Research with commercial potential

21 September 2010

Does your research have commercial potential?

i-Solve, an innovative programme investigating the commercial potential of University research is currently welcoming applications from research staff and postgraduate students to join the October programme.

Modelled on the i-teams programme from MIT Boston and Cambridge University, i-Solve has now been successfully established at Cardiff, making it the second university in the UK to launch the i-teams course. 

As part of the programme, research staff and students join an interdisciplinary team and investigate the commercial potential of the ground-breaking research taking place across the University. Each team is supported by a Principal Investigator and overseen by a mentor from industry.

The last cohort saw four live University research projects investigated over an eight week period. The ‘Best Overall Project’ was awarded to a six-strong team with representatives from the Schools of Biosciences, Business and Dentistry. Team MuTAGene, as they were known, scooped the prize for their innovative approach to seeking the commercial viability of a School of Biosciences project that could generate new proteins for future diagnostics and therapeutics. 

The team worked with Dr Dafydd Jones, the Principal Investigator behind the new protein engineering technique and Abigail Carter, Director of Forensic Resources Ltd and a University graduate who mentored them.  

Elizabeth Fraser, School of Biosciences who was part of the winning team, said: “The technique has already been shown to work and the results published in highly respected international peer reviewed journals. Our challenge was to explore where the best commercial potential for this technique might be found, what disease states could be investigated and how diagnostics might be improved.  Once we had done this we then devised the best business model to develop this technology to realise its commercial potential.”

Dr Jones said: “It was a real pleasure to be working with such a dedicated and innovative group of people. The combination of scientists and business students proved to be the winning formula. The information provided by the team is vital and together with the kudos of winning i-Solve, we now have a firm base with which to move forward and leverage money to support the original business idea. Without the input of i-Solve, the idea may have been just a pipe dream but now provides a realistic opportunity with facts and figures as evidence of the technology’s commercial potential – thanks to the winning i-Solve team members.”

Terri Delahunty, Head of the University’s Graduate Centre, added: “i-Solve adds another dimension to our offerings for researchers to develop their skills for future employment.  Unique to i-Solve is the opportunity to gain knowledge transfer and commercialisation skills while having a positive impact on current research projects.”

i-Solve is now recruiting for research staff and postgraduate student for the next programme which will begin in October 2010. If you are interested to learn more about the programme or would like to take part to then please visit www.isolve.org.uk or contact programme director Liz Knowles at liz@fulcrumdirect.co.uk.  i-Solve is managed by Student Enterprise, part of the Research and Commercial Division and is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.