Benefits of Assisting Faculty with Consultancy Services

Date: June 1, 2023 (Thursday) 
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM Eastern 
Cost: Members: $0, Non-Members: $225
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Some universities aid faculty with review and administration of consulting services they provide to industry while holding down their academic positions. What are the benefits of a university providing this service to its faculty? Why is this relatively common in the United Kingdom, but less common in the US?
 
In the UK, most universities allow faculty to personally consult for external organizations up to a specific number of days and pocket most of the fees. They encourage – although do not often mandate - faculty to arrange these opportunities through academic administration (or the equivalent via a wholly-owned company) to reduce the risk to the university and the individual. Administrative coordination can ease burdens on faculty for invoicing and contracting, and, surprisingly, there are other benefits such as the possibility of growing the relationship with the external organization.
 
If your office is thinking of adding value and intrigued about adding this service, join us for this interactive webinar where you’ll learn from the heads of Oxford and Cambridge’s Consultancy Services as well as colleagues from the US who have set up a service at their institution.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe when it is beneficial to set up consultancy services inside your institution.
• Identify the advantages and pitfalls of consultancy services.
• Understand the different pricing models and how they work.
• Understand best practices from institutions already offering consultancy services.

• Helen Atkinson, Deputy Head of Consultancy Services, Cambridge Enterprise
• Jaci Barnett, Head of Consulting Services, Oxford University Innovation
• Laura Savatski, Executive Director of Innovation, University of Louisville

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Speaker Bios
 

Helen Atkinson is Deputy head of Consultancy Services for Cambridge Enterprise, a fast-growing service dedicated to generating both societal and economic impact from academic research by facilitating consultancy between university academics from across all disciplines with the University and external organisations.

Helen oversees the work of the Consultancy Services team, which supports almost 400 consultancy projects per year. Helen and the team offer assistance to academics throughout the lifecycle of their consultancy projects, including advice on pricing, negotiating contracts and managing the financial administration.

Before joining Cambridge Enterprise, Helen worked at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute as the Executive Assistant to the Director. Helen has extensive experience with the University of Cambridge and the interface between academics and industry, as she spent 10 years in the university’s Research Office in various roles, culminating in the post of Assistant Director, School of Clinical Medicine.

Helen has a BSc in Geography from the University of Cambridge. She is a PraxisAuril Mentor and has contributed to PraxisAuril consultancy training courses. Helen joined Cambridge Enterprise in August 2014.

Jacqueline Barnett, BScEng, MScEng, MBA, RTTP, is the Head of Consulting Services at Oxford University Innovation, the wholly owned innovation company of the University of Oxford. She has over 20 years’ experience in research commercialization and technology transfer and has, during that time, managed technology transfer offices, managed contract research and consultancy functions, led a regional technology transfer office, launched a regional innovation forum, established an incubator, and had both non-executive and executive roles on the boards of start-up and spinout companies.

Until August 2017, Jaci was Head of Research Commercialisation and Investment at the University of Bristol and, prior to that, was Director of the Innovation Office at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa for over 10 years. She has an undergraduate and master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, and an MBA from the University of Pretoria. After starting her career in industry, she moved to a contract research organisation and, in 2005, entered the higher education sector as Chief Operations Officer at Wits Enterprise, the commercialization company of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Jaci was previously President of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), was on the Council of the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) and was Chair of ATTP’s Course Review Committee from 2013 to 2020. She is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, exploring the impact of spinout companies.
 

 

Laura Savatski is the Executive Director of Innovation for the University of Louisville. In this role, she is responsible for identification, evaluation, protection, commercialization and partnership development for research discoveries. Laura has a diverse background as a research scientist, entrepreneur, and start-up advisor, and broad experience bringing inventions to market. Laura's early career in medical research focused on vaccine trials, molecular virology, stem cell biology, transplant/oncology and cellular assays. Her past roles include Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Prodesse, a company she co-founded, which makes molecular infectious disease diagnostic products and is now part of Hologic. Laura has served as the AUTM Board representative for the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP)  and recently served as Chair of the AUTM Board of Directors.