The University of Leicester is a leading UK

university committed to international excellence

through the creation of world changing research
and high quality, inspirational teaching within
an inclusive academic culture.
Enterprise Strategy to
2015
www.le.ac.uk
The Enterprising University
2 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
Vision
Our over-riding vision is to be recognised as one of the leading UK universities for innovation and
enterprise development and supportive enterprise culture. Enhancing our reputation and progressing key
performance metrics will be central to realising this vision.
Enterprise at Leicester
We take a wide-ranging holistic approach in dening
enterprise at Leicester. To us, enterprise covers our
portfolio of outward facing activities that draw on and, in
turn, enrich our core mission of research and teaching.
While some of these activities generate income (especially those audited under
the Higher Education Innovation Fund HEIF), there are a number of
knowledge exchange activities that do not yield direct economic returns but are
nevertheless as critical, helping to develop relationships and deliver sustainable
benets to the wider society what might be termed social enterprise.
Consequently, enterprise activities are diverse, ranging from knowledge
exchange, knowledge transfer and the commercialisation of research, to skills
enhancement and community engagement more broadly. These varied strands
are linked in their ability to catalyse the ows of knowledge between the
university, businesses, society and policy makers.
Enterprise at the University of Leicester capitalises on both our high quality,
world-changing research and inspirational learning and teaching, in order
to deliver economic and social benets to our graduates, the University, our
external partners and beyond. Equally, it not only draws upon our research and
teaching, but also serves to support them through the generation of important
new streams of research funding and by improving the employability of
graduates. Thus, the impact of enterprise activities is circular and reciprocal.
In recent years, the importance of enterprise and innovation has signicantly
increased internally, with growing acknowledgement of the pivotal role it plays
in legitimising and growing higher education, and delivering impact. External
drivers, such as the Research Excellence Framework, have equally added
impetus to our efforts to reap greater benets from our knowledge exchange and
enterprise activities.
Leicesters unique combination of excellence with accessibility and respect
for individual endeavour has gained it widespread recognition, nationally
and internationally. A key element of our strategy is the development and
sustainability of an internal culture that encourages, supports and builds
Leicesters unique combination of
excellence with accessibility and
respect for individual endeavour has
gained it widespread recognition,
nationally and internationally.

UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 3

Professor Sir Robert Burgess
Vice-Chancellor
The External Environment
Enterprise is outward looking, and depends on strong reciprocal relationships,
so the external environment, at local, regional, national and international levels,
is vital. The national level is the most important, with the Higher Education
Funding Council for England (HEFCE) systems and funding (HEIF and
HEBCIS the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction
Survey) now a key feature in our environment. The increasing strength of
the Technology Strategy Board and the developing enterprise agenda of the
Research Councils are also important trends. The Impact element of the
Research Excellence Framework is an important inuence on all our research
departments and the European Union, and its alignment with national
agendas, as a source of support, is of increasing importance. The new Horizon
2020, replacing Framework 7, will be larger and more targeted, with a strong
emphasis on R&D as a driver for economic success and job creation. It is
important that we are responsive to these changes and work positively and
constructively in collaboration to take full advantage of new opportunities as
they emerge, and where possible, help inform strategic thinking and direction.
further the capacity for our staff and students to be entrepreneurial and innovative
in a variety of contexts. Indeed, our ability to nurture and develop such a culture
underpins the very success of our enterprise strategy. Essential to its success is
staff commitment to take forward the enterprise agenda. We also have a moral
responsibility to prepare our students effectively by instilling a spirit of enterprise
and related key competencies to enhance their entrepreneurship skills and
employability.
Enterprise at the University of Leicester capitalises on both our high quality, world-changing research and
inspirational learning and teaching, in order to deliver economic and social benets to our graduates, the University,
our external partners and beyond.

Professor Sir Robert Burgess meets with Professor Andy Abbott

who is involved in a joint venture company (Scionix Ltd.)
between the Department of Chemistry and Genacys Ltd. p
4 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
This three-year strategy thus has the following key
objectives:
1. Firmly establish ourselves as one of the leading UK universities in
enterprise and innovation within a supportive enterprise culture.
This will match our position as a leader in teaching and research;
2. Create a culture in which staff and students understand and actively
embrace enterprise in the broadest sense;
3. Build and enhance strategic and delivery relationships with other
leading universities, industry and public sector organisations,
including governmental agencies and other stakeholders, to generate
income and create collaborative long term partnerships;
4. Fully harness the potential of knowledge transfer (KT) and
knowledge exchange (KE) to maximise the social, cultural and
economic impact of our world-class research;
5. Continue to grow enterprise awareness and competencies in our
student community to enhance its entrepreneurship skills and
employability;
6. Enhance the skills and capabilities of our partners through provision
of accessible and excellent continuing professional development
training for business, responding to regional demands and aligning
our provision to developing workforce needs;
7. Effectively promote our achievements and capabilities in enterprise
to enhance our reputation as a centre of innovation and excellence
and a trusted part of the local, regional, national and international
landscapes.
Our Strategy
It is within this context that we develop and nesse our enterprise strategy. Through this strategy, we seek
to consolidate our efforts so far, provide a clear focus for the future, and rmly embed an enterprising
culture amongst our staff and student community so as to maximise our potential to exploit emerging
opportunities in the new landscape.
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 5
On the major measures of excellence in
teaching and research, Leicester is clearly
one of the top twenty universities in the
UK. This is a position that the University
intends to maintain and improve upon.
We now aspire to be equally excellent
at enterprise. We have identied some
challenging initial goals, and some metrics
against which achievement and progress can
be measured. An important task will be to
agree across the University on the aspects
of enterprise on which we can and will
become excellent. Obviously, the guidance
of local, regional, national and international
stakeholders will strongly inuence the
direction we choose to take.
Building long-term infrastructure on the
basis of our current strengths will be the
greatest priority. We have great strengths in
a number of areas, including space research,
medicine and bio-informatics, and further
growth in these will bring disproportionate
benets. We also need to build the physical
infrastructure of enterprise, potentially
through an innovation centre, a business
germinator and a science park, and we aim
to assist in the planning, to encourage their
nal implementation. Finally we must
develop our enterprise personnel, in the
Colleges and centrally in the Enterprise and
Business Development Ofce. While not
ignoring shorter-term opportunities, it is
persistence in growing these major strengths
that will bring the greatest benets.
Firmly establish ourselves as one of the leading UK universities in
enterprise and innovation within a supportive enterprise culture. This
will match our position as a leader in teaching and research.
1
In this document, we set out in detail our ambitions and plans against each of our objectives
David Simms (Leicester Mercury Business Section) speaking
at a recent Enterprise and Business Development Innovation
Partnerships Showcase event. u
6 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
Integral to the outward-facing ambitions of this strategy is the infusion of an
enterprising culture within the University a culture that builds capacity and
supports researchers to actively assess opportunities for the commercial and social
applications of knowledge, and to engage more broadly with the public. To draw the
most out of our high-impact research, enterprise must establish a higher prole and
greater visibility internally, and staff members need to be supported with practical
advice and guidance, as well as reward and recognition.
In recent years the University has moved towards a more devolved academic structure,
with the new college structure creating greater opportunities for interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary research and teaching. Academics have further been encouraged to
organise into research themes to strengthen cohesion and build critical mass in areas
of particular strength. Such cross-cutting themes encourage the interdisciplinary
working that our public and private sector partners so value. The Enterprise and
Business Development Ofce have responded by aligning enterprise professionals
closely with the college structure in order to be more responsive to emerging needs,
respecting the diversity of requirements while playing a key role in developing and
promoting wider collaborations and innovative ways of working.
A number of recent efforts have yielded promising results. For instance, an increase
in the return of consultancy revenue to academics resulted in a signicant increase
in consultancy activity. Enterprise activity is to be a criterion to be recognised by
promotion panels, alongside research and teaching. We will improve communication
to staff of the recognition and compensation opportunities available to enterprising
staff. We will also step up our awareness-raising and training efforts to bring to staff
a avour of what being enterprising looks like in different contexts and disciplines,
and develop skills, capabilities and capacities in line with requirements.
While the enterprise agenda has steadily gained more ground with the academic
and support community at Leicester, there is still work to be done to embed it in
the thinking and culture of this University. The following potential activities would
contribute towards this:
Raise the prole of enterprise by holding enterprise events, drawing on current
partners and stakeholders, and opening the doors more widely to targeted
potential partners and collaborators;
Showcase successful enterprise activities and enterprising individuals so staff and
students have a clearer idea of what can be achieved. This will be done through
production and dissemination of case histories, demonstrations, awards and
events;
Create a culture in which staff and students understand and actively
embrace enterprise in the broadest sense.
2
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 7
The University helped Jim Willis, Bulb MD, Bulb Studios
develop the mobile app CrowdLab. t
The Universitys archaeology unit, ULAS, at work. t
Acknowledge, celebrate and reward
success in enterprise through
amending promotions criteria, and
offering more staff incentive schemes;
Wherever possible, align enterprise
activities so they contribute to
and enhance the impact plans of
academics and units of assessment in
the Research Excellence Framework
exercise;
Create incentives for academics to
collaborate in research with other
research establishments as well
as industry, including academic
secondments into industry;
Build capacity so that staff and
students have the opportunity to
engage with enterprise through
activities designed to create, add
value and promote innovation;
Create opportunities for students to
learn about business and enterprise,
and improve their employability;
Develop a pool of enterprise mentors
specialising in particular areas (spin-
outs, consultancy, the myriad forms
of knowledge exchange, knowledge
transfer, public engagement etc.).
Experts in these areas can be hard to
nd, so our initial target is a panel of
20 who are capable and enthusiastic
to help.
The University of Leicester is a world leader in research
to safeguard bananas one of the most important crops
in the developing world from an army of deadly
viruses, bacteria, insects and fungi. Professor Heslop-
Harrison works closely with the Global Musa Genomics
Consortium (GMGC) and receives regular funding from
various international agencies. u
8 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
Build and enhance strategic and delivery relationships with other
leading universities, industry and public sector organisations, including
governmental agencies and other stakeholders, to generate income and
create collaborative long term partnerships.
As a part publicly-funded university, we have a responsibility to make our research,
expertise and facilities available to business and external organisations. Our priority
here is to move from transactional to more strategic, well-embedded relationships
that are closely aligned with our research strengths and values. These relationships
will draw on the strengths of the different colleges and the different thematic research
groupings. However, we recognise the challenge this poses in the current economic
environment, and our aim will be to put in place extra resources to better manage and
negotiate these partnerships.
We are building a portfolio of industry partners across the range of our research
strengths. To further consolidate and grow our successful partnerships, the University
needs to be engaged with and recognised, validated and championed by critical
organisations and partners including the UK government, the Technology Strategy
Board, regional and national industry trade bodies, respected multinational businesses,
UK Trade and Investment, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and
Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Ongoing projects such as Innovation Partnerships have shown how modest levels
of investment and incentives can engage both academics and ambitious Small to
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to work together for mutual benet while growing
strategic partners of the future. We will continue to support existing and develop
new SME engagement schemes and explore new routes to reach this customer base
(e.g. through business intermediaries and social media). Even more importantly,
as a leading national university, rather than just a regional or local player, we place
great emphasis on developing our relationships with major international companies,
especially in the pharmaceutical, aerospace and IT sectors.
Services to external organisations full a valuable role in generating income but also
introduce these organisations to our expertise and the value that the University and
its members can deliver. We will continue to grow our established consultancy and
promote our analytical services.
Our priority will be to have a variety of exible and bespoke offerings which may take
multiple forms ranging from student projects and internships, skill development for
employers and research-led activities, all of which will be made available through a
one-stop shop. Key steps which would strengthen our collaborative and partnership
arrangements are:
Identify areas for targeted development through discussion and wide consultation
with internal and external stakeholders, including the potential users and
beneciaries of research;
3
A Scanning Electron Microscopy image of a needle
and thread at x65 magnication.
Peter Bond / Science Photo Library
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 9
Enhance the communication and
promotion of our strengths and
achievements to ensure that areas of
alignment with external partners priorities
are highlighted and opportunities exploited;
Outline the universitys strategic priorities
for partnerships and group membership,
informed by robust information on local,
regional, national and international
activities;
Build a portfolio of strategic partnerships
with a range of ambitious business
enterprises, signicant international
organisations, and other local and global
institutions;
Provide professional support for sustaining
and leading strategic relationships and
alliances with key national and international
partners business and industry, the public
sector, user communities, sponsors of
research and policy-makers;
Play a leading role in dening the contours
of enterprise, knowledge exchange and
economic and social impact agendas, and be
held up as an example of good practice and
a leader of innovation;
Create and maintain accessibility for
businesses, both large and small;
Build on successful projects and initiatives
in consultancy, Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships and Innovation Partnerships
and look to develop other spin-out
company formation where these t with
University expertise or an identied
strategic gap.
The University of Leicester has vast experience in utilising state
of the art instrumentation to develop novel analytical solutions
for a range of sectors including aerospace, automotive, coatings,
construction, conservation, electronics, environment, food,
pharmaceuticals and power. u
As a part publicly-funded university, we have a responsibility to
make our research, expertise and facilities available to business
and external organisations.

Neuroscientists at the University of Leicester, in collaboration with

researchers from Poland and Japan, announced the discovery of a
critical and previously unknown pathway in the brain that is linked
to our response to stress. (An illustration of the structures of the
limbic system of the brain, John Bavosi/Science Photo Library). t
Sam Ogden / Science Photo Library
10 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
Fully harness the potential of knowledge transfer (KT) and knowledge
exchange (KE) to maximise the social, cultural and economic impact of
our world-class research.
Knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer encompass all the myriad ways in
which tangible and intellectual property, expertise, learning and skills are exchanged
and transferred between academia and the non-academic community. It is the
visible evidence of the return on public investment in research, and is recognised
by government and funders as a signicant driving force for enhancing economic
growth and societal well-being. KE and KT work through several channels. The role
of students in the process and the role of collaborative researchers are discussed under
Objectives 3 and 5 respectively. Other key areas include:
Dissemination of research outputs, outreach and more sustained engagement activities
including the co-production of knowledge with critical community and other
partners;
Inuence social or other policy making at a national or international level, through
provision of research results and expertise;
Consultancy, providing expert advice and training to external clients, who range
from small local businesses, household name multinational companies and public
sector bodies;
Licensing of the right to use specic research outputs. Successful and longer-term
licensing arrangements can lead to research collaborations, and we will keep this
objective in mind;
New enterprises: we have a number of successful business-facing activities and
centres including ULAS (University of Leicester Archaeological Services); G-STEP;
Innovation Partnerships; RAFT (Real-time Air Fingerprinting Technology)
Demonstrator and the Space IDEAS Hub. Some of these business enterprises may
have strong social objects, which are as important, or more important, than their
nancial returns.
Spin-outs: We have a growing portfolio of spin-out companies based on IP
generated from our world-class research. We will continue to spin out where
appropriate and actively manage the current portfolio to enhance its value.
To stimulate Leicester academics to engage with business, there is an attractive
compensation scheme in place.
Some of our key priorities under this objective will be to:
Bridge the gap between research/enterprise and the public through effective and
active public engagement, encouraging and supporting dialogue throughout the
4
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 11
research process and ensuring appropriate
public dissemination of the outcomes of
research, via a range of media and through
the use of new technologies;
Establish additional business-facing
knowledge transfer centres/Centres of
Excellence and activities, where these form a
strategic t to University research activities;
Identify, incubate and nurture ideas. To
identify ideas or research nuggets for
commercialisation, engage with academics
in a sustained way, evaluating potential and
exercising due diligence;
Provide practical, timely and active support
to enterprising researchers at an institutional
level, encouraging a culture of open access
and open innovation;
Maintain, communicate and enforce IP
protection policies across the University and
grow our capacity to commercially exploit
new inventions through licensing and
spin-outs;
Establish a proof of concept scheme to
accelerate exploitation opportunities, and
provide incubation and mentoring support
for spin-out businesses. Remove barriers
to progress and provide support to the
administration of new companies;
Maximise the use of enterprise activities
and competencies to build research impact
demonstrations;
Build on expertise from project/research
work in developing countries to identify
those where Leicester can make a real
difference through the transfer of
technologies and/or knowledge.
RAFT are helping companies identify the volatile organic
compounds given off by their products to avoid emission hazards.
The technology can be used to ngerprint anything from
automative emissions to the ripeness of mangos. Dr Robert Blake
ngerprints mangos using a RAFT demonstrator. u
It is the visible evidence of the return on public investment in
research, and is recognised by government and funders as a
signicant driving force for enhancing economic growth and
societal well-being.

12 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015

Continue to grow enterprise awareness and competencies in our
student community to enhance its entrepreneurship skills and
employability.
Student and graduate enterprise is an exciting opportunity that taps the enthusiasm
and creativity of our students/graduates and delivers the skills and characteristics
that employers value, while creating the entrepreneurs of the future. We have a
responsibility to equip our graduates with the capabilities to think innovatively and
apply their knowledge to changing circumstances and environments. The Universitys
Careers Service offers a range of training, mentoring and funded support schemes for
students and recent graduates. Initiatives such as PULSE and Enterprise Inc. support
graduate business creation. A growing number of student enterprise societies provide
a focus for entrepreneurship to ourish, while internship schemes provide valuable
opportunities for work and project management experience. We will build on recent
successes in student enterprise (such as winning the Young Entrepreneur of the Year
at the 2012 Midlands Business Awards) and strive for increased participation and
commercial success amongst our students. We will also seek to provide more links for
students with volunteer mentors from the business community, such as through the
East Midlands Incubation Network (EMIN).
We recognise that not all students will fully engage with entrepreneurial opportunities
but still need the enterprise skills and vocabulary to meet the needs of an increasingly
competitive career market. Our aim is to move enterprise in its various guises more
centrally into our curriculum at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Our overall
priorities under this objective are to:
Resource and grow student and graduate enterprise and business start-ups;
Embed employability and enterprise as a fundamental component of academic
provision at all levels;
Offer opportunities for understanding and developing enterprising skills through
a range of structured and supported opportunities, both within the University and
outside, including placements, internships and volunteering;
Present a single, coherent message about employability and enterprise to staff,
students, parents or guardians, employers and other stakeholders;
Use strong relationships developed with employers through other enterprise
channels to maximise opportunities for graduate employment;
Market staff and student enterprise successes widely.
5
For hard boiled eggs manufacturer Just Egg (Chilled Foods) Ltd, using 1.3m eggs a week meant dumping 480 tonnes of
egg shells a year. Together we are turning this waste into a useful new material and saving the company 30,000 a year. u
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 13
Enhance the skills and capabilities of our partners through provision of
accessible and excellent continuing professional development training
for businesses, responding to regional demands and aligning our
provision to developing workforce needs.
Our focus here will be on developing an
innovative and exible programme of
lifelong learning that offers solutions to
business critical issues, or will be of interest
and benet to our local community and
others. These will include both generic
professional courses, as well as more
sector-specic solutions. High-level skills
development programmes often provide a
good entry point into organisations that
we currently have no engagement with.
New technology is already changing the
landscape for workplace learning and our
prominence in distance learning provides
a major opportunity to benet from the
new paradigm. We will adapt our delivery
of courses to the technological needs of
employers and the lifestyle requirements of
employees to make our business training
accessible to all commercial partners. Our
priorities here will be to:
Develop a coherent programme of
continuing professional development for
our partners in business and industry,
public and voluntary sectors;
Fully exploit new learning technologies
to add value and produce exible
courses fullling the needs of employers
and employees;
Identify opportunities to cross-sell other
enterprise services.
6
CityScans goal is to work towards improving urban
environments by improving the quality of the air we
breathe. The regional funding has enabled the University of
Leicester to promote the technology to numerous potential
partners and customers. u
14 UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015
Effectively promote our achievements and capabilities in enterprise
to enhance our reputation as a centre of innovation and excellence
and a trusted part of the local, regional, national and international
landscapes.
UK universities have an excellent
reputation internationally, but we
believe that the University of Leicesters
enterprise and research capabilities
could be more prominently promoted
to further raise its prole on the
national and international stage.
Enterprise provides a unique and
ongoing opportunity to engage with the
outside world, drawing in new actors
outside our traditional networks. With
this strategy, we aim to put in place a
number of initiatives to actively market
our strengths and successes in order
to raise our prole and ensure that we
are able to inuence and shape policy
development and delivery. Reputation is
a powerful marketing tool to showcase
our breadth of expertise and build
further on our excellence in research,
knowledge transfer and student and
employer satisfaction.
We will shift up a couple of notches in
our communication and promotional
activities. Internally, we will seek greater
coordination between the various
departments and central units delivering
on the enterprise strategy. Externally,
we will develop a customer relations
strategy to more effectively reach out to
potential customers, share resources and
provide a single window entry point to
the varied offerings from this university.
7
Professor Kevin Schrer, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research
and Enterprise) promotes the collaboration between
University and Industry, speaking at a recent EBD
Innovation Partnerships Showcase event. }
UNI VERSI TY OF LEI CESTER ENTERPRI SE STRATEGY TO 2015 15
Our priorities here are to:
Actively seek additional good
news stories and promotional
opportunities, based on the link
between excellent research and
enterprise impact;
Raise university prole for enterprise
and entrepreneurship through
engagement with industry networks
and sponsorship;
Allow for greater collaboration and
facilitation internally between central
units and University colleges and
departments to share knowledge and
resources to deliver to the ambitions
set out in the enterprise strategy;
Provide a smooth, efcient, one-
stop-shop through the Enterprise
and Business Development Ofce for
external customers;
Increase and strategise participation
in local, regional and national
enterprise structures;
Engage and lead on national and
international enterprise-related
initiatives.
Working with HealthSTATS International we developed
pioneering new technology that will revolutionise blood
pressure measurement for the rst time in over 100 years
with huge commercial potential. }
This was printed by Print Services, University of Leicester,
using vegetable based inks on FSC certied stock
University of Leicester 2013
Leicester LE1 7RH
UK
www.le.ac.uk
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