Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator’s Post

Cambridge : The Home of the Firsts! There is something unique about the University of Cambridge ecosystem that makes it one of the best innovation hubs in the world. Cambridge has produced stalwarts, Nobel laureates and best unicorns in the world. What is it that makes the duo- Cambridge and Oxford the best ? It’s the culture of freedom- yes freedom in university policies to promote academic commercialisation, freedom to express, freedom to innovate and the building blocks to be either a world-class scientist or an entrepreneur. The barrier to entry itself is high and that makes it unique because some of the best minds globally are present in the ecosystem. Cambridge is a 1 hr train ride from the heart of London and ( not the most accessible): yet one of the most sought after universities! It’s a world- on its own and yet inter-connected with the industries, other cities and global talent pool. Had the honour to visit Cambridge Enterprise that has all the ingredients to help promote #academicentrepreneurship! Its track record of more than 10 #unicorn spin-offs in a span of a decade is most amazing! At a time when nations across the world are trying to maximise value for R&D, Cambridge is way ahead of its peers. It has the advantage of being one of the oldest but the enterprise division is pretty young but commercially billions of dollars contributed by its startups. Delighted to have met some bright minds at Cambridge and interacting with Prof Sir Borys, Former Vice Chancellor revealed some interesting facts about #entrepreneurship. Cambridge has a strong Entreprenurship society and the Post-doctoral fellows ( after PhD) work on a purposeful startup mission. There is also a fellowship to promote such post-docs. Almost all the soon-offs are well funded by an outside investor and backed by the University. Whatever profits accrued from the spin-offs go back to the enterprise from the University and this is how the culture of innovation and academic entrepreneurship is encouraged. The costs of managing the IPR are borne by the University but IPR is owned by the startups ( not licensed). Where there is a will, there is a way! Singapore has all the ingredients to be the Cambridge of Asia in academic Entreprenurship and promoting spin-offs; it has access to capital to make it happen and also a proactive government policies to Promote commercialisation! We have to pursue high-quality science and keep attracting global talent to produce world-class startups; with the right amount of risk-taking ability, it’s not far to have the next big biotech startup from Asia, hopefully Singapore! Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator | Nanyang Technological University Singapore | NTUitive | SGInnovate | NUS Enterprise | A*STAR - Agency for Science, Technology and Research