Douglas Graham

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Douglas, a seasoned business development and engagement professional, brings over a decade of experience in industry engagement within a university setting. He has a proven track record of establishing impactful collaborations and partnerships across multiple sectors.

Ten questions with Douglas Graham

When did you start at Edinburgh Innovations (EI)?

I joined EI in 2013 as Consultancy Manager.

How would you explain your job to an alien?

I help build connections between different types of organisations and the University, to help them understand and explore their challenges in the world, identify experts that can help them, and work collaboratively to address those challenges.

What did you do before EI?

I worked in relationship management for Thomson Reuters (now London Stock Exchange Group), a large provider of news and data services for the Finance sector. I was responsible for understanding the market data and information needs of fund managers and investment analysts, and connecting them with the right solutions.

What’s the best thing about working at EI/the University of Edinburgh?

Definitely the people. I love being surrounded by people who are experts in their fields and passionate about using their expertise to help tackle problems in the world.

What's your favourite project that you’ve worked on? What did the project accomplish?

Going back to around 2017, the partnership we developed between the Business School and Costain Group around reducing the climate impact of the construction sector is one I was really proud of at the time. The project had data-driven innovation at the heart of it, and I think I really demonstrated the power of bringing a multi-disciplinary academic team together to work with industry experts to understand and address a problem. It was a fairly small project, but it had a big ripple effect within the sector, and it also served as a case study for those in the University who were envisaging our Data-Driven Innovation programme. I find it very satisfying to see projects like that come together and work well.

What are you most proud of from your time at EI?

I’m proud of having helped to build a successful EI engagement function within EFI. We’ve had to think about things differently and develop new ways of working within EI. Our Sector Engagement team is very focused on using its expertise and network in our key sectors to build a deep understanding of the needs and opportunities within organisations. We’ve worked hard to embed that approach within the existing BD practice and to build relationships with School and College-based BDs. This has resulted in some really big wins for Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), EI and the University (e.g. Natwest Centre for Purpose Driven Innovation in Banking, abrdn Centre for Investing Innovation, the Scottish Prevention Hub with Police Scotland and Public Health Scotland). It’s great to see this approach working and delivering value.

What does innovation mean to you? 

For me, innovation is about people, organisations and systems working collaboratively to understand how things can be done differently, to achieve better outcomes for themselves, their stakeholders and society in general.

If you had one more hour in the day how would you spend it?

I would take more time to be creative for my own enjoyment. I really love drawing and painting and would love to spend more time doing that. I’m lucky that I do get to be creative in my day job though!

What piece of advice has stuck with you?

Don’t waste time getting stressed about things that are out with your control. Take the time to understand where your sphere of influence is, and focus your attention on trying to get things done within that.

Also, In a world where you can be anything, try to be kind.