University of Sussex leverage Discover to access industry partners and build networks

The University of Sussex is a research-intensive university based in the UK. It has a community of nearly 20,000 students and over 1,000 academics, counting 5 Nobel Prize winners and alumni including heads of state, diplomats, politicians, eminent scientists and activists.

We recently spoke with Nick Bull, a Knowledge Exchange Manager in Life Sciences at the University of Sussex about his experience of using IN-PART’s bespoke scouting platform, Discover. 

It’s a pleasure to engage with IN-PART. They’re always eager to help, respond to my many emails promptly and always answer questions in full.”

Working closely with life sciences academics at the university, Nick has found a strong interest from them in campaigns being run by R&D teams through Discover in drug discovery and chemistry. Nick encourages submissions from academics by sharing our weekly industry opportunities newsletters (signup here) to researchers in relevant departments and helps to support them communicate their expertise or inventions in responses to the Discover campaigns. 

Nick explained that the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex look for a range of outcomes from their applications to Discover campaigns: 

Ideal outcomes include industry support to develop and commercialise these new technologies via investment, collaborative and contract research, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships or funded PhD studentships.”

The technology transfer office at the University of Sussex have made submissions to four Discover campaigns and have received feedback on one of these submissions. At the time of this case study, they are waiting for the results of the other three submissions. 

View the University of Sussex’s full technology portfolio on IN-PART.

Read more success profiles and case studies of partnerships initiated through IN-PART’s matchmaking platforms.

Written by Frances Wilkinson. Edited by Alex Stockham. 

Copyrights reserved unless otherwise agreed – IN-PART Publishing Ltd., 2022: ‘ University of Sussex leverage Discover to access industry partners and build networks’

About Discover:

Discover is a scouting platform used by industry to find solutions and expertise from academia.

With the aim of solving a technical requirement or challenge, Discover enables R&D teams to identify new opportunities for commercialisation or to solicit proposals for new research from our extended academic network, which has confirmed touchpoints in 1,500+ universities and institutes worldwide. 

Since 2018, through Discover, we’ve made available over £26-million in industry funding for new academic research, and the platform has been used by teams in companies across a variety of disciplines, including Bayer Crop Science, Murata Manufacturing, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson Matthey, Air Products, GSK Consumer Healthcare, as well as medical research charities including Alzheimer’s Research UK and Kidney Research UK.

Learn more about Discover and register for a free account.