Pictured: BioEntrepreneur Boot Camp Co-ordinator Dr Nick
Gostick (far right) with Dr Lloyd Hamilton, University of
Nottingham (2nd right) and participants at the Bangalore Boot
Camp
Fast on the heels of the announcement of the creation of BioCity
Scotland, further evidence of BioCity's widening geographical reach
has been provided by the recent staging of a BioEntrepreneur Boot
Camp in Bangalore, India between 11th to 13th January.
Annual 'Boot Camps', where bioscience researchers and academics
explore the world of enterprise and entrepreneurialism with a view
to starting their own ventures, have long been a successful feature
at BioCity Nottingham and the same approach has now been taken to
Bangalore.
BioCity Nottingham ran the event with the Centre for Cellular
and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bangalore which is a local
enabler of success in bioscience research and entrepreneurship.
Other partners were the University of Nottingham, the Indian
Institute of Management Bangalore and the Indian Institute of
Technology Kanpur.
Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed is Director of Strategic Alliances and
Business Development for the Indian hosts, C-CAMP. He says, "We
have really enjoyed working with BioCity Nottingham on this
project. They bring exciting ideas on how to communicate the skills
needed to run a commercial company to people who are more used to a
research or academic background. The delegates found the experience
both stimulating and challenging. We are hopeful that many of them
will take their ideas forward to the Bio Business Plan competition
which is part of the BioPharm 2020 event, a major UK and India
Science Bridge that the University of Nottingham and C-CAMP are
helping stage in Bangalore in March."
Dr Nick Gostick, who led the boot camp for BioCity says, "The
fundamentals of a BioEntrepreneur Boot Camp in Bangalore are very
much the same as in Nottingham, as the skills and core knowledge
required for establishing a business are universal. The 27
delegates were taken through the fundamentals of intellectual
property, the regulatory environment that applies in India and
crucially, what it is that makes a good entrepreneur. Creation of a
business plan and the role of finance and marketing were also
covered in the three days which ended by giving the delegates the
opportunity to pitch their business idea in a 'friendly' Dragons
Den environment."
Professor Kevin Shakesheff, who heads the University of
Nottingham Science Bridge with India said "I'm delighted that the
University's long standing bridge with India has created an
opportunity for BioCity to promote the East Midlands and the UK.
The UK can prosper economically and scientifically from close links
with India. There are many synergies in pharmaceutical research
across the 2 countries and the UK is an excellent location for
Indian companies to launch products into the EU."
The Indian Boot Camp is the first which has been run in Asia and
it is hoped that there will be a spreading network of such camps. A
similar Boot Camp is to be run at the new BioCity Scotland site in
April.
BioCity Nottingham Director Toby Reid says, "Supporting
researchers and academics to make the leap from the laboratory to
running a thriving business is the core of what we do here at
BioCity. The business world is global and if, by sharing our
expertise, we can build links with growing bioscience businesses
across the world, that can only be good for the businesses in our
incubator here in Nottingham and therefore for the East Midlands
BioScience sector as a whole."