University joins ecosystem initiative
Edinburgh is set to take a prime spot in the global push for “post-covid entrepreneurial ecosystems”.
The city will play a leading role in the initiative after edinburgh Innovations, part of the university of Edinburgh, joined forces with nine other international universities’ commercialisation services and transatlantic policymakers to help develop entrepreneurial ecosystems for the post-pandemic economic recovery.
George baxter, chief executive of Edinburgh Innovations, will join a panel to discuss targeted initiatives and policies that can work in ecosystem-building.
They will draw on comparisons between new york’ s entrepreneurial ecosystem and an emerging project approach in London.
Baxter said: “There has never been a greater need to nurture ecosystems for entrepreneurial ism, which turns discoveries from the university sector into maximum impact in the real world. The Tenu forum enables us to learn from successes, pool expertise and spark innovative solutions to the current challenges facing societies and economies across the world.”
The discussion on January 27 is being hosted virtually by Tenu, a transatlantic collaboration often university technology transfer offices. Member universities are cambridge, Columbia, edinburgh, imperial College London, Leuven, Manchester, MIT, Oxford, Stanford and UCL.
Or in herskowitz, tenu member and vice-president of intellectual property and tech transfer at Columbia University, and Euan Robertson, chiefcoo) of the simons Foundation and former coo of the New York City Economic Development corporation, will share their experiences of contributing to New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Edinburgh’s membership of Tenu is part of an increasingly international focus for Edinburgh Innovations, which recently appointed two Usbased non-executive directors –Gill ian cannon who has more than 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceuticals industry, and Karin Immergluck, who leads the office of technology licensing at Stanford University.
Meanwhile, Scale Space – billed as the UK’S new community for scaling businesses–has joined forces with the University of Edinburgh to help unlock the innovation potential of start-ups working in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
The aim of a new post-covid accelerator programme is to boost the best AI start-ups in Scotland, across theuk, europe and beyond to scale globally within a short timeframe.
Scale space is backed by Chalcot and has partnered with Imperial College London to launch the first physical site, in White City, London. Its partnership with the University of Edinburgh will provide start-up businesses on the accelerator programme with access to a wide range of expertise and mentoring.
The 20 companies selected for the programme will each receive a £7,500 grant from the Scottish Funding Council through the Data Driven Innovation (DDI) scheme.
The six-month programme will be delivered online from Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre and Scale Space in London.