Strategic innovation consultancy

Consortia that can prove their impact.

I bring universities, funders, corporates, SMEs and spinouts together — and put the impact measurement in place to demonstrate what they achieve.

London Social Ventures  ·  Shared TTO CCF pilot  ·  SHAPE Catalyst
SHAPE Amsterdam Workshop
Humanities Venture Lab, April 2026
What we do

Three connected offers, two leads.

Build the partnership properly, agree who owns what, measure the results well enough to prove them.

01
Led by Mark Mann

Strategic innovation consortia

Design and assembly of multi-partner programmes across universities, funders, local government and the private sector — from first convening through governance, funding bids and delivery.

  • London Social Ventures
  • Shared TTO, Connecting Capability Fund pilot
  • Bid development and programme design
02
Led by Mark Mann

IP consultancy

IP policy and strategy for research organisations, spinouts and social ventures, grounded in years inside university technology transfer. I lead this work directly at the policy and structuring level; where a project needs hands-on delivery, that runs through the wider team I work alongside, including SHAPE Impact Kollektiv and Kindling Ventures.

  • IP policy drafting for universities and research institutions
  • Collaboration and licensing agreement structures
  • SME, spinout and social venture commercialisation strategy
03
Led by Jessica Meijer · Ekster Innovation

Training and capability

Masterclasses and workshop programmes for knowledge exchange professionals and researchers, in partnership with Jessica Meijer through Ekster Innovation.

  • Knowledge transfer masterclasses
  • SHAPE commercialisation training
  • Bespoke in-house programmes
Recent work

Consortia in practice.

Named programmes with built-in impact measurement, so every partner can show what the collaboration actually delivered.

Consortium design & convening

London Social Ventures

A pan-London consortium of universities, local government and private sector partners building a social venture ecosystem for the capital. Shared pipeline, shared evidence base and a route to investment — with impact measurement built in from day one.

Role: consortium architect and convenor
Download the report (PDF) →
Programme design & IP consultancy

Shared TTO, CCF pilot

A Connecting Capability Fund pilot exploring a shared technology transfer office across institutions, giving universities without in-house capacity access to professional commercialisation support. Common processes, shared IP expertise and pooled deal flow.

Role: programme design and IP consultancy
Download the report (PDF) →
Affiliations

Where else you will find me.

The consultancy sits alongside a small number of ventures and roles that keep the work grounded in live practice.

Impact intelligence

Divine Ox

Co-founder, Chief Science Officer

Oxford University expert-led social impact intelligence, helping organisations and supply chains measure and communicate the value they create.

divineox.org →
Wellbeing measurement

SOPHIA Oxford UK

President

An Oxford-rooted nonprofit bringing multidimensional wellbeing measurement into business, so companies can understand and improve the lives of their workers.

sophiaoxford.org →
European network

SHAPE Impact Kollektiv

Team member

A European collective of impact and commercialisation experts creating impact at scale from social science, humanities and arts research.

impactkollektiv.com →
Training partner

Ekster Innovation

Partner

Jessica Meijer's venture, leading the training and capability strand of our joint work across knowledge transfer and SHAPE commercialisation.

Website coming soon
About

Twenty years making innovation happen.

Mark Mann is a strategic innovation consultant working across knowledge exchange, research commercialisation and social impact measurement.

After an Oxbridge education and an early career at the BBC, he spent years at Oxford University Innovation helping researchers turn their work into ventures, licences and partnerships.

Since then he has built and advised consortia, accelerators, SMEs, spinouts and social ventures across the UK and Europe, with a particular focus on SHAPE research — the social sciences, humanities and arts.

His focus now is on assembling consortia that can demonstrate their success through rigorous impact measurement, and on the IP policy and partnership structures that make them durable. He works at the strategy and policy end of these projects directly; delivery on individual commercialisation projects runs through the wider team he works alongside, including SHAPE Impact Kollektiv and Kindling Ventures.

mark mann oü  ·  strategic innovation consultancy
Contact

Start with a conversation.

Tell me what you are trying to build — whether that is a consortium, a commercialisation strategy or the capability of your team — and we will work out together whether I can help.

Email mail@markmann.org.uk
Telephone +44 (0) 7742 185537
+44 (0) 1905 943729 Registered office (Europe) NetSocialNow OÜ, trading as Mark Mann OÜ
c/o Baltic Business Services OÜ
Narva mnt 5, Kesklinna linnaosa
Tallinn 10117, Estonia Registered office (UK) Mark Mann Limited
3a Market Place, Woodstock
England, OX20 1SY Connect LinkedIn