Dr Robert Phillips began his research career as a post doc at the National Institute for Medical Research following his PhD in Biochemistry. He has worked in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, the University of Manchester Incubator Company and is involved in biotech start-up companies such as Alergenetica, an allergy vaccine R&D company which has raised significant amounts of grant and venture capital finance.

Following a prosperous career in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr Phillips turned his attention back to academia. He currently holds a Senior Lecturer position at the Manchester Enterprise Centre, with a focus on biotech start-ups and the entrepreneurial intentions among scientific researchers. His insight has attracted the attention of national newspapers such as The Guardian, and regularly writes on the importance of teaching university students entrepreneurial spirit. Accordingly, Dr Phillips also runs the Research to Enterprise program, which includes skills workshops, business mentoring and an annual off-site enterprise school for research students and staff.

In his talk, Dr Phillips will share his experience and lessons learned from the pharmaceutical industry and working with start-ups, and how healthcare products are taken all the way from university labs to the market, making this an extremely exciting and unique opportunity for all business-orientated scientists to learn!