Ideas flew thick and fast across the table when the four newly appointed Research Business Managers from Health held their first joint network meeting. Now is the time for specific initiatives to establish business connections and to create awareness internally so colleagues know they can find advice and input.

2015.03.03 | Kirsten Olesen

Four of the six Research Business Managers at Health at the first working meeting: From left to right: Christian Lindholst from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Rubens Spin-Neto from the Department of Dentistry, Claus Olesen from the Department of Biomedicine and Martin Vesterby from the Department of Clinical Medicine. The other managers are Carsten Obel from the Department of Public Health and Anne B. Christensen from The School of Oral Health Care.

Should researchers consider employer focus and business potential already in the project phase? Are you selling know-how or services when you collaborate with government agencies and institutions and businesses? How can development be part of the food chain for research? 

Those were just a few of the questions that were discussed when four of the six new Research Business Managers  at Health met-up for the first session of joint sparring and idea development across the faculty.

The ambassadors have been appointed by the heads of school and heads of department at Health with the aim of making it easier for companies to gain access to research-based knowledge, and also to help researchers from the faculty who want to work with the business potential of their project, but perhaps need a nudge in the right direction.

"We already have many outstanding examples of our research being utilised in society," says Dean Allan Flyvbjerg, Health.
"With the new Research Business Managers, Aarhus University underlines that we are both strong when it comes to basic research and when we contribute directly and tangibly to the development of society."

Stumbling blocks

For this reason, some of the managers have begun contacting colleagues to hear where the stumbling blocks are in relation to the unexploited potential for bringing research results into play – “using them for something" as it was put at the meeting.

"Initially it’s about creating awareness locally," said the managers at the meeting, where the importance of knowing one another's projects and networks across the departmental structure was also emphasised as being a way forward. 

The six Research Business Managers at Health are: Christian Lindholst from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Rubens Spin-Neto from the Department of Dentistry, Claus Olesen from the Department of Biomedicine, Martin Vesterby from the Department of Clinical Medicine, Carsten Obel from the Department of Public Health and Anne B. Christensen from The School of Oral Health Care.

• Read more on the website: Research Business Managers at Health