Oxford IMAGINE IF! Accelerator Winners Announced

Author: Kristina Aertker

There was a full house at the Oxford Bioescalator on February 27^thfor the IMAGINE IF! Oxford Final with an inspiring atmosphere dominated by the hustle and bustle of Oxford academic, creative, and entrepreneurial community. The Oxford Neuro Technologies team convinced the panel of judges and won the local pitching competition. The founder of Oxford Neuro Technologies, Ellis Parry, shared the story of his twin brother Luke who has severe brain injury and has inspired the start-up team to address the rehabilitation challenges that face patients like Luke. The team’s smartphone app brings technology into the everyday routine of users who have experienced a stroke or severe head injury and helps aid memory recall and reduce anxiety.

Oxford IMAGINEIF! winner Oxford Neuro Technologies with judge Matthew Wood and Mira Kassouf, President of Oxford Innovation Forum

The runner-up on the night was Adelie Health. The Adelie Health team have developed PenPal, a smart device that connects to the cap of an insulin pen and helps diabetics manage their condition by monitoring dosing via a smartphone app. The clean-tech section in the competition was represented by Spectre Bio who won the third place. The Spectre Bio team created a portable pollution sensor named Spectre. The pitch from Spectre Bio team impressed the judges with the capabilities of their innovative platform that can measure pollutants in and outside the body with a pill-sized sensor.

Adelie Health and Spectre Bio won second and third place of the Oxford IMAGINEIF! pitching competition

As local winners, Oxford Neuro Technologies will now be offered the opportunity to work with our supporters the Oxford BioEscalator and the Oxford Trust for six-months, occupying desk or lab space in each location. The Oxford BioEscalator has offered much-needed physical lab space for life sciences startups in Oxford since opening in September 2018. As our principle IMAGINE IF! pre-accelerator sponsor the Bioescalator generously hosted the pitch event; continuing to act as a brilliant catalyst for life science innovation in Oxford. The Oxford Trust, a well-established local charity that has pioneered the support for innovation and entrepreneurship since its establishment in 1985, provides the perfect complement to the BioEscalator’s support, securing space and continued mentorship to more IMAGINE IF! Oxford finalists.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to the IMAGINE IF! Oxford mentors whose guidance in bespoke one-on-one sessions with the Oxford finalists propelled them to a pitch-ready state. With their wide-ranging expertise in life science and medtech industry, investment, intellectual property, innovation and entrepreneurship, our mentors have imparted invaluable advice and guidance for the early-stage startups. This bespoke support has clearly increased each startup’s chances of secure funding and the opportunity to fulfil their potential by turning their science into a real-life commercial solution.

For Oxford winner Oxford Neuro Technologies the journey with IMAGINE IF! continues. The start-up is going to pitch again in the Global IMAGINE IF! Final against the other finalists from Europe and worldwide. The global prize is a non-dilutive £10,000 cash prize, crowdfunding campaign, six-months lab space, and mentoring by world-leading experts. The Global IMAGINE IF! Final takes place at the Health Horizons Conference, an international healthcare summit, in Cambridge from 26^thto 27^thJune 2019.

Read more about Health Horizons Future Healthcare Conference here.

IMAGINE IF! Oxford Finalists Announced

The IMAGINE IF! Accelerator is Innovation Forum’s pre-accelerator competition for science-based ventures that boasts a truly global reach. IMAGINE IF! gives early stage science start-ups the access and opportunities to transform a great idea into a successful start-up business. The program includes bespoke mentorship, the chance to secure non-dilutive capital, business development advice from leading professional services companies, and access to a global network of scientific innovators spread across the Innovation Forum network.

After a record-breaking number of applications, we are pleased to announce the list of Oxford IMAGINE IF! finalists who will now begin a program of bespoke mentorship from a team of IF Oxford Mentors to further develop their concept, business case, and pitch before the Oxford IMAGINE IF! Final in February.

SIGN-UP FOR THE FINAL HERE

In addition to the continued mentorship scheme, winners of the Oxford Final will be given dedicated support to prepare for the Global IMAGINE IF! Final in June and to begin catapulting their innovation beyond the IMAGINE IF! realms. Based on their needs, the Oxford winner will be the recipient of the generous contribution of the Oxford innovation ecosystem from:

1- The Oxford BioEscalator, a six-month lab bench in the Innovation Lab,

2- The Oxford Trust, a six-month office space in either its city centre OCFI or Headington located WCFI innovation centres.

It goes without saying that the provision of a physical space at no cost is invaluable for an early-stage startup in providing a secure base but more importantly the company of experts and like-minded innovators and entrepreneurs, an optimal supportive environment for an early-stage startup.

The winner of the Oxford final will also progress to the next round of the competition to pitch alongside winners from other Innovation Forum branches, and hopefully follow in the footsteps of 2017-18 Oxford finalist and Global IMAGINE IF! Winner, BioMe Oxford.

Meet the 2019 IMAGINE IF! Oxford finalists:

Adelie Health

PenPal, created by Adelie Health, turns a mechanical insulin pen into a smart device and revolutionises how patients can manage their diabetes. By precisely detecting the insulin dose delivered and interfacing with a smart phone PenPal helps empower users to control their condition and prevent missed or double insulin doses. The connectivity of Adelie Health’s award-winning device also allows healthcare professionals to more accurately monitor and keep a record of patients’ conditions—reducing the risk of hospitalisation and diabetic coma.

Cutting Edge Healthcare Solutions

Cutting Edge Healthcare Solutions have developed MyOperation—a smartphone app to guide patients on their individualised surgical journeys. Replicating the approach of sports training apps MyOperation puts patients first by providing both logistical information about their hospital visit and a trusted source of clinical information. MyOperation makes shared surgical decision making a reality.

Demoira Therapeutics

The Demoira Therapeutics team are developing a novel design strategy to deliver a wide range of nanoparticle delivery systems for gene therapy. Driven by a proprietary algorithm the Demoira system is taking a step towards making gene therapy a clinical reality and could help unlock gene-based treatments for rare disorders such as Huntington’s disease.

Emendox Devices

Narcflow is a unique medical device developed by Emendox Devices that is capable of delivering the life-saving drug Naloxone directly to the body in the event of an opioid overdose. Naloxone (Narcan) has been used by healthcare workers for over 40 years to arrest opioid overdoses, but rapidly getting the drug to those who need it outside of the hospital setting is challenging—resulting in 75% of drug-related deaths still being linked to opioid overdose. The Emendox Devices team hope that by distributing Narcflow into opioid user communities thousands of lives may be saved.

GeneOmics Solutions

The GenOmics team are creating a simple finger-prick test to identify bacterial infection and alert GPs to whether antibiotic therapy will be effective. By rapidly distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections GenOmics hope to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and antibiotic-resistant infections, as well as eliminating the dangerous and sometimes life-threatening consequences of mistaking a bacterial infection for a virus. The GenOmics technology is underpinned by novel antibodies that identify bacteria and a system for recognising the early stages of a patient’s immune response to the infection.

HuCELL

HuCELL are rethinking what is possible with stem cells. Currently, the speed of sustainably generating stem cell lines is a major limiting factor in academic and industrial research. Together the team at HuCELL have developed a process that is capable of generating stem cells that is more than 10x faster, cheaper, and higher yield than current techniques. The technology behind HuCELL will open up the possibility of generating a diverse range of cells from an individual—from liver cells to brain tissue—and could revolutionise patient-specific treatments and regenerative medicine.

Imladris Technologies

Reproducibility of results is a major problem in cancer research. The knock-on effect of this variability is frequent failures in clinical trials of cancer treatments with huge financial costs and the risk of putting vulnerable patients in danger. The Imladris Technologies team are building an automated cloud lab to improve efficiency and reproducibility of experiments to accelerate the discovery of new cancer treatments. The team’s goal is to build the world’s largest cancer research database, with experimental results, statistical analysis, and literature ontologies.

Inulox

Inulox is developing an enzyme-based product that is capable of converting ingested sugar into a prebiotic fibre. Spurred by a three-fold increase in sugar consumption across the population over the past fifty-years, Inulox hope their product will dramatically reduce obesity and associated diseases. Risk of diabetes and liver damage will also be reduced once the dietary sugar, often present as so-called “hidden sugars”, is converted and replaced with a healthy gut biome.

Oxford Neuro Technologies

The Oxford Neuro Technologies team have been inspired by personal and professional experiences of brain injuries to revolutionise the way we use technology to improve patients’ quality of life. Research has shown that quality of rehabilitation care is a major predictor of the level of recovery a stroke or brain injury patient will make. Oxford Neuro technologies are developing a smartphone app to bring technology into the rehabilitation regime to maximise impact and improve results for a variety of brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.

Scout Health (Previously POD Health)

Scout Health is a group of clinicians and data scientists who are developing a platform with disease prevention at its core. Patients are provided with an ecosystem of knowledge, support, testing, and guidance via a smartphone app allowing them to manage their health more effectively with the guidance of a health advisor and artificial intelligence. The Scout Health app is combined with diagnostic testing—such as blood tests—that identify health problems and potential treatments as early as possible. The system is approved by the Care Quality Commission.

Sociable Waiting in A&E

Inspired by patients’ experiences of frustration and anxiety in the Accident and Emergency waiting room this team have come-up with concepts to transform a hospital waiting room into a relaxing and sociable space. By integrating green space, communal seating, and scannable wristbands a user is kept informed of their clinical journey and schedule; reducing patient anxiety and freeing-up hospital staff to more efficiently care for others.

Screen2Care

Screen2Care (S2C) are developing a novel system to screen for common, but often asymptomatic, diseases that affect over 85% of the population. These conditions typically remained undiagnosed in their early stages but it remains uneconomic to preventatively test large numbers of people in the clinical setting. S2C’s solution makes preventative screening accessible and cost-effective with an innovative system based in toilets and urinals capable of diagnosing a variety of early-onset conditions.

Spectre Bio

The team at Spectre bio have created a low-cost sensing device—named Spectre—that is capable of detecting pollutants and other chemical signatures in both the environment and the human body. Spectre Bio hope to revolutionise how we measure pollutants both in and outside our bodies with their portable device that uses customised whole-cell biosensors, which can be miniaturised to the size of an ingestible pill.

We look forward to you joining us in February for the Oxford IMAGINE IF! Final where each start-up team will pitch their concept to an audience of investors, experts and innovators.

SIGN-UP FOR THE FINAL HERE

The Oxford IMAGINE IF! program would not be possible without the support of our local sponsors: BioEscalator, The Oxford Trust and Oxford Computer Consultants.

Funding for Life Science Ventures

Raising funding for life science ventures can be challenging due to long regulatory pathways and uncertain market adoption.

Join us on Wednesday the 14th of Nov 2018 at 17.30 at the BioEscalator to hear from an expert panel how to tackle this challenge when building your venture.

REGISTER HERE

Do not miss this chance to visit the BioEscalator, Oxford’s hub for new and developing life science innovations, and sponsor of the Innovation Forum IMAGINE IF! pre-accelerator. If you have a life science-based idea, Apply here before the deadline, the 16th of November 2018, for a chance of winning the BioEscalator prize of 6 month free lab space.

Innovation Forum Oxford is supporting Silicon Valley Comes to the UK/Oxford. For more information about other events, please follow the link SVC2UK Oxford events.

Looking Forward to welcoming you there,

Innovation Forum Oxford Team

The Panel

This session will be moderated by Danuta Jeziorska and feature life science investors, including Simon Bayly, Rebecca Todd, and Lachlan MacKinnon, who will share their stories and challenges and offer suggestions for raising money at multiple stages.

Simon Bayly

Simon is head of Business Development for the Oxford biomedical engineering spinout Oxford Mestar. He has a PhD in chemistry and spent his early career in research at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oxford, where his interests spread across diverse technologies from molecular magnets to PET imaging agents. Simon’s commercial experience includes R&D, technology scouting and early stage investment. His previous roles include Epiphany Capital, H2O Venture Partners and Oxford Biosensors.

Rebecca Todd

Rebecca began venture investing in 2006 while at Oxford Capital, where she took responsibility for the Oxford Gateway Funds’ investments into healthcare and life science companies, and went on to become Director, Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations (now Touchstone Innovations).

Her earlier career was as a marketing consultant to pharmaceutical and life science technology companies. Rebecca has a PhD in Genetics from Nottingham University and an MBA from Oxford University.

She joined Longwall Ventures after a couple of years sabbatical break spent exploring South America in a VW camper van and focuses predominantly on medical technology opportunities.

Lachlan MacKinnon

Lachlan studied Chemistry at the University of Oxford before joining Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) as it was founded in 2015. OSI raised £600m to invest in deep science and technology emerging from Oxford. Lachlan has invested in inventions and enabling technologies from physical sciences that can be applied in other fields, including launching Oxford Nanoimaging in 2016 with a technology to deliver superresolution microscopy techniques on a desktop. It has gone on to raise $25m and now employs 100 people in Oxford and the Bay Area. Later, he partnered with Google Ventures to launch Spybiotech, developing vaccines against the two most harmful infectious diseases with no current vaccine. He also represents OSI on the boards of Opsydia, OMass Technologies and Xerion Healthcare having made initial seed investments.

Danuta Jeziorska

Dr Danuta Jeziorska is a passionate entrepreneur and a senior scientist at Oxford University. She is currently co-founding Oxomics, a spinout from Oxford University that aims to transform drug discovery using the 3D structure of the genome.

Previously, Danuta co-founded and led Innovation Forum Oxford, a branch of a global non-profit organisation with 10,000 members and 19 branches across three continents, that aims to accelerate innovative technology development by connecting academics, industry, healthcare professionals and policy makers and by inspiring and nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurially inclined scientists. Danuta also helped form TechTonic, an organisation that supports women in the technology sector, where she is a director.

Danuta obtained her PhD in Systems Biology and is currently a Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford.

Innovation Forum Oxford’s co-founder, Dr Danuta Jeziorska, named as one of the 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018

Innovation Forum Oxford’s co-founder, Dr Danuta Jeziorska, named as one of the 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018 for supporting innovation from concept to market.

We are proud to announce that our co-founder and ex-president, Dr Danuta Jeziorska, has been named a Rising Star in BioBeat’s ‘50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018’ report, for supporting innovation from concept to market.

BioBeat has celebrated 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness each year since 2014. The report emphasises the current role of women in leading, inspiring and innovating to ensure new technologies and treatments continue to improve UK research, health and society.

Danuta co-founded Innovation Forum Oxford (IFO) in 2015 with aim to accelerate innovation and aid research translation. She led the branch for two years and together with IFO team offered entrepreneurial training to hundreds of scientists in the health and life-sciences sector. Danuta and IFO continue to provide a platform in Oxford for showcasing science and knowledge exchange that brings together hundreds of members of academia, industry, the NHS and policy makers. Currently, she acts as an Advisor for the organisation. Danuta also helped form TechTonic Women, an organisation that supports women in the technology sector in Oxfordshire, where she is a Director.

Danuta is currently co-founding a spinout company from Oxford University that aims to transform drug discovery using the 3D structure of the genome. Alongside this role she continues her scientific research at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford.

Danuta said: “I am thrilled to be named as one of the Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018, for supporting innovation from concept to market. For the last three years, I had a great privilege of working together with a group of exceptionally driven people at Innovation Forum and TechTonic to support entrepreneurial ecosystem. This wouldn’t be possible without their contribution and generous support from the key stakeholders in the Oxfordshire. Thank you”.

BioBeat Founder Miranda Weston-Smith said: “Congratulations to the outstanding women leaders who are recognised as the 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018. They are changing what is possible for the benefit of humanity and helping to build a more inclusive, responsive healthcare ecosystem – whether that’s by developing revolutionary products, shaping bioscience through investment, accelerating the innovation pipeline, transforming patient access to healthcare or supporting innovation from concept to market.”

Marek Tyl, CEO of Innovation Forum said: “We are proud that Danuta has been recognised as one of the Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018. Her work highlights the value that Innovation Forum brings to the local ecosystem, the engagement with the grassroot innovators, academics, industry members and policy makers.”

Jane Osbourn, Vice-President Research and Development at MedImmune, which supported the report, comments: “On behalf of the numerous partners and supporters of the 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018 report, we are delighted to celebrate the achievements of this group of talented women. We hope shining a spotlight on these female leaders will support them to forge stronger networks and realise new opportunities to improve patient health. “

Meet the IMAGINE IF! 2018 Oxford Mentors

Meet the Oxford mentors for the 2018-19 edition of IMAGINE IF!

What makes the IMAGINE IF! idea competition different is mentorship: a bespoke flexible process, organised and facilitated by Innovation Forum Oxford and delivered by a diverse panel of experts in coordination with the mentees. This tailored mentorship scheme plays a crucial role in propelling the early-stage start-up from its current level to the next. The aim is to support the team in spotting and addressing caveats in their business proposal as well as supporting needs the teams have identified themselves.

Join us at the Wig and Pen pub on the 2nd of November 2018 at 18.00 to learn more about the program and meet our program mentors.

MEET OUR MENTORS

John Carrigan | RebelBio

John has an intriguing job of Chief scientist and innovation (investment opportunity) seeker for SOSV (Sean O Sullivan Ventures), one of the world’s most active early stage investors. His principal interests within the firm are bioscience investments which are developed in RebelBio, a dedicated investment program recently established by Dr Carrigan and his team at Imperial College White City. Dr Carrigan began his career as an academic biochemist where he published papers concerning protein chemistry and metabolomics. Subsequently he went into the world of start ups with Dublin based AERBIO, which was acquired by green biochemical company Cellulac ltd in 2013. Away from his work with SOSV, he acts as an expert advisor for the European Innovation Council‘s SME (Small Medium Enterprise) instrument–an initiative to fund the most promising start up bioscience companies across Europe.

Philippa Christoforou | Oxford University Innovation

Philippa is a Licensing and Ventures Manager at Oxford University Innovation (OUI) in the Digital Health and Medical Devices team. She has worked for the past three years with researchers across the University of Oxford to help them create impact with their ideas. Philippa has expertise in developing early stage ideas into business propositions, which includes IP landscape analysis, market analysis, building business plans, CE marking and regulatory issues, advice on app development, and licence negotiations. Whilst a large number of her projects are in the digital health space, Philippa has facilitated spinout companies from the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions. She is delighted to be increasingly working with projects focused on mental health issues.

Philippa also has a passion for social enterprises, companies that put purpose before profit, and is part of the team offering a support to create these entities from the University. Philippa was part of the team that set up OxReach, the crowdfunding platform for social good projects from the University of Oxford. She has supported four successful campaigns which have all benefited substantially from the public support that they received and are now creating local and international impact.

Tony Hart | Head of Smart Oxford

Tony is the Head of Smart Oxford, Oxford’s smart city project. Tony has been working with technology innovation companies and start-ups across Oxfordshire and the UK for the past 15 years, having worked for and with major technology companies in the US, Europe, India and China. Recently he was the Managing Director of the UK subsidiary of Holley Technology, the leading Chinese smart meter manufacturer based in Hangzhou.

He has a strong focus and ability at identifying and bringing to market (commercialising) technology solutions within both corporate and entrepreneurial (start-up) environments. Tony has an MA in Engineering & Economics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Henley Management School.

Angela Hobbs | Managing Director, Triteq

As Managing Director of Triteq, a product design consultancy, Angela is continuously connected to new ideas, creative talent and amazing people. She learns something new every day.

In a school essay entitled “What do you want to be when you grow up” – Angela explained why she wanted to be a Judge. Many years later, she received an invitation to join the Design Council as a Judge on the Tech Spark competition: reviewing amazing pitches from innovative start-ups and helping to select those with the qualities to succeed. It was a privilege for Angela to be involved…and it even fulfilled her long time judging ambition!

As a NED, Angela also works with Intelligent Horsemanship, a company that helps horses and their humans to get the most out of their relationships. Kelly Marks, the Founder, taught her to ride racehorses and trained me to deal with the challenges of a horse riding trip across the Mongolian Steppes. Angela is currently planning her next adventure.

Brian Howlett | MedTech Business Leader

Brian has had a long and successful career as medtech business leader in large corporations, AIM listed companies and early stage ventures. He was CEO of Lombard Medical Technologies (2005 – 2009) and General Manager of Boston Scientific in UK (1999 – 2005). Brian is currently a board member of three emerging medtech companies, including Oxford Endovascular.

Keith Lipman | Entrepreneur and Investor

Keith is an investor in, and advisor to, a portfolio of companies principally in the data and scientific fields. Keith earned his PhD in Astrophysics from Cambridge University in 1992, studying the early chemical evolution of the Universe, and then turned his focus to applying the same scientific techniques to financial data by setting up a proprietary trading firm to trade the markets.

He is a founding partner of Elixir Ventures, investing and working with early and mid stage innovative companies.

Sarah McCloughry | Co-founder, STEMM Commercial

Sarah has inspired others to achieve leadership performance through theatre teaching, psychotherapy, coaching and training for the past 40 years. She has worked with teenagers, adults, ex-prisoners and senior executives.

These days, as well as being co-founder of STEMM Commercial, Sarah trains and coaches leaders with a STEMM background to win influence, advancement and stakeholder buy-in. She works in not-for-profit organisations such as the Stockholm Environment Institute as well as in commercial organisations such as Cisco, Skanska and Astrium (EADS) and SMEs. In partnership with Oxford University’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, she has designed and delivered programmes for STEMM doctoral researchers to attract engagement and buy-in at conferences, develop business awareness and improve their interview skills to advance their innovation.

James Pitt | Partner, James Cowper Kreston

James has worked with a variety of largely corporate clients, including start-ups, SMEs, international companies and groups, and publicly listed companies. James has experience working in a wide range of sectors but with particular emphasis on science / technology companies. He has worked closely with entrepreneurs, academics, research institutions and companies from spin out through to listing on accounting, taxation and strategic issues. He is delighted to offer advice and guidance for the programme.

With offices in the South of England, membership of Kreston International and a global network of independent accountants and business advisers, James Cowper Kreston is ideally placed to provide informed local, national and international advice.

Paul Rous | Entrepreneur and Investor

Paul has over 15 years experience as an entrepreneur, investor and active supporter of early stage businesses. His professional background spans the military, tourism, hospitality, finance, asset management and technology. He has worked with Goldman Sachs, Freeman, Imperial Innovations, and Generation Asset Management a $1.4 billion asset management business. Paul co-founded Fuel Ventures, a London-based seed venture capital fund and active accelerator focusing on early stage digital businesses, which he exited in 2016.

Marc Ventresca | Economic sociologist, Strategy, Innovation and Marketing Faculty, Saïd Business School

Marc is an economic sociologist in the Strategy, Innovation and Marketing Faculty at Saïd Business School and a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College. His teaching focuses on strategy and innovation, implementation, and entrepreneurial leadership and leadership for complex operations. At Oxford, he is Academic Director for the Science Innovation Plus initiative, support many student and research activities for the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and serve as a core faculty member for the Goldman Sachs 10K Women Entrepreneurs Programme in China. He is advisor/mentor to five startups founded by recent Oxford alumni, and a strategic advisor for Oxford Entrepreneurs, Global Thinkers Forum, Local Insight/Global Impact, and the Oxbridge Biotechnology Roundtable. He is recently supported an MBA team working with the World Economic Forum Global Agendas Councils. Marc does custom executive education with a range of global firms, public sector organisations, and civil society agencies.

Elen Wade-Martins | Business Manager, BioEscalator

Elen is responsible for planning all aspects of the BioEscalator, the new incubator currently being built at Old Road Campus. The BioEscalator will house small and growing medical science companies that are working with Oxford researchers to take innovative ideas from the lab to the clinic. It will also be a hub for bioscience collaboration in Oxford.

Elen’s background is in research, commercialisation of research and supporting early-stage entrepreneurs. She has worked at MIT, Oxford University Innovation, Begbroke Science Park and the Saïd Business School.

Ian Hardingham | Cofounder & CEO, Mode 7

Ian is a Co-founder and CEO of Oxford-based independent videogame developer and publisher Mode 7. He is a multi-award winning game designer and creator of the critically acclaimed Frozen Synapse series. Over the course of its 15 year history, Mode 7 has become renowned both for the innovative nature of its designs, and for creating disruptive technology within the games space. As well as developing original IP, Mode 7 has collaborated on technology projects for high profile clients such as the BBC and ITV.

The games sector is a highly competitive, volatile area of tech and Ian brings a wealth of experience shepherding a small team through multiple projects utilising a variety of business models and approaches. His dual role as a developer and CEO gives him a comprehensive awareness of both the micro and macro perspectives of project management.

Eileen Modral | Early Stage Investment Expert, Oxford Innovation

Eileen has been working with entrepreneurs since 1999 where she was part of a consultancy team and small fund. Since 2001 Eileen has worked for Oxford Innovation initially as part of Oxford Innovation’s Projects Team, working on projects relating to business development for SMEs with specific background in business support and Access to Finance. Since 2004 as Manager of OION Ltd, one of the UKs longest running Angel Networks. Eileen has overseen the development of the angel network through to FCA regulation and its own Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme Fund. Her past roles included delivery of National Government programmes including the AngelHub concept and AngelsforLifesciences that now partners with MedCity London. Eileen is a member of the EEN Executive Team for Access to Finance Thematic Group, Board Member of Venturefest Oxford and RSA Fellow (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Sam Olof | Chief Business Development Officer, OxSyBio

Sam leads OxSyBio’s business development activities working to build strategic partnerships. Formerly the Chief Technical Officer at OxSyBio, Dr. Olof led OxSyBio’s technical activities in the 3D printing of artificial and synthetic tissues for diagnostic and therapeutic uses. He received a Masters Degree in Chemistry from Bristol University in 2009, and in 2013 a Ph.D, in Functional Nanomaterials, also at Bristol. His Ph.D work was supervised by Professor Stephen Mann FRS (Chemistry) and Professor Mervyn Miles FRS (Physics), and explored self-assembled artificial cells with advanced microscopy techniques. In 2013 he joined the Bayley Group to investigate the 3D printing of artificial tissues. This work has informed OxSyBio’s efforts in printed cell networks and has led to the submission of two patent applications and the raising of £1 m seed funding.

Philip Webber | Partner, Dehns

Philip is a UK and European patent attorney, with 23 years’ experience of patenting inventions in the life sciences and biotech areas. He has a MA from Cambridge University (UK) in Genetics and a PhD in molecular biology from Warwick University (UK). After finishing his PhD, he joined Dehns and is now a partner based in the Oxford Office. He works with a variety of universities (including Oxford and Warwick) and SME’s in the Oxford area, as well as with other further-away clients (including Norway and Sweden). He works in all areas of biotech, with particular specialities in antibodies, stem cells and, more recently, CRISPR. He has been a member of the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys’ (CIPAs’) Life Sciences Committee for 12 years, where his role is to keep UK patent attorneys up-to-date with developments in biotech patent law. He regularly gives presentations on patent law to students and academics, as well as lecturing at patent conferences on biotech case law. He has been interviewed on BBC Radio 4 as a patent expert, and often briefs journalists on developments in the biotech field.

More about the IMAGINE IF! competition…

IMAGINE IF! is an unmissable opportunity for science entrepreneurs to nurture their early-stage HEALTH & LIFE sciences focused idea in a program that is:

– OPEN to all

– FREE to enter

– NO equity in return

– EXPERT mentorship, flexible and tailored to your venture’s needs

– EXPOSURE, publicity and networking across the local and global Innovation

WINNERS of the Oxford IMAGINE IF! will have an unmissable opportunity to pitch at the Global IMAGINE IF! Competition in June 2019 and compete for more prizes.

The 2017 Global IMAGINE IF! winner, BioMe Oxford, was an Oxford IMAGINE IF! finalist–you learn more about their story here.

IMAGINE IF! Accelerator 2018 Launch: Interviews with Last Year’s Judges

The IMAGINE IF! accelerator brings together science-focussed start-ups with seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts to provide mentorship and to compete for a cash prize. This year’s competition is now open with a submission deadline of November 16th 2018.

We asked some of last year’s judges to comment on the benefits of the competition and to give some insight into what they were looking for.

Dr Fred Kemp, Deputy Head of Licensing & Ventures for Life Sciences at Oxford University Innovation and judge in last year’s Oxford final, said: “it’s a great opportunity to get some exceptional mentoring, the quality of the mentors that [Innovation Forum] get into the program is fantastic”, and added that it was a great chance to practice your pitch. In finalists, he wanted to see a combination of entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm, persistence and insight to spot an opportunity.

“I think what we’re looking for is something which is new, something which is truly original but also has a real chance of succeeding, not only because it’s a damn good idea… but because there’s some really smart people behind it who you can see are going to develop into good business people” echoed Keith Errey, CEO of Isansys Lifecare Ltd.

He added that the IMAGINE IF! program “is exactly what you need if you’re starting with something and thinking ‘how the hell am I going to make this happen’”.

Both judges stressed that companies coming out of Oxford stand a great chance of succeeding on a global scale, thanks to the diversity in the ecosystem, the quality of the research, and the excellence of the people.

The full interviews can be viewed here and here.

Sound like a good fit for your business idea? Applications for this year’s competition now open, apply here.

ACE Saturdays: Consulting Skills Introduction

Consulting Skills Introduction

“I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life”

George Burns

In July Innovation Forum Oxford presented the final workshop of our highly successful ACE Saturdays series with a session led by Maurice McCartney, Oxford University’s Entrepreneur in Residence, that focussed on skills for consulting. We believe that the skills underpinning a good consultant are also central to the mission of Innovation Forum—gaining insight in challenges to innovation and focussing on solution development—so we were very excited to have Maurice leading this initiative with us.

The day began with a taste of what consultancy looks like from inside the profession with insight from Maurice on client relations, project planning and details of the project tender process. Attendees of the workshop came from across the city; some in industry and others from departments of both Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities. Some in the room had experience of consultancy as consultants or clients, while others were weighing the profession as a career choice. The day offered something for everyone and explored key employability skills including business awareness, strategic thinking, relationship management, team work and communication.

The sessions offered attendees the chance to start learning and practicing the essentials of consultancy. Advice and examples of successful client relationship management were discussed including how to market yourself and your skills without risking not being able to meet a client’s expectations. The importance of research—both on your potential client and the market the project addresses—was also covered in-depth with advice on how to formulate effective research questions and resources available to begin narrowing-down the investigative scope. Teams of participants then turned their focus to analysis skills, which covered a broad range of topics and methods including both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Maurice guided the workshop participants through an interactive case study that gave ample opportunity to confront how best to communicate project findings. Together the teams considered how best to capture their research and analysis before presenting ideas back to group to conclude the micro-consulting project. The day ended with a Q&A session for participants to find out next steps on the journey to making the profession their career or to get advice on channelling the strategic skills learnt during the day into their next project or professional challenge.

This session was run with support from the Oxford Careers Service. You can find out more about careers consultancy projects for researchers here.

Pain Mapping in Accident & Emergency—A Follow-up from the Paediatric Hackathon

My name is Rachel Green, and I am a User Experience Designer at Triteq. In conjunction with a medical student from Oxford University, we are creating a pain mapping exercise sheet for children waiting in A&E. The point of the sheet is to help keep children occupied while they wait as well as encouraging children to take responsibility for their own healthcare. The idea is that the child will identify points of pain on the sheet, then hand it to the doctor or nurse who sees them. This will hopefully also help speed up the triaging process, as the practitioner can see at a glance where the child is in pain.

At the Paediatric Hackathon event hosted by Innovation Forum Oxford, I met Benjamin Walker, a medical student from Balliol College. During the idea generation activity, we were discussing how best to keep children occupied while they were waiting in A&E. As we were jotting things down on Post-It Notes, we had the idea to give children a drawing of the body that they could label or colour in to show where they were hurting. After the event, we decided this idea should be explored. The first version of the pain mapping exercise sheet was drawn up, and shown to other medical students and clinicians for feedback. After some iterations we had our illustrated exercise sheet, complete with Wong-Baker pain scale faces and a sensory homunculus figure that would appeal to children.

Our next step is to trial the current exercise sheet by handing it out to families waiting in A&E in order to get their feedback. Potentially we could expand this activity sheet into a full activity booklet to keep children occupied. At this stage in the process we have spoken to Sally Hitchings, a Play Specialist at the Children’s Emergency Department in the John Radcliffe Hospital, who was very supportive of the project. We are liaising with Louise Rawlinson, Matron of the Emergency Department for OUH in order to get the project formally set up. We are hoping to test out the exercise sheet and get some results soon!

Self-Pitching Masterclass

“You can be a powerful and influential presence…but like most people you probably have never had the chance to exercise your communication muscles.”

On a swelteringly hot Saturday in June, Innovation Forum Oxford continued the ACE Saturdays workshop series with a session focussed on influence and personal pitching led by Sarah McCloughry from STEMM commercial. A packed room experienced Sarah’s engaging presence first-hand and learnt how to apply skills drawn from both business and the stage to their own aspirations.

Sarah introducing powerful presentation tools taken direct from the stage

The day began with a session on how to identify your audience. Working from the expectations of those in the room and the importance of placing the receiver at the heart of your planning were emphasised as the bedrock of a successful pitch. The focus of the session then moved to understanding how to best reach and impact the key people in the room: are they from academia, industry or the general public; are they experts or generalists? Sarah guided participants in tailoring their communication style to be more effective and memorable—acknowledging how quickly information is forgotten and learning how to make sure the important points you convey are the 10% of information that your audience actually remembers in a month’s time!

The workshop continued with attendees concentrating on identifying tangible goals that they wanted to achieve in their professional communication: what did they want their audience to think or do as a result of the presentation? After all, hitting a bullseye is easier once you actually know what the target looks like. With these goals in mind Sarah began guiding the room in thinking about which verbal and non-verbal tool they could utilise to be persuasive and maximise the chance of success.

Lively discussion peppered the workshop and potential hurdles were confronted head-on: how to best deal with nerves (sage advice drawn from Sarah’s stage experience helped a lot here); how to balance cultural expectations of enthusiasm, engagement and trust; and practical advice on effortlessly beginning and ending meaningful professional conversations. Through roleplaying and rapid rounds of feedback attendees started to build their own personal brands—developing a powerful and trustworthy presence.

Testing and rapidly refining personal pitches in small groups

The latter half of the session turned to technology and how to best leverage social media when strengthening a personal brand. The digital theme was extended over a working lunch by Stephen Eyre and Emma Procter-Legg from Oxford University’s IT Services. Together Stephen and Emma shared tips and best practice for how to match an online persona to the professional presence being crafted offline.

The day’s activities ended with the opportunity for participants to record a two-minute pitch—putting together all they had learnt and giving them a personal pitch to share online or to act as a resource for individual reflection and learning. Participants left the workshop with new techniques added to their professional toolkit and boosted confidence. At the close of the day, we were all challenged by a key quote from Carl W. Bueher:

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Child Health Hackathon

“The best and fastest way to innovate, is to collaborate.”

These words from paediatric cardiologist Dr. Anthony Chang capture the motivation behind Innovation Forum Oxford’s Paediatric Innovation Campaign: we want to bring new energy and ideas to the many unsolved challenges in children’s healthcare.

In May 2018 we took another step on this journey in the second instalment of our ACE (Awareness, Connectivity, Exchange) Saturdays program with the Child Health Hackathon. You can read more about part one (Oxford as a future city Design Thinking Workshop) here.

Both of these activities have been supported by Knowledge Exchange and Impact (KEI) funding from the University of Oxford and were designed to bring together individuals in the Oxford ecosystem to share knowledge and experiences to broaden horizons and foster innovative collaboration. The Child Health Hackathon built on the Design Thinking skills participants learnt in the previous workshop and turned the creative design process to the pressing need of innovation in paediatric healthcare.

This year (2018) Innovation Forum Oxford is promoting a focus on paediatric innovation—an area of healthcare that is currently chronically under-served. The US-based Institute for Paediatric Innovation estimates that innovation in children’s medicine currently lags behind adult care by five to ten years. We believe that collaborative innovation is the best way to start redressing the balance. As part of the preparation for the Hackathon, Oxford Innovation Forum team members interviewed clinicians at the John Radcliffe Hospital and local school children at New Marston Primary School—thank-you to all who contributed!

Thinking of Oscar cofounders Hannah and David Cole

The Hackathon was kicked-off by Thinking of Oscarco-founders David and Hannah Cole who set the context of what on-the-ground innovation in children’s healthcare looks like. David and Hannah founded Thinking of Oscar in memory of their son who died unexpectedly in 2014. The charity has fundraised over £200,000 and supported multiple projects across UK children’s hospitals. You can read more about David and Hannah’s perspective on the day here.

A diverse group of attendees—from paediatricians to software engineers—were supported by Design Thinking expert coaches Alejandro Lecuna and Morganne Graves, who had led the previous IFO ACE Saturday’s workshop on the future of autonomous vehicles. Design teams were formed and each addressed a different challenge focussed on paediatric innovation, such as “redesign the medical procedure experience for children, in a world where most medical processes are designed for adults.”

Perspectives from the paediatric medicine bedside and medical device industry were shared by Dr Janet Craze, consultant paediatrician at the John Radcliffe, and Angela Hobbs, Triteq Managing Director. And together the design teams began interrogating the challenges and extracting themes to start seeking potential users’ views.

After interview training and brainstorming the child heath innovation teams hit the streets of Oxford to interview adults and children about their experiences of the clinical environment as patients or family members.

Users’ experiences of healthcare captured during interviews

There was a brief pause for the sharing of interview insights over lunch as teams began to share, select, and hone their design priorities for users. Working in their teams the innovators began to create abstract users that captured as many of the concerns and insights raised in interviews as possible. From here the room started to turn towards design concepts that could address these needs…

“The doctor’s hands were very cold, which I didn’t like. Sometimes it hurts when the doctor puts the instrument to look in my ears too far in.”

-Paediatric patient interviewed by Hackathon participants

Capturing insights and needs from user interviews

Racing against the clock in a day completely packed with ideas and innovation the hackathon teams started to generate design solutions to users’ needs. Smartphone apps, intelligent wrist bands, child friendly pain maps, VR treatment training systems and other innovations began emerging from post-it notes and mind maps.

From here groups began prototyping their designs from simple materials to start working through the practicalities of addressing users’ needs with their design solution. Pipe-cleaners, cardboard, foil and plastic were crafted into all manner of devices—with an emphasis on fun and child-friendly designs. This was also a great opportunity to start creating something a user could hold or interact with and start to give feedback on the successes and pitfalls of the concept.

Testing design solutions on potential users: children, parents, and clinicians

Design prototypes were then tested on potential users in the room—including fellow innovators as well as clinicians, parents, and children. The feedback this generated then led to rapid iteration and refinement of the designs to better address users’ needs: what worked was kept, while less successful features were refined or removed.

As the day raced on the teams began preparing to pitch their designs to a panel of judges. An impressively diverse range of solutions were showcased by the design teams—ideas that focussed on both parent and child perspectives; concepts to relieve boredom or distract children; aids to assist with hospital navigation and overnight stays; and ways to help less-verbal patients identify their symptoms and concerns. Towards the end of the afternoon the innovators in the room took pause and heard from Jeroen Bergmann, Oxford Biodesign Program Co-Director. Jeroen shared examples of design-driven innovations that have come-out of the Biodesign program before giving his perspective on what it takes to navigate an intervention through the complex path of medical device regulation and clinical trials.

The day was brought to a close with dinner and a drinks reception—discussion flowed and design concepts were test-driven further as we all reflected on a packed and exhausting day that generated some extraordinary ideas. Watch this space for where these designs end-up…

Author: Dr Tom Peach