The Notebook: Tube station gardening and career path revelling
The Notebook is where interesting people say interesting things. Today it’s Dr Anne Lane, CEO of UCL Business.
Career journeys are rarely linear – enjoy the scenic route
A book I’m reading, Leap In by Alexandra Heminsley, took me back to a charity open water swim in the Serpentine I was roped into a few years ago. I used to do a lot of competitive swimming, but open swimming in the Serpentine wasn’t on my radar.
I’ve ended up doing several things over the years that had I really thought about doing them, I would have run a mile in the opposite direction. This year I cycled coast-to-coast from Ilfracombe in Devon to Plymouth, despite only having owned a bike for three weeks.
On both occasions, I was sick with nerves but ended up thoroughly enjoying the experience. I’ve done this with my career too and it’s taught me to take a risk, be resilient and that you
find success in the most unlikely of places.
It’s often the same with setting up spinouts and commercialising early-stage technologies at UCL. Who knows what will happen unless you try?
I’m often asked for career advice. I say, ‘my job found me rather than I looked for it’. I completed a PhD at UCL and continued my research at Harvard Medical School (after resitting A-Levels at Reading Tech).
I wanted a career in science but realised I wasn’t as dedicated to laboratory research as my peers.
Just as my visa was running out, an opportunity arose with a drug delivery spinout in Canada, and I jumped at the chance. From there, the technology transfer office (TTO) at UCL was the natural next step. Everyone has opportunities that aren’t the obvious next rung on the professional ladder.
Don’t be afraid to take the scenic route.
Sowing the Seeds
I’m a volunteer gardener at a tube station. We make everyone’s journey a little brighter and that gives me real satisfaction. Whilst our efforts are always worthwhile, we often need just a bit more money or help to turn something good into something great.
Spinouts are no different. We link academics with business leads, project managers and finance, legal and marketing experts. We create funding opportunities – and amazing things happen. And that’s how we can grow British businesses.
The UK is teeming with talented entrepreneurs but they need access to expertise and resources to help their companies shine. We should all be asking what more we can do to create an environment where more start-ups are inspired to succeed.
Into the real world
If research is going to have a real-world impact, it needs to be coaxed out of the laboratory and into the market. That’s the role of technology transfer offices (TTOs), where researchers, entrepreneurs and funders come together.
The impact of the spinout companies and licences that TTOs set up is all around us. For example, there is a good chance that the DVT socks you buy in a supermarket, chemist or airport before a flight were made with technology spun out from UCL.
It’s also very possible that your supermarket delivery came in a van whose route was optimised by an AI-powered tool developed by one of our spinouts. It analyses basket size, driver availability, vehicle capacity and travel time and returns only the feasible slots for booking.
It has surprised me throughout my career that people, especially in academia, feel that ‘commercialisation’ is wrong.
Show, not tell: Art and commercialisation
When visiting the Slade School of Fine Art, part of the UCL family, I was inspired by the opportunities to build careers and make art available to all. But I believe in ‘show not tell’. We’ve been working with the Slade for a decade. UCLB funded and helped to set up a print fair, the proceeds of which provided scholarships and bursaries.
Bring together art and commercialisation, and you can even change the world. One UCL artist was inspired to turn waste residue from polluted mine water into a range of paints. With the support of UCLB’s social ventures offer, she created an art-based company that is helping to connect former mining villages with
their heritage.