NIPC News

John Napier   Jane Lambert As I said in St Andrews Innovation Week , there has been   innovation in St Andrews since the 16th century at least.  John Napier, one of our alumni, invented a precursor of the slide rule and compiled the first logarithms.   Innovation continues at the Eden Campus  which I visited on 15 April 2025 and described in St Andrews Innovation   the very next day. Some of St Andrews Innovation's activities take place online and are available to the public.   Among the most useful are the Lunch & Learn Masterclasses  on YouTube.  These are a series of presentations that have been recorded and posted to YouTube.  The topics are as follows: Lunch and Learn: Pitching Masterclass   Lunch & Learn Entrepreneurship in the Creative Arts   Lunch and Learn: Turn Expertise Into Income Through Consultancy   Lunch & Learn: What is Bootstrap Financing?    Lunch & Learn: Demyst...

Napier's Bones Author Kim Traynor   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert I introduced St Andrews Innovation  in my article on Connect-Ed Network Meet Up on "Engaging and Supporting Female Founders" in the Cathedral Room at Walter Bower House on St Andrews's new Eden Campus , which I attended on 15 April 2025. The object in the photo is a calculation aid called "Napier's bones."   The name Napier refers to its inventor, John Napier , who studied at St Andrews around 1563. Napier's bones show that St Andrews's academics, graduates and students have been innovating for a very long time.  At the beginning of the academic year, they celebrate their creativity, collaboration and forward-thinking entrepreneurship with an Innovation Week consisting of talks, workshops and networking opportunities. This year's Innobation Week takes place between 6 and 10 Oct 2025.   Here are some of the events: 6 Oct 13:00 - 15:00...

Eden Estuary and Former Paper Mill Author Jim Bain   Licence  CC BY-SA 2. 0  Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert It has been years since I graduated from St Andrews, but the University is still capable of teaching me something new and useful.  Yesterday, I learned a lot about enterprise, innovation and inclusion at a Connect-Ed Network Meet Up on Engaging and Supporting Female Founder s in the Cathedral Room at Walter Bower House on St Andrews's new Eden Campus . The meet-up began with a buffet lunch at 13:00.  I got to meet the Chair, Bonnie Hacking . Programme Manager, Entrepreneurship Centre, two of the speakers, Niki McKenzie , Joint Managing Director at Archangel Investors Limited , and product designer,  Kat Pohorecka , who is also an associate at Edinburgh Innovations , and many of the attendees, before the formal proceedings.  The third speaker was a remarkable recent graduate called  Simone Korsgaard Jensen ,...

Author Stephen Sweene y Licence CC NY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Yesterday I attended a talk by Andrew Cla y, a partner of Sonder & Clay and founder of TIPSY , entitled  ‘IP Rights – a good thing or a capitalist attack on the intellectual commons?’  in the new seminar room of the Department of Medieval History at St Andrews.  I was there for two reasons.  The first was to support Andrew (having badgered him for some time to give this talk) and the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research  and the University of St Andrews Law Society , which hosted it.  The second reason was that I could combine attendance at Andrew's talk with a visit to the U niversity of St Andrews's Eden Campus , which will host an Engaging and Supporting Female Founders: Connect-Ed Network Meet Up .  this afternoon. Andrew began his talk by explaining how and why he became a solicitor. He then projected a picture of Jam...

St Salvator's College Author Andy Hawkins   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Although St Andrews lost its law school in 1967 when Queen's College became the University of Dundee, St Andrews graduates continued to enter the legal professions of all parts of the United Kingdom and many other countries.  Their entry into the law is eased by the University of St Andrews Law Society  a student organization supported by Herbert Smith Freehills  and other leading law firms .  The Society holds activities that prepare students for law school and a career in the law including moots, talks and workshops.   I was invited to return to St Andrews on Monday 4 Nov 2024, to judge a mooting competition.  I sat with Mike Gettinby  Chief Legal Officer at the University of St Andrews and  Paulina Kachalova , Mistress of the Moots, to judge one contest and with Callum Friel , Master of the Moots, to judge the...

St Salvator's College, St Andrews © 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert:  All rights reserved:   Jane Lambert It is often forgotten that law was once taught at St Andrews though not always in the town itself. St Andrews lost its law school in 1967 when Queen's College in Dundee became a separate university. Many St Andreans continued to make their way to the law after 1967 but they obtained their legal education elsewhere. In 2015. an Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research was established at St Andrews.  According to its website, it is "the home of outstanding cross-disciplinary research in the fields of law, legal history and constitutionalism."  The Institute's website also states that the University is home to a vibrant student law society .  I visited that society's website and noticed that its  partners included several leading law firms but no English or Welsh chambers or Scottish stables.  Curious as to why that should be, I contacted the soci...