Working with Industry

The School of Biological Sciences views its enterprise activites as one of its major successes and has a thriving portfolio of Enterprise activities.

Our staff provide expert advice, training and consultancy to Industry. The Higher Education Innovation Fund fellowship programme has provided business training to selected academic staff in the School.

We have a breath of expertise and experience, as well as offering a flexible approach to working with business, and we have developed a wide range of skills and services, including:

Collaborative Research

The School is one of the larger Biology Schools in the UK with 60 academic staff. We benefit from the substantial recent investment in research facilities and infrastructure, including the BioCentre for post-genomic research, the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research (ICMR) and the newly completed Hopkins Building. Members of the School are actively engaged in Knowledge Transfer Programmes and CASE studentships with Industry and we have strong research links and joint studentships with Diamond Light Source and MRC Harwell. The School also has links with a wide range of other organisations which includes the Royal Horticultural Society and the British Heart Foundation. The School continues to manage the Brogdale National Fruit Collection and the Cocoa germplasm collection, which highlights the continued reputation of Reading in the plant biology area.

High Quality Services

A number of our academic and highly trained technical staff offer a range of services.  Examples of some of the resources we offer are:

• Environmental Biology Consulting Consortium
• BioCentre Facility  
• Statistical Services Centre

Consultancy

 A number of staff are engaged in consultancy and in the provision of products and/or services. These activities cover a wide range of disciplines - examples include: the provision of expert advice to Government agencies or Government advisory bodies; advice on microbiological practice; aphid control; the provision of booklice; and, the sale of in vivo expressed proteins

Work Placements and Entrepreneurship

The School is working closely with the UK resource centre for women in SET to deliver business training, provide work placements, mentoring and develop CPD training to support return to work programmes. We also are actively involved in the University's commitment to the development and delivery of ATHENA Swan charter principles.

We also work closely with the University's Careers Advisory Service to provide training and support for work placements and to develop career opportunities for our students.

Biopharma Skills Initiative 
A number of academic staff are actively involved with this major cross-University initiative (see press release). The Head of School chairs the BioPharma Skills Committee that leads a consortium comprising representatives from different SE Universities (Brighton, Kent, OU, Reading and Surrey). The major aim of this consortium is to work with industry to identify shortfalls in, and to deliver programmes for, the Skills Gap Agenda.

Continued Professional Development Training

The School of Biological Sciences is taking the lead role in the development and delivery of CPD training for the BioPharma Skills Interns, Fellows and Industrial partners under the ECIF initiative.

A new course will run in April 2010,

• Existing and Emerging Biotechnologies for Science (12th - 22nd April 2010)

The Environmenal Biology section will run three short courses this year;

• Intensive Course in Molecular Systematics (12th - 22nd April 2010)

and two new courses for 2010,

• Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Ecologists (22nd - 23rd March 2010)
• Advanced Geographic Information Systems for Ecologists (24th - 25th March 2010)

We also run one day workshops that address other areas such as industry career awareness, CV writing/applications, networking, communication, project planning, prioritising and design of experiment.

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For more information about ways in which your company or industry can collaborate with us and the potential benefits to be gained, please contact our School Director of Enterprise, Dr Kim Watson.