Photo/Media opportunity: 12.15 pm on Wednesday 14 March at DCA for launch ceremony in cinema 2
An ambitious plan to promote entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of university activities through a unique new centre at the University of Dundee will be launched by Scottish Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Wendy Alexander on Wednesday (14 March).
The University's distinctive new Centre for Enterprise Management puts Dundee at the forefront of a Scotland-wide initiative to harness intellectual capital to power the burgeoning knowledge economy. It is Dundee's contribution to the Scottish Institute for Enterprise - a partnership with industry and the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot Watt and Strathclyde.
The CEM will be a focus of courses and programmes designed to spark enterprise in students and staff and catalyse the process of commercialisation of ideas. By establishing a distinctive model which meshes academia, secondary education and industry at every level the University expects to generate further spin out companies and entrepreneurial activity, building on its current portfolio which includes more than 80 patents (30 of which have been licensed) and spin out companies such as Cyclacel and Amcet.
Director of the CEM Professor Malcolm Horner:
"Universities are hotbeds of ideas and creativity. The Centre for Enterprise Management will nurture entrepreneurial activity, helping staff and students on its courses reach their full potential.
"Initially we will deliver some 4,500 hours of enterprise management teaching to scientists, engineers and students from other faculties, while launching the first course for industry, a programme of seminars introducing the spirit of entrepreneurship into the Link Overseas Exchange programme - which provides schoolchildren and University students with the opportunity to spend six months working in a developing country. In a further development with the business world we will be piloting the Plato scheme - a business-to-business support structure for small to medium-sized companies."
VIPs from the worlds of commerce, industry and academia attending the launch will take part in the first Plato workshops which will explore how the scheme can provide practical support to new companies, whilst at the same time benefiting the staff of more mature companies.
The first CEM courses are being introduced immediately, and the portfolio will be rapidly expanded over the next two years./ends
Contact Professor: Malcolm Horner 01382 344350