Products
Be The Magpie
Overview
This workshop will focus on providing you the tools to successfully spot potential transfer projects.
Attendees will be introduced to the factors of what problems their tranfer project outputs will solve, and what potential external influences are relevant to its success.
Through collaborative work revolving around case studies, attendees will assess a wide range of inputs and outcomes to help determine which best applies to their own research or project.
Content
Universities and public research institutions are increasingly requested by funders to transfer knowledge that is generated in SHAPE disciplines into society and the economy. Buzzwords like “social innovation”, “impact investing”, and “social entrepreneurship” are used, but what does is all mean and how is it relevant to you?
While at many universities across the UK this kind of knowledge transfer already takes place, it is sometimes not recognized; it just happens – sometimes incidentally. Beyond that, transfer offices often lack a systematic approach to identify and manage impactful SHAPE projects and to exploit the tremendous opportunities for impact inherent in SHAPE.
Following arrivals and introductions, SHAPE Knowledge Transfer will be explored along with the hopes, aspirations, and outcomes you are looking for and what are the issues and barriers stopping you getting there.
Attendees will then present their potential Transfer Projects, including what they are, whom they are for, and what the aspirations for your research are.
Then, through the model of a "Metaplan Wall", the range of outputs, target groups, and the benefits for those target groups will be explored through group exercises. Lastly, through applying a "Lean Canvas" methodology to your project, you will learn how to deliver it through a worked example.
Approach and Aims
Attendees will learn about the breadth of ways SHAPE can achieve this impact, including challenges and differences compared to other disciplines, methodologies for identifying and accelerating impact projects and discuss practical examples of how academics and professional services teams have worked together to bring SHAPE research into the world to deliver impact at scale. The target will be to tailor these learnings to your own research and to work out how it is relevant to you.
The key to this workshop is not to focus on intellectual property, but to tell stories that define your academic research. By being ready to discuss your research, you will be able to conclude what the possibilities could be.
Spinout Training
Overview
This workshop designed to help you determine “if starting afresh with no constraints, how would you create a spinout process for maximum success?”
The areas explored will explore how to identify if a project is ideal for spinning out, what makes a good business plan to attract investors and how to work with different types. It also aims to inform about the practical aspects of founding the team and finding its CEO, when is the best time to incorporate versus "spinning out" whilst also explaining the differences and similarities between normal and social enterprises.
Content
Attendees will be given a list of projects and some guidance on “spinout spotting” and asked to present their results. Following this, different types of spinout will be defined and what their characteristics are, what resources are required to set them up, and what resources might be needed once they are incorporated.
Strategies for teambuilding will be explored, tailored to your previously established needs. This is the most important part of the entire process, so a guided discussion will take place on what capacity your project will have and consequently, what services you can offer in building that team.
Finally, attendees will be given tips on what to identify in a good business plan, when the plan is needed, who should write it, and more importantly, how to pitch it, as that usually comes first in the planning stage.
Approach and Aims
The first workshop day will be delivered in person. There is a preference for the second workshop to be delivered in person also, but it can instead be adapted online in two parts. Both workshop days will last no longer than six hours. Attendees will be given homework after the conclusion of the first session in order to prepare fully for the final part(s).
The second workshop day (or two online half-sessions) will centre upon “getting down to details”. After attendees pitch their startup services, the areas covered will explore two aspects.
The first part will focus on laying down process. Given that you are providing many different types of spinout, this workshop will assist you in determining the key factors you need to work on to ensure that the process itself isn’t the “rate determining step;” the chief strategy of any innovation service should be that the service itself doesn’t delay the innovators through form-filling so they can focus their time on venture building.
The second part will be split between covering social enterprise in more detail. Firstly, how they actually work and what the options are. The second part will cover funding which will cover not only angels, VC, but also impact investing, financing social enterprise and how you need to adapt business models and expectations with the finance available.
None of the sessions will cover the legal/documentation aspects of a spinout. As always with Mark Mann Limited, workshops will be planned to have the maximum amount of interactive learning as possible to help maintain maximum engagement.
SHAPE Deals Workshop
Overview
Although licensing froms a significant portion of a final commercial contract, there are other factors to consider.
This workshop includes a series of excersises designed to impart informative practical experience involving bringing these elements of a transfer project towards a deal.
Content
Signing NDAs if required, it would be beneficial for us to review a selection of disclosures in your current portfolio, in order to make the training and discussion in the first session as targeted as possible.
A case study-based interactive workshop where examples covering the different sorts of licensing you might see in SHAPE are covered. These examples will have terms which will be taken from a selection of:
Creative commons (copyright not software)
Open source (software)
Evaluation Licences
Bespoke licensing
Royalty bearing Vs non-royalty bearing
Territories
Term length
Types of deal will also be covered, which may include:
Costing
Model types (subscription (SaaS), freemium, Robin Hood etc.)
Delivery
Monitoring
Marketing
The second session would consist of three worked examples, with as many of the elements listed in the original request covered across the examples.
Approach and Aims
Attendees will have a gamified experience, as they will only be given relevant information as and when it is asked for, and a series of deal templates to choose from. They will then be asked to choose a template and explain why. There will then be a “reveal” to show what actually happened and why.
Following the completion of these excercises, participants can remain should they wish to discuss their own projects.
We can also discuss how any infrastructure could be in place should large-scale licensing be a necessary output. Both sessions will be designed with fun at the core, but by also providing as much practical knowledge to be taken away and applied as possible.
Attendees should come away armed with the knowledge of how to spot opportunities for licensing that is as relevent to their immediate needs as possible.
+44 (0) 7742 185537
+44 (0) 1905 943729
Mark Mann OÜ,
Baltic Business Services OÜ,
Harju maakond, Tallinn, Kesklinna linnaosa, Narva mnt 5, 10117, Estonia.
mail@markmann.org.uk
Copyright Mark Mann OÜ 2023