Wilkinson takes up TenU presidency

TenU, the collaboration of 10 tech transfer offices across the US and Europe, has named Andrew Wilkinson as its new president to replace Anne Lane.

Wilkinson is the chief executive of University of Manchester Innovation Factory, the institution’s commercialisation arm and one of TenU’s members. Lane is the chief executive of UCLB, the tech transfer office of University of College and another TenU member. She is also the most recent GUV Lifetime Achievement awardee.

The organisation also includes the tech transfer offices of the universities of Cambridge, Columbia, Edinburgh, Stanford and Oxford as well as those of Imperial College London, KU Leuven and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

TenU’s mission is to share best practices in university research commercialisation, working closely with governments, investors and licensees. GUV previously partnered with TenU on a series of panels, published exclusively on our podcast across three episodes: celebrating innovation, building ecosystems and developing future leaders.

Wilkinson and Lane took part in these panels, while Lane has also separately been a guest on Talking Tech Transfer.

Wilkinson said: “I am very excited about taking over the presidency and building on the fantastic work done by Anne and our other TenU colleagues.

“TenU provides an invaluable informal platform to understand how national governments, investors and the universities can collaborate together more effectively to ensure that the fantastic research from our world-leading institutions can create positive social, economic, and environmental impact.

“Having members from the UK, the US and mainland Europe enables us to identify the differences and similarities between the approaches we all take to IP commercialisation and dispel some of the misunderstandings about the way things are done and challenges in different geographies.“

Lane commented: “Research commercialisation and knowledge transfer has an enormous role to play in answering the most significant global challenges we all share, like climate change and improving our healthcare.

“TenU’s members, across the UK, EU and USA, have a shared opportunity to do this in a way that creates growth and prosperity by offering best-in-class support to outstanding researchers. During my presidency, I have been proud to see this forum go from strength to strength, and I know Andrew will continue to build on its value as its new president.”