Engage is a new online learning programme that consolidates training and events offered by Edinburgh Innovations to give you the tools and confidence to grasp commercial opportunities and supports translation of your research. At Edinburgh Innovations we benefit society and the economy by helping researchers, students and industry drive innovation. We seek opportunities, we build partnerships, we make the journey easy, and we add value at every stage. Engage is a practical programme, focused on the “how to” of external engagement and its associated skills. It is designed for research staff at any level who are new to external engagement, who aspire to engage in the future, or who wish to enhance their skills and engagement. Engage is a set of stand-alone, individual modules that you can choose from to suit your own current needs. You can choose to study just one, some or all of the modules, and they are available all year, every year, so you can do the courses at the right time for you, or come back to them if you would like to refer to the content and learning at a later stage. They contain a set of resources and tools that should always be useful to you as your career progresses. Engage is a practical first step in collaborating with external organisations and industry. Each module has a tangible plan, tool or framework to inform and initiate your approaches to your partners. This is learning by doing, so you can think of this as a walk through the tasks you need to do to start your engagements, allowing you to work smarter not harder. Course content and activities are offered online, with the opportunity to discuss with peers what you have learned, and with a colleague from EI as your facilitator. There are seven modules in total. You can access them all on this page or click on each module title for more information and enrol in the programme. You will find that all the modules have clear aims that you can contextualise to your own career pathways and research and knowledge exchange aspirations. Each module takes between one to three hours to complete over a four-week window and you have the flexibility to complete modules in any order of your choosing. You can enrol in only one, a few, or complete the whole programme, depending on your own needs. If you do want to complete the whole programme, the suggested progression is as follows, although you can complete it over a series of offerings. The programme will be available each semester. However, we suggest an ideal pathway is to complete modules in the following order of progression: Image How do I engage with external partners? How do I protect Intellectual Property? How do I build relationships and network? How do I start a translational journey with my research? How do I engage in consultancy? How do I commercialise my idea? How do I engage across disciplines? You’ll be guided through each module by the experienced team at Edinburgh Innovations and learn alongside your University of Edinburgh peers. If you have any specific questions on Engage, please contact: engage@ei.ed.ac.uk Postgraduate Students The programme is available to PhD researchers on a referral basis – please contact your local Business Development Executive, iTPA Translational Hub or your PI for a referral, which can be sent to eievents@ei.ed.ac.uk Benefits Find out more about the benefits of participation to researchers and Schools. This article was published on 2024-07-01
