Get to know the Inspire teamAdam Majumdar
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a proud Glaswegian. Born and raised in Lanark and schooled in Hamilton. I had a great time at school and ended up studying Law, which is probably the subject kids do when undecided on what to do when they grow up - if we ever grow up!
In saying that, I had a fantastic experience at Dundee University studying for an LLB. Dundee has consistently placed highly in the law school rankings and it was a great place to study. After the undergraduate course, I undertook a diploma in legal practice at the University of Law (York) and from there I finalised my training in-house to become a fully qualified solicitor.
After “lawyering” for some time, I wanted to shift paths. I was becoming more interested in commercial and business aspects of deals (not just the Is and Ts) and was reading more about Big Tech, start-ups, venture capital and accelerators in America which further piqued my interest in the whole start-up scene. When the opportunity came to join The Data Lab, I took it. The Data Lab was in its start-up phase at the time and was a good transition from a big American corporate, where I worked at the time. The Data Lab also provided me with my first experience of connecting academia with industry. I had the opportunity to work with some great people, including Strathclyde’s Chief Commercial Officer, Gillian Doherty, and started to learn more about how the academic world works.
After my stint at The Data Lab, I worked at the University of Glasgow in a commercialisation role. Here, I found my sweet spot at the intersection between academia and the commercial world. Whilst at Glasgow, I came into contact with cutting-edge research and was involved in many commercial projects, including my first spin-out called Vector Photonics Ltd.
While working across the city, I was well aware of Strathclyde’s stellar reputation for commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. When the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to join in February 2020. Since then, I have been working with departments in the Faculty of Engineering and Physics to commercialise the ground-breaking research emanating from the academics here. I have been fortunate so far to have been the commercialisation lead in spinning out two companies, Lupovis and Microplate DX. There is much more to come, and I look forward to the journey ahead.
What is your role at the University of Strathclyde and what are your main responsibilities?
In the broadest terms, the team I work in is responsible for identifying, protecting, and commercialising University-owned intellectual property, typically from staff. This involves supporting individuals and teams through our stage-gated process for commercialisation and concluding with licensing IP to companies and setting up new spin-out companies.
My role begins with identifying new research/technology with commercial potential. Firstly, I get a level of understanding of the research/technology before moving onto validating the commercial opportunity. The conclusion of my role is finalising the commercial agreements.
Specific activities include advising on intellectual property, working to connect the team to commercial individuals and investors, writing papers and presentations for the stage gate process or external commercial funding. At the end of the process, my role is to lead the negotiation of the terms for spinning out a company or if a licence, negotiating the terms of the licensing agreement.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I am fortunate throughout my career to work with leaders and managers of real skill, expertise and, crucially, interpersonal “soft” skills. I have tried to incorporate aspects of their approach into my own, whilst still finding my way of doing things.
One piece of advice I have been given, although in this case it was the advice of my parents, is to be a good listener and to make the person you are talking with feel like they have your full attention. This advice applies to all aspects of life and is particularly applicable when trying to build trust and confidence with academics who are attempting to commercialise their research.
Why should University staff, students and alumni work with the team at Strathclyde Inspire?
We have a great set of individuals and collective teams in Strathclyde Inspire and I would encourage all the Strathclyde community to get in touch and talk to us.
The team I work in focuses on supporting academic staff in fulfilling their entrepreneurial and commercial ambitions. In my view, Strathclyde has an industry-leading platform to accelerate the commercialisation of research called the “Stage-Gated Process”. This is a real enabler for academic entrepreneurs as it provides a transparent and clear pathway to unlock a range of support including funding, resource, and expertise to turbocharge the time from the lab to market.
Again, in my view, Strathclyde is the perfect place to be commercialising research as it’s a key priority area for the University and has a great Inspire team to support it with a sector-leading platform to build on.
Finally, you have to sing karaoke - what song do you pick any why?
I need to tread carefully here in case I am ever asked to get up and sing at the next work event!
I love listening to a lot of music and do occasionally sign, but in the privacy of my own home! I subject my daughter to renditions of Lou Rawls “You’ll Never Find”! In that spirit, if I had to sing karaoke, then my go-to would be a song from the soul and funk era of the 70s, which in my opinion is a golden musical period.