Commercialisation Lead (Engineering and Physical Sciences

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

RPI supports agreed University, Faculty and School priorities for research and innovation: income generation, research excellence, PGR experience, partnership development and knowledge exchange leading to income and/or impact and commercialisation of IP and student enterprise. Our focus is on delivering professional, value-add advice and support to our community of researchers and innovators. We are a well-connected team which understands the priorities of the organisation and our external stakeholders and customers and the external environment in which we operate.

Team members collaborate, reflect, develop their skills and have a risk-appropriate mindset of continuous improvement to our processes, policy and approach.

You will be responsible for developing and delivering our Commercialisation Journey
, a high-quality programme designed to empower researchers to explore the commercial potential of their work and potentially create spin-out companies, intellectual property licences or social enterprises.

You will be key to the University's research and innovation strategy, contributing to job creation, impactful research, and regional economic growth. You will provide comprehensive support to innovators through dedicated one-on-one guidance and co-delivery of our training programs. You will support innovators to access funding, mentorship and valuable market research resources on their journey from idea generation to launching their commercial ventures.

You will also lead commercial negotiations with third parties relating to intellectual property licences.

You will have excellent professional development opportunities. Previous members of the team have become spin-out founders themselves, joined investment companies or secured internal promotion.

• Lead activities relating to the Commercialisation Journey for a range of opportunities.
• Line management of other members of the commercialisation team.
• Provide guidance, training, coaching & mentorship to engineers embarking on the Commercialisation Journey.
• Deliver Commercialisation Journey training to individual teams and cohorts, proactively maintaining training materials.
• Develop and utilise commercial and technical knowledge to support innovators to translate their research discoveries into value propositions with market fit.
• Lead commercial negotiations relating to IP-licences, investment terms and shareholder rights while drawing on the experience of internal and external professional services.
• Oversee and be accountable for accurate record keeping in internal databases and systems for the purposes of project management and annual reporting (national and funder-specific).
• Project manage high-value commercialisation opportunities, particularly IP-licences, where no entrepreneurial-lead can be identified from within the research team.
• Support innovators to secure internal and external funding. Monitor budgets, ensure spend occurs to schedule and contribute forecasts to the annual budgeting process.
• Report on the portfolio; lead bids to our internal investment committee.
• Take responsibility for ensuring that adequate due diligence is undertaken on projects with respect to IP-ownership, historic funding, third party rights and regulatory compliance.
• Identify improvements to the Commercialisation Journey through regular review of materials and develop team priorities in alignment with the faculty innovation plans.
• Think strategically about the engineering intellectual property portfolio and justify decisions relating to patent protection. Develop expertise in common engineering IP strategies.
• Support innovators through external pre-accelerator and accelerator programmes.
• Promote the Commercialisation Journey as a mechanism for delivering impact from academic research to continue to build a culture of ambition and entrepreneurial motivation within the University.
• Provide advice on innovation and commercialisation strategies.
• Contribute to or lead the development of relevant university policies.
• Support our partnership with Northern Gritstone by establishing and maintaining a strong relationship with investment directors and other staff.
• Represent Sheffield in professional fora and share best practice with other institutions through formal and informal means.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a…