Blog

It’s just over a year since I completed my doctoral studies into identity construction amongst KE staff, and now that I have emerged from the post-submission euphoria, I find myself reflecting on my findings again. Whilst it is true that I developed a typology of KE staff, it is the element around notions of a KE profession which I find to be the most unresolved and left ‘floating’.

With the focus firmly on our upcoming spring conference 2018, we thought that it was a great opportunity to catch up with Mike Bath and Rupert Osborn from our Conference Committee. Mike and Rupert have both volunteered with us for some years – we ask why they do it, and if they would recommend it to others!

"University Spinouts: an imperfect ecosystem" by Anderson Law and Linstock Communications was published earlier this month. It uses data on public and private investment in spin-outs combined with the opinion and experienced views of many PraxisAuril members to present another side of the university spin-out story. Its conclusion that university spin-outs are"a real success story" and"are thriving"  are welcome ones. But the research also points to a greater need to understand the conditions for creating and sustaining spin-outs. As such, it is a welcome addition to ongoing discussions in our community, including many of those to be had at our annual conference and in response to the KEF consultation. 

PraxisAuril supports the formation of university spin-outs through its New Venture Creation training courses. Booking is open now for NVC1 and NVC2 in the autumn. See our Training Pages for details. Tamsin Mann, Head of Policy