“Everyday we wake up some new event is changing our lives. Can social entrepreneurs hold an answer to that but how we can play roles in doing it?” Founder and CEO of Cambio Peter Ptashko asked during opening remarks at the ImpactU Roadshow.
The event, which was hosted at MShed on 13 May brought together about 50 stakeholders involved in university affiliated social ventures from across the UK to discuss starting, scaling, supporting and funding for social venture enterprises and spin outs.
Michele Barbour delivers Keynote Address
University of Bristol Vice-Chancellor Enterprise and Innovation, Professor Michele Barbour delivered the keynote address, which highlighted the dramatic increase in disclosures from the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences (FALSS). Over the last twelve months, FALSS has seen a 120% increase in disclosures to the Commericalisation team.
“Why is this happening? A lot of factors: Lorraine Fairbanks and Robin Halpenny and the colleagues in the Commercialisation team – a fantastic team of individuals. These people are out and about in the faculties speaking to academics, speaking to researchers,” Barbour said, adding, “They are the bedrock on which this is founded.”
Other key factors Barbour identified in her keynote included programs like University Enterprise Fellowships (UEFs) and Early Career Enterprise Fellowships (ECEFs) that provide researchers with opportunities to explore enterpreneurial applications of their research.
“The Fellowship has been instrumental to give me headspace and thinking about the different aspects I would need to develop before moving to the creation of a potential spin-out.”, one University Enterprise Fellow was quoted.
Bristol emerging as a hub for social ventures
The keynote address was followed with an insightful panel discussions on the future of Social Ventures in times of uncertainty featuring Chris Blues, Director of Partnerships, Programmes and Impact at Social Tech Trust (include links here), Rachel Abernethy, Social Ventures lead at Oxford University Innovation, Michele Barbour, Associate Professor Lucy McCarthy, Co-Founder of Circular Agriculture Hub and academic at Bristol Business School and Adam Kobeissi, Vice President Consulting Services – London, CGI.
Location was a key factor for the success of social ventures with several panelists commenting on Bristol’s unique position in supporting these projects.
“ImpactU is a consoritum of about 42 universities. We have a variable response from different places, Rachel Abernethy from Oxford University said. We have a history of trying to promote social ventures. Bristol has a very strong culture of it in this city which you can play off.”
Panelist () Lucy McCarthy recently spun out the Circular Agricultural Hub from the University of Bristol. The hub seeks to connect farmers with customers for their pre-farm gate surplus, helping communities experiencing food insecurity and supporting food growers.
“Anything we establish has to be along ecological principles. Bristol is fantastic at understanding that and supporting it. If I fail, it’s not from lack of trying and being able to access all the support from Commercialisation, ARC Accelerate programme and ImpactU funding and training” McCarthy said. Adam from the CGI said “Running an enterprise whilst being an academic is a great way to dip your toe in and meet others as part of the innovation ecosystem with a support network around you. Blues added “The ones (venture founders) that fell in love with the problem and use technology to enable that and have their appetite to embed technology are the ones that do great. Every company will be an AI company. Framing of technology is as a supportive way to help social ventures scale. The key is bringing the story to life and answering ‘how are you solving the problem?”
New and established social ventures showcase their impact
The afternoon session featured a social venture showcase.
Bristol alumni, Artemis Fragkopoulos from Slant presented on revolutionising how things are transported within cities. Fragkopoulos cited research showing that 25% of emissions generated from transporting goods come from going from the outskirts of a city into its destination. Slant will be filing a patent on new technology through which they hope to find sustainable solutions to reduce transportation emisssions within cities.
Sally Good, CEO of Evidence to Impact (the first social venture to be spunout from Bristo with Cardiff University), presented on how their Assist methodology has helped deliver teaching to students, going from a stop smoking trial in 1995. They are now looking at expanding via newer research to helping deliver preventative programmes on drugs, phyiscal activity, sexual health, gambling and sleep. She gave advice on needing to pivot on costs to customers and adjusting delivery methods throughout the time of the venture being active as they approach their 15th anniversary.
Finally, Sofia Sukach and Supharat Tantanarungsee, students from the Centre for Innovation and Enterpreneurship at the University of Bristol and Co-Founders of Vero, showcased an app they are developing to help improve financial literacy among students and reduce overconsumption.
The day concluded with a fireside chat and roundtable discussion about how to access the ImpactU training Hub and Pathfinder Award pre-seed investment into social ventures.
University of Bristol are a member of ImpactU who provide training to UK universities on how to build social ventures out of academic research. They also offer pre-seed investment into social venture spinouts. Details here.
If you don’t already have an ImpactU HUB user account, please take less than 5 mins to create a profile here > https://bit.ly/42H2pVI and then you can Book here onto any of the 20 workshops that are on in the coming months.