Enterprise and Innovation Manager
Salary Range: £30000 to £50000 (depending on where you work)
Job role/title and company: Enterprise and Innovation Manager, London University
What does your average day involve?
Meeting with inventors and assessing invention disclosures arising from the university and the hospital.
Liaising with patent attorneys to ensure protection of university and hospital intellectual property.
Reviewing, drafting and negotiating legal agreements including confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, consultancy agreements and many others.
Marketing and promoting technologies arising from the university and the trust to industry contracts.
Pathway to career as Enterprise/Innovation Manager:
During my master’s project I was working with novel materials for the decontamination of waste water in developing countries. As I was completing my project I often found myself thinking about how a technology goes from the lab bench to the outside world, how is an idea commercialised and how is it protected. This in combination with an intellectual property (IP) workshop at university where we learned about intellectual property and more specifically the patenting process is what drew me to IP careers where I would get to work with intellectual property. After university I worked in operations for an occupational therapy company as well as a division director on a summer camp in the USA before I came across the Enterprise and Intellectual Property administrator role at a London University. When I first started working there I didn’t realise that technology transfer was its own independent career pathway. I believe that technology transfer is a relatively unknown career pathway and many people don’t realise until they are in it. Within six months I was promoted to my current position.
How did you find out about this position?
I found out about the IP administrator role on Google while looking for IP centric roles.
What skills/qualifications are required for this job?
Degree in science preferred
Legal/contractual knowledge desirable
Business development knowledge/experience desirable
Interest in IP and/or technology transfer
Good people person with an eye for detail
What is career progression like? What would be the next step?
Generally, you will start as a technology transfer officer then move on to being a manager, you may then move and work for a larger university or a university with different ways of working to build your experience. Eventually you may be leading your own team. In the technology transfer sector there isn’t a rigid career progression. However, the sector is growing and fluid, where new roles at various levels of seniority are advertised regularly. Working in the sector also provides you with a varied skill set. Working as a technology transfer professional you develop IP, contractual and business development experience as well as commercial awareness which is relevant for a wide selection of roles.
What do you like most about the job?
My favourite part of job is meeting with academics and assessing new ideas. Its exciting to find out about new innovations in healthcare and cool research that is happening!
What do you least like?
Admin!!
On average how many hours a day do you work?
8 (Including an hour for lunch)
Is there any opportunity for flexible working hours?
Yes. There is the option to come in earlier and leave earlier and vice versa as long as you are in the office between 10am and 4pm. There is also the option to work from home if necessary.