The Academic Adventures Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Polly is Chair of Converge and the Digital Xtra Fund as well as being a board member of Edinburgh Science. This follows a long career in banking, economic development and digital technology. Polly has an honorary doctorate from the University of Abertay and an OBE for services to industry.

Polly and Sarah discuss:

• Why she has always enjoyed working at the leading edge of innovation
• The challenges universities and academics face when commercialising research
• How Converge supports academic entrepreneurs across all of Scotland’s universities
• What Scotland might learn from looking to other countries

 Connect with Polly on LinkedIn or BlueSky

Visit the Converge website 

See the comparison of European universities DeepTech spinout value that Polly mentions.

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

Mark Zwinderman is a strategic advisor who specialises in helping high-growth technology companies. He is CEO of SAS Environmental Services (which started as a university spinout), runs the Moonshot Factory programme at the Higgs Centre for Innovation and is a commercial champion at the University of Strathclyde. 

Mark shares his thoughts on:

• Why people and business culture matter more than the technology or product
• Longer-term support and mentoring for founders
• Where Scotland currently excels, but could do even better with bolder and more ambitious strategies 
• How to recruit and better support more commercial champions

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn

Visit the Moonshot Factory website 

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

John Storm is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen Business School, as well as being an independent consultant. He lived and worked in China for 10 years and continues to work with companies all over the world.

John shares how he uses this business experience to support the next generation of entrepreneurs including:

• Why he often relates more to his students than his academic colleagues
• Finding the synergies between his teaching and business roles
• How bankruptcy taught him the importance of trust and integrity
• That success means being able to say no
• The importance of relationships and reputation for entrepreneurs

Find out more about John’s work

• Connect with John on LinkedIn
• Read about some of his different ventures

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Catriona Liddle is Head of the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Before this Catriona spent over 20 years as a product developer in the food industry. 

In this episode Catriona shares the journey to developing palm oil substitute Palm-Alt and what she has learned about collaborations between academia and industry including:

• The challenges of industry collaboration during COVID
• Why she cares more about the research process than commercialisation
• Playing to her strengths and getting support for her weaknesses
• Supporting the next generation of food and drink innovators via the THRIVE Programme

Find out more about Catriona’s work

• Connect with Catriona on LinkedIn
• The Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation
• The Palm-Alt project
• The THRIVE Programme for food and drink entrepreneurs

 Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Professor Andy Porter is a part-time academic and director of the Scottish Biologics Facility at the University of Aberdeen. He also holds exec and non-exec positions in several life science and drinks businesses in Scotland.

In this episode Andy shares the highs and lows of 20 years in academic entrepreneurship from his first big venture Haptogen to the portfolio career he has today, including:

• Why his first business venture was more about preventing brain drain than making money
• How a Royal Society of Edinburgh Commercialisation Fellowship changed his life
• The experiences and failures that have made him more calm in a crisis
• Why he still finds emerging science more exciting than anything else

Find out about Andy’s various academic and business ventures -

· Scottish Biologics Facility at the University of Aberdeen
· Therapeutic drugs company Elasmogen
· Diagnostics company Microplate Dx
· Microbiology company NCIMB
· Cultivated meat company Roslin Technologies
· Aberdeen cocktail bar Orchid
· Porter’s Gin distillery
· Cocktail retailer White Box

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn.

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Dr Genevieve Patenaude is an environmental scientist (formerly University of Edinburgh) and CEO of environmental mapping company Earth Blox. 

In this episode Genevieve shares how she evolved from academic to entrepreneur and what she has learned along the way including: 

• Why she always wanted to be an entrepreneur and why Earth Blox was the right business at the right time
• The importance building an agile team that can learn fast, fail fast and pivot
• Surrounding herself with experts and taking advantage of all the support on offer 
• Creating a workplace culture that embraces family and flexibility 

Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn
Find out about Earth Blox
Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. It was funded by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Dr Marc Reid is a chemist, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, podcast host and author based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

In this episode Marc shares the story of his first business venture, Pre-Site Safety, and what he learned from it including:

• The deeply personal mission behind Pre-Site Safety and why he is ultimately grateful that it didn’t work out
• How important conversations and customers are to a budding venture
• Why you’ll never be able to map the road ahead unless you take that first step

Connect with Marc on LinkedIn, X or visit his website.
Find out about Marc’s latest venture Kineticolor
Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn 

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky and is proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

This podcast is all about people who have embraced the opportunity to combine their academic work with entrepreneurial ventures.

This is a short introduction to the series. It includes a taster of some of the upcoming interviews, the story and the people behind the podcast, who we hope will listen and what we hope they will get out of it.

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn.

[This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. It was funded by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.]

Diana Gormley is the Founder of business consulting firm Danu Solutions Ltd, as well as being an Entrepreneur in Residence at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

Diana explains why she wants to break down barriers and get more people involved in entrepreneurship including:

• The Women in Business course that helped her transition from engineering to running her own company
• Making entrepreneurial concepts and language accessible and relevant 
• How universities can make good use of their Entrepreneurs in Residence
• Why she thinks university staff need more access to support and opportunities

Connect with Diana on LinkedIn or via email

Find out more about Danu Solutions Ltd

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

Christopher Leburn is the Technology Exploitation Director for the Photonics & Quantum Accelerator (PQA) programme based at the University of Strathclyde, but working across Scotland’s central belt. He focuses on supporting and mentoring academics to boost research commercialisation.

Christopher shares his vision for filling the spin-out pipeline with exciting opportunities including:

• Why Scotland’s central belt is perfectly placed to translate more photonics research into innovation
• Getting academics to think more like entrepreneurs
• How he champions great ideas and helps to smooth the path to commercialisation
• Joining the dots from research to real jobs through place-based partnerships 

 Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn or X

Visit the Photonics & Quantum Accelerator website and follow the programme on LinkedIn or X @PhotonicsQA

 Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.