Thierry Heles looks ahead at what 2018 has in store in the January issue's editorial.
If the past 12 months are anything to go by, university venturing is on an upwards trajectory – in fact, as Global University Venturing found in its annual data analysis, the number of investments tracked in 2017 equalled the height of 2014 for the first time with 480, up significantly from the 377 investments reported on in 2016.
This is partially due to many corporate venture capital units around the world coming to understand the value of university technology transfer – one of the driving forces behind Mawsonia’s decision a few years ago to merge its annual Global Corporate Venturing Symposium in London with the Global University Venturing Summit (renamed to GUV:Fusion as a result).
This integration was increased further in 2017, when the GUV Awards for the first time took over the Gala Dinner at the symposium – with memorable highlights such as Tony Raven, chief executive of Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of University of Cambridge, receiving a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award to thunderous applause from hundreds of delegates.
In 2018, we will strive to blend the corporate and university venturing worlds further – beginning with the first University of California Entrepreneur Campaign Showcase at the Global Corporate Venturing and Innovation (GCVI) Summit in California at the end of this month – set to attract 600 delegates from the triple helix.
Indeed, the Global Government Venturing Summit will take place in parallel at the same venue as the GCVI Summit – helping governments to also gain a better insight into university innovation and helping them understand the needs of both university and corporate venturing.
At the aforementioned GCV Symposium in London in May, too, we will accelerate the meshing of university and corporate venturing, with an increased number of panels that cross over between the two worlds, rather than running the two events in parallel. We are currently in the very early stages of identifying and contacting keynote speakers and panellists – if you want to add to the conversation and join us on stage, please do not hesitate to contact me, Thierry Heles, at theles@globaluniversityventuring.com.
Global University Venturing has other events and projects in the pipeline, too, though we are not ready to unveil those quite yet – rest assured, it will be worth the wait and you will be the first to know. In the meantime, of course, Global University Venturing will continue to report daily on news from the university venturing ecosystem and publish compelling guest comments, in-depth analyses and interviews with leading figures.
Thank you to every subscriber who has supported us throughout 2017 – Global University Venturing is truly humbled by the significant rise in readership over the past year. The entire team wishes you a prosperous new year and hopes you will continue with us on this journey. Here’s to 2018.