Early Career Innovation Management Awards for RCIPS Staff

Two UCT staff members received national acclaim on Thursday 19 May 2016 for their contribution to research and innovation management in Southern Africa.  Dr Revel Iyer and Francois Oosthuizen jointly won the Department of Science and Technology and Southern African Research and Innovation Management Excellence Award for Early Career Innovation Management. This was one of four awards announced on Thursday evening at a gala event at the Coastlands Hotel, Umhlanga, Kwa-Zulu Natal.

The two awardees joined RCIPS around the same time in 2014 with Francois taking up the position of ‘Project Manager’ and Revel that of ‘Business Development Manager.’

These positions where created to manage the burgeoning UCT IP portfolio. Since they have joined, the UCT IP portfolio has decreased significantly as the added expertise and technical knowledge to properly assess the commercial potential and maturity of each invention in the UCT Intellectual Property portfolio. Deadwood was pruned, commercial licensees secured and other IP prioritised for innovation funding to develop the technologies.

Revel and Francois introduced new criteria to the UCT IP assessment process. As projects progress deficiencies, weaknesses, strengths or opportunities emerge and to track these changes the concept of “Flag Meetings” was introduced, which are held at regular intervals.

As seed fund manager, Francois oversees technologies that are at an earlier stage (TRL1-4). He works directly with the researchers to ensure that the technology reaches a minimum level of TRL 4 by the end of the project. In many instances Francois assists the researchers to access either pre-seed or seed funds. Once the money is awarded he oversees the team’s activities ensuring that the requisite milestones are reached. A consequence of this is that our seed funded applications have been of high quality and have achieved considerable success. Last year 8 projects received funding amounting to R 3,96m. 

Once projects pass through the TRL4 threshold handover of projects occurs seamlessly to Revel. At this point an assessment is made on whether to develop the technology further or to commercialise directly. Where the technology has to be developed further, Revel assists the development team to acquire funding.

RCIPS participated in the maiden DST Innovation Bridge in Gauteng, an event designed to showcase publicly-funded research outputs to funders, investors and potential commercial partners. Revel co-ordinated RCIPS activities and to a large extent was responsible for the success UCT achieved. A new publication “Innovation Opportunities” was launched in 2015. Revel oversaw this initiative. This book profiles technologies in the UCT portfolio that are available for licensing, entrepreneurship opportunities, UCT products from incubated ventures and also investment opportunities in our spin-off companies.

Both Francois and Revel were awarded Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Scholarships to attend annual/regional conferences in the USA and Malaysia and associated training courses during 2015.