NIPC News

Jane Lambert

The Lambert Toolkit is a set of precedents (templates) and notes to help universities and business owners draft agreements to decide who should benefit from any technological developments or innovation that might result from research or other work that universities carry out for business.  They are named after Sir Richard Lambert,  a former Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England and editor of the Financial Times.  I had very little to do with the toolkit though I did attend a meeting chaired by Sir Richard and contributed to the drafting of one of the clauses of at least one of the draft agreements.

Although the draft agreements are not compulsory they do save time and money and minimize the risk of disputes between universities and businesses.  They grew out of a Review of Business-University Collaboration which a committee chaired by Sir Richard compiled in 2001. They have been widely accep…

Jane Lambert

According to the Intellectual Property Office's latest Facts and Figures, there were 382 applications for UK patents from Wales in 2017. That was more than the 158 from Northern Ireland and 296 Northeast England but considerably less than the 2,585 applications from London and the 2,067 from the Southeast.

Developments that may make a difference are the opening of the Menai Science Park (M-SParc) in Angelsey on 1 March 2018 and the construction of the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus.  Like the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre in Bangor, these are initiatives of two of Wales's research universities to stimulate innovations and economic growth in their local areas.

There are signs that those initiatives are working.  I attended "Pitch Perfect" at M-SParc on 1 March 2019 and wrote about the event in A Good Way to spend St David's Day(2 March 2019).  There were some very good proposals indeed and I think that everything we saw was credible …

Jane Lambert

Yesterday I attended the pitching event that I mentioned in "Pitch Perfect" - Funding Opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises in Northwest Wales15 Feb 2019.  It took place on St David's Day which coincided with the first anniversary of the opening of M-SParc (the Menai science park). For those who are not familiar with Anglesey, the park is located near Gaerwen, just to the north and west of the famous village with the 58 letter name.  The park is open to the public during normal business hours and is worth visiting for the Tanio cafe alone.

The event took place in the science park's atrium.  Though not all the seats were filled, the event was well attended.  The audience was made up of competitors for the "Flash Pitch", "Student Pitch" and "Big Pitch" contests, business support professionals and members of the local community.  There was a panel of judges with experience of promoting and fostering new businesses.  Ot…

Jane Lambert

In Resources for Inventors and other Startups in Northwest Wales5 Feb 2019 NIPC Inventors Club I mentioned the Menai Science Park ("M-SParc") at Gaerwen in Anglesey and funding from the Development Bank of Wales. I did not, however, discuss other funding opportunities.

Coinciding with the science park's first anniversary, M-SParc's Enterprise Hub will hold a pitching event known as "Pitch Perfect" in conjunction with Be the Spark on St David's day between 17:00 and 19:30.  The organizers describe this event as "an evening of opportunities to pitch, chances to wow secret investors, the tools to vote on other pitches, and get feedback on your idea. It's not just for those who want to pitch; this will be an event you don't want to miss."

According to the Eventbrite card, there will be three pitching opportunities:
"FLASH PITCH - Two pots of funding up to £1,000 are available ON THE NIGHT for you to take home! Choose a fla…

Yesterday I spoke at a workshop on sustainable packaging and waste.  It took place at Tŷ Menai conference centre in Parc Menai just outside Bangor, There were many eminent speakers including Rob Elias, Director of the Biocomposites Centre of Bangor University, Selwyn Owen of Beacon Biorefining Hugh Jones of WRAP Cymru, David Walker of Business Wales, Dewi Rowlands of Bangor University and Wyn Griffiths of the Pontio Centre FabLab which I discussed in The Pontio Centre: A Resource for Inventors, Designers and Makers in North Wales14 Dec 2018 NIPC Inventors Club,
I talked about intellectual property.  As I was called to the lectern 10 minutes before lunch was due to be served, I had to condense a 30-minute presentation into 10.  That was probably a good thing as I focused on essentials,  I explained what was meant by intellectual property, set out the IP toolkit and gave the audience two of my best tips: How to construct a simple IP strategy which  I had mentioned in Business Planning a…