TenU's Fourth Year: Driving Innovation, Collaboration, and Economic Growth

TenU reflects on a fantastic fourth year of celebrating success and driving progress, working collaboratively with colleagues from across the sector.

We were excited to launch our new mentorship scheme for technology transfer professionals, TenU RISE, in May. In true TenU style, we are creating networks and taking advantage of our global reach, with mentors from our TenU Future Leaders Programme alumni base being matched with mentees from across the sector. Our vision is to foster an inclusive community of peer-learning and support. We are delighted with the response we have already had from participants, with 100% of respondents to our midpoint evaluation agreeing that the mentoring has had a positive impact on their careers and emphasising the value of being connected with professionals outside of their existing networks. Look out for the launch of the second round of TenU RISE in February 2025.

Our flagship event was the TenU Innovation Summit in May. Held at Mansion House in May, the summit brought together almost 300 founders, funders, investors and technology transfer leaders to launch the second iteration of the USIT Guide, USIT for Software. The event also offered an opportunity to hear about developments in attracting startup and scaleup stage capital. The energy in the room was a testament to the value of breaking down barriers and uniting the sector towards common goals, building on the UK’s incredible research strengths and the exciting developments that we are witnessing in the spinout landscape.

In July, TenU members gathered in Cambridge, MA, for a Study Tour of MIT, Harvard and surrounding ecosystem, to exchange insights on effective practices and build bridges between international ecosystems. TenU was joined by representatives from Research England, HM Treasury, the FCDO and UKRI, providing an opportunity to share with our closest partners insight and expertise.

Optimism about the potential for the UK to capitalise on its innovation potential was the headline at our One Year One Mission event in November. The event was a celebration of the impressive progress made in the year since the launch of the Spinout Review, with many of the review recommendations already implemented. We heard from Research England about the extraordinary rate of adoption of the USIT guides, with 49 universities across the UK signing up within the first year. There was an opportunity to showcase the aspirations for the new shared technology transfer offices and look forward to the benefits that the new spinout register will bring, enabling us to understand and share learning even more effectively within the innovation community.

Looking forward to 2025 there is already lots of momentum around our campaign for increasing POC funding, short for proof-of-concept funding. There is evidence to show that POC funding can have an immediate and dramatic impact. We believe that with a proportionally small investment in commercialisation relative to the overall research budget, it would be possible to catapult the number of projects achieving real world impact, whilst creating jobs and strengthening clusters across the UK. The new Industrial Strategy and the Prime Minster’s recent announcement of a new mission to kickstart economic growth mean that there has never been a better time for us to make the case for an ambitious vision for research commercialisation. We are excited to working closely with a coalition of organisations with a plan to drive this mission forwards from early in the new year.

Thank you for being a part of TenU’s journey in 2024. In the past few months we have welcomed new members to our team and we reach the end of the year feeling energised and ready to embrace the opportunities of 2025. We look forward to continuing to work with the sector in championing the massive benefits that technology transfer brings to the UK economy.