Postdoctoral Research Associate, Academic-Industry Engagement, Science Commercialisation

The Role

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support a research project exploring academic-industry engagement, science commercialisation, and the development of university-centred entrepreneurial ecosystems. Universities have become increasingly focused on commercialising their knowledge, engaging with industrial partners such as small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and diversifying income streams. At the same time, resource constrained SMEs have realised the opportunities afforded to them in mobilising resources and scaling their ventures by engaging with universities. It is these entrepreneurial/commercial activities at the university-industry (U-I) boundary that support the emergence and development of university-centred entrepreneurial ecosystems (UCEEs). However, whilst academics are encouraged to behave entrepreneurially, this poses several challenges. Likewise, despite industry partners having much to gain from engaging with university academics, they too face challenges in doing so. Unfortunately, despite a broad and emerging literature in the academic entrepreneurship field, our understanding of the processes, particularly at the micro-level, underlying U-I engagement, science commercialisation, and UCEEs remains limited. Accordingly, this research project will investigate U-I engagement activities and science commercialisation at the U-I boundary, and how these activities contribute to UCEE dynamics.

The successful applicant will work alongside the project Principal Investigator (PI), Associate Professor David Johnson. The wider project team includes Co-PIs - Associate Professor Jeffrey Hughes, Professor Andrew Parker, and Professor Karena Yan) - and an industrial partner. The role is funded by Durham University Business School's Smart & Scale initiative, which is an interdisciplinary impact-driven research programme in smart and scale-up activities, focusing on innovation and business development of SMEs in the North-East of England.