Free good practice guide: Investment-ready early-stage tech innovation

The guide introduces proactive ways of focusing on early-stage innovation to increase the chance of success

Translate has launched its second good-practice guide for knowledge exchange and commercialisation (KEC) practitioners.

“Investment-ready, early-stage tech innovation” explains how focusing on early-stage innovation in a proactive way – through activities that identify problems, generate new ideas, and build productive teams – leads technology innovation projects to success and later-stage adoption.

The guide is available as an interactive experience – just like the innovation process itself, the user may enter and exit the process at any stage, and each stage ends with a stage-gate with four options: repeat the stage, move to the next stage, end the project, or hand-off the project.  A series of useful quick-guides are also available on topics like project scouting, leading productive innovation workshops and freedom to operate analysis, prior art, novelty and IP landscaping for patentable technologies.

The second part of the guide is a case study of Translate’s successful early stage innovation programme 2015-2018. 

“Since the programme launched in 2015, our approach to supporting and progressing projects has relied on ensuring that innovative ideas are de-risked and validated at the earliest opportunity” said Lisa Hill, Innovation Development Manager for Translate.  “This process focuses on developing technologies with the greatest potential and making sure they meet the needs of end users. We’ve generated £12m of public sector income and worked with 128 academics and 113 companies as a result.”

The guide can be applied to KEC in any sector area, and is being shared in partnership with PraxisAuril – a KEC network of more than 170 member institutions and 5,000 individuals.

“It’s part of our mission to develop knowledge exchange and technology transfer professionals by promoting best practice for our sector, so we’re keen to support distribution of this guide” said Georgina Wark, Professional Development Programme Manager for PraxisAuril.

Visit the Investment-ready early-stage tech innovation webpage now.

About Translate 2015-2018

Translate was a partnership between the universities of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds Beckett and York 2015-2018, working to improve health and wealth by translating early-stage ideas into new medical technologies.

The programme provided researchers at the partner universities with access to a dedicated innovation team experienced in progressing technologies to market. It also provided a model for successful innovation, innovation training and development, and collaboration within the higher education sector.

Translate aimed to:

  • identify and progress technology opportunities
  • increase innovation capability among Leeds City Region academics
  • foster and facilitate research better aligned to clinical, patient and public drivers.

Translate was funded by HEFCE (now Office for Students) to 2018, and is now being funded by partner HEIs until the end of 2020, with Sheffield Hallam University – a national leader in creating innovative and real-world solutions for tackling today’s health and wellbeing challenges – joining the consortium.