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Business Engagement Framework

Working with business

The Business Engagement Framework is a collection of University teams working together to help businesses to thrive, innovate and grow. 

"I'm delighted that, in support of our strategic plan, we now have a Business Engagement Framework that integrates and boosts the teams focused on supporting our academic community to nurture their relationships with business."
Professor Lisa Roberts, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation

Business enquiries

You can use the contacts below, or if you are not sure who to contact, talk to Nexus on 0113 306 1444 or via email at nexus@leeds.ac.uk.

Depending on the nature of the work, one or more of the teams below will work closely with academic leads:

Andy Duley Profile March 2019

Andy Duley, Director of Commercialisation

Commercialisation Team
Contact: commercialisation@leeds.ac.uk

Manages commercialisation of intellectual property (IP) arising from University research to establish licences with existing businesses or create new spin-out companies. This involves identifying opportunities, developing these in to commercial propositions and establishing IP management strategies.

Contracts Team
Contact: commercialisation@leeds.ac.uk

Oversees research and innovation contractual matters, checking and approving funder terms and drafting and reviewing all non-standard R&I contracts.

Ian Shortland Profile March 2019

Ian Shortland, Director of Research and Innovation Integration and Enhancement

Corporate Relationships Team
Contact: corporates@leeds.ac.uk

Oversees relationships with large corporates and elevates discussions to the most senior levels within these organisations, listening to their strategic needs and translating them with the academic community into research opportunities.

Major Research Initiatives Team
Contact: corporates@leeds.ac.uk

Works with academic leads to build, test and deliver multi-million pound research initiatives with industry partners that transcend faculty boundaries and are strategically significant to the University e.g. the £65m Institute for High Speed Rail and System Integration.


Ceri Williams Profile March 2019

Dr Ceri Williams, Director of Research & Innovation Development

Research & Innovation Development Team
Contact: R-IDevelopment@leeds.ac.uk

Helps academics and businesses to collaborate to develop longer, larger, user-informed research and innovation proposals that are focused on faculty-defined priorities and more likely to be funded e.g. via UKRI and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. 

Martin Stow Profile March 2019

Dr Martin Stow, Director of Nexus

Nexus Team
Contact: nexus@leeds.ac.uk

Provides seamless access to research expertise, talent and facilities across the University. The team facilitates productive relationships between entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs with our academic community to develop the right partnerships to drive economic and societal impact. The Nexus team can act as a first point of contact for academics or businesses who do not know which team(s) they need to work with.

Find colleague-focused information, news and events relating to Nexus on our For Staff Nexus pages.

Related news

Book your free tour of Nexus

After a two-year build project, Nexus – our new innovation hub – is now complete and tenants have started to move into the office and laboratory space.

Working with business profiles

Find out about wide-ranging examples of our work with businesses.

A step-change in working with business

Our University has a strong record of working with external partners to translate research and innovation into economic and societal benefit.

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