The project is a joint initiative between five leading Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and four global enterprises to support and strengthen the innovation mindset in postdoctoral researchers and encourage not just entrepreneurial activities but a broad approach to any endeavor both in and outside academia.
Setting up a structured sustainable pathway, starting with basics, will enhance career support, stimulate interactions between postdocs and enterprises, encourage and promote self-development, and empower postdocs to better exploit their knowledge and skills. This will enable postdocs to contribute more fully and take better advantage of opportunities across different global sectors (industry, public sector, third sector etc.). It will simultaneously assist enterprises and HEIs to innovate, grow and engage with a new generation of skilled and innovative thinkers who view impact as key to their work.
The initiative provides a shared model of leadership learning between the academic and industry partners, which will become embedded in HEI development training and include delivery by industry partners. This will be achieved by creating a cost-effective cross-disciplinary programme focusing on necessary skills, innovator mindset behaviours, networking and self-awareness.
Tom Simmons, ex-president of EPOC, describes his journey from the postdoc life to becoming the CEO of his company.
Lessons learned as I moved from Cambridge Fellow to Y-Combinator start-up CEO