The IBME will serve the entire UCL Partners community, academics and clinicians alike, with a particular emphasis on promoting translational R&D activities. This focus is chosen deliberately to capitalise and build on the current position:
- UCL academics and clinicians have considerable expertise in R&D, but much less so in the translation of the outcomes of that R&D. By focusing on the part they do less well – the enterprise component – and by offering practical and appropriate advice and support, the IBME can offer staff real added value in return for their participation in the IBME.
- UCL Business rightly focuses on the best-of-the-best commercialisation and exploitation opportunities across the whole of the UCL estate, and does not have the bandwidth to deal with grass-roots activities. By using the IBME, with its focus on drawing together the academic, clinical and enterprise elements from very early stages, to develop and road- test venture propositions well before they come under the UCLB jurisdiction, a complementary and mutually supportive partnership will be forged.
- UCL is in the process of adopting a new policy aimed at establishing itself as a global leader in enterprise and innovation, including elements of support for student and staff entrepreneurship, such as education and training. The IBME mission fits very closely into this framework.