I’m delighted to be writing as Imperial’s new Co-Director of Enterprise (Industry Partnerships), having joined the university as it delivers its exciting and ambitious new strategy, Science for Humanity.
According to an old picture of society, universities excel at deep thinking, but it’s businesses whose innovations materially change the world.
The division of labour has never been that simple, of course – Imperial, as you can see in our newest metrics, supports thousands of external companies, hundreds of active startups, and carries out research worth over £50m each year with commercial partners.
But Imperial is now moving further than ever from that old picture as we develop a new model of convergence science, the deep integration of research and innovation from academia and industry in clusters that aren’t focused on disciplines but complex real-world challenges.
Two major new centres that we’ve recently launched with partners illustrate the approach. The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials will help advance a clean energy transition by sustainably securing the required minerals. And in a world with growing demand for food, much of which is produced in an unsustainable way, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein will create and commercialise economically and environmentally friendly alternative food products.
With more and more initiatives like these, including four new Schools of Convergence Science, we will offer partners new opportunities to benefit from Imperial’s expertise and convening power, and keep making inroads into the biggest challenges of our time.
I look forward to meeting with our industry partners over the coming months to share new developments at Imperial and discuss opportunities for collaboration.
Best wishes,
