Partnerships Manager in Newcastle upon Tyne

This role will manage Northumbria University’s partnership in the Northern Accelerator and SCENE program and directly support IP Commercialisation within the IP Commercialisation team at Northumbria University. Project management for Northern Accelerator and SCENE will involve working with the core team based at the lead institution, Durham University, and Partnership Managers at the four other North East universities. The role will also involve IP commercialisation activity, including managing the University’s patent portfolio and supporting commercialisation projects and managing an innovation portal – the Northumbria Knowledge Bank - that allows external parties to access Northumbria Knowledge-based IP. The role holder will work closely with individual members of the IP Commercialisation Team and get involved in a broad range of commercialisation activity across the campus, developing their experience and knowledge of IP Commercialisation and Knowledge Exchange.

This is a fixed-term position until 30th April 2030.

Northern Accelerator and SCENE since 2018, the five North East universities (Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside) have worked increasingly closely to build a strong collaboration to commercialise our research through the creation of high-growth businesses. Since launching the Northern Accelerator programme, 54 spinouts have been created, catalysing new investment and jobs. Supported by Research England’s CCF-RED fund with £8.9m in funding over a five year period, the Strategic Commercialisation Eco-system North East (SCENE) programme represents an exciting next phase in our regional collaboration with the aim of wrapping new activities around and into Northern Accelerator to strengthen our support for the spin out process, and building new services and activities to extend successful research commercialisation in new areas, such as licensing and commercial partnerships.

• Strengthen and expand the region’s ecosystem, engaging businesses, sector bodies, Catapults and investors more actively in commercialising university research;
• Expand the pipeline of high-quality, investible new spinouts;
• Support growth for existing spinouts, helping secure them for the long-term;
• Increase adoption of university IP by businesses of all sizes in strategic sectors;
• Attract new UK and international investment into the formation and growth of research-led businesses;
• Enhance structures, systems and leadership to support regional commercialisation ambitions.

SCENE is led by Durham University and involves as key partners the other four North East Higher Education institutions – Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside – who come together through Universities for North East England (UNEE). SCENE is also supported by a number of strategic partners – our two Combined Authorities in the North East and Tees Valley, Catapults, Business Support organisations and key businesses as well as associated universities in York and Cumbria.

The Northumbria Partnership Manager will be expected to work closely with the Partnership Managers in each of the 4 other universities.

IP Commercialisation at Northumbria University has a small IP Commercialisation team with a growing pipeline of research commercialisation opportunities. The team supports the translation of research into industry through co-development partnerships and licensing. The team also supports company creation through staff-spinouts as a vehicle to take new products and services to market, based on University research. The team supports commercialisation opportunities from across all faculties; so all areas of technology and SHAPE including non-for-profit spinouts.

Further information about the role is available in the role description.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Chelsea Brain, IP & Commercialisation Manager, at chelsea.brain@northumbria.ac.uk.

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