTech Corridor, and to other countries through Imperial Global hubs including the US hub that launched yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’ve been one of those driving the development of the Imperial ecosystem for 25 years now, and this anniversary has prompted me to reflect on how it has evolved in that time.
Back in 1999, our research partnerships with industry were typically based on long-standing relationships between individual academics and company R&D scientists, who were often their former PhD students.
Startups were academic spinouts, and debate was focused on whether academics had the necessary qualities to run businesses. Consultancy by academics was an important activity, as it is now, but focused mainly on major corporate clients.
In the years since, we’ve been constantly experimenting with new ways to support innovation, aiming to increase the volume of activity in part by drawing a broader cross-section of staff, students and businesses into the ecosystem.
One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is our increased support for student and academic entrepreneurship, as our entrepreneurship service the Enterprise Lab surged on a wave of interest in startup culture. This has been so successful that programmes such as WE Innovate, for women-led ventures, are now going international.
Another is the variety of companies we work with. Our valued partners in heavy industry are now joined by companies in sectors such as film and fashion, and increasingly include SMEs, which we support directly and through publicly funded programmes such as the Healthcare Technologies Capability Connector and the Better Futures programme.
The unit I currently work in helps establish unusual and pioneering projects such as the Imperial Maths School for sixth formers, and the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine launched with the University of Cumbria.
I think of these projects, which don’t fit into our established modalities, as like duck-billed platypuses. Sometimes by the time you’ve patted one, it really is just a beaver or duck, and we move it to an established pathway. The ones that stay weird, stay in our team.
This commitment to experimenting with new forms of partnership can sometimes make Imperial a tricky place to navigate for outside organisations. But over the years we’ve gained a better idea of what works and begun to consolidate, and things are getting much easier to signpost and deliver.
It has also put us in a strong place to take our innovation ecosystem to the next level, backed by the major university-level commitments found in Imperial’s new strategy. I’m grateful to you, our partners, for your support, and look forward to seeing where we go next.
Best wishes,
