The subject of this workshop is ‘Making your MSc go further’. It will consist of 2 sessions, the full programme is outlined below.

Workshop programme

11:45 Welcome & Intro

11:50 Session 1: Developing partnerships for innovation: Sarah Jackson, Director of Research, Partnerships & Innovation, University of Liverpool (class of 2003) (Chair: Dr. Kieron Flanagan, Senior Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy)

In conversation with Sarah Jackson, Director of Research, Partnerships & Innovation, University of Liverpool, about public-private partnerships for innovation. Sarah is not only an alumni of a former iteration of the IME MSc programme, but also one of the best people to speak about innovation policy in the UK and the North West.

Sarah Jackson joined the University of Liverpool in November 2014 as the Director of Research, Partnerships and Innovation, to bring together a newly formed department covering business engagement, research policy, research support and international, national and regional partnerships. This includes leading the University’s strategic partnership with Unilever, engagement with Liverpool City Council, developing the research and impact strategy and promoting the University to national partners. She holds Board positions on Liverpool Science Park and Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and also leads a team of 100 people.

For the previous five years, Sarah was the Director of the N8 Research Partnership, a consortium of the eight most research-intensive universities in the North of England. Sarah led on innovative collaborations on equipment sharing and industry engagement. She has also been invited by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to undertake three secondments, most recently in 2017 working on the transition programme for UK Research and Innovation.

Prior to working for the N8, Sarah worked in a number of roles - at the Northwest Development Agency, the University of Manchester and as a graduate trainee at Deloitte.

She has a first class honours in Sociology and an MSc in Innovation Management, both from the University of Manchester, and was a participant on the 2014 Entrepreneurial University Leadership Programme.

12:20 Session 2: Alumni from MSc IME classes 2017, 2018 and 2019 talking careers, dissertations and innovative ideas (Chair: Prof. Jonatan Pinkse, Executive Director of Manchester Institute of Innovation Research)

Prof. Jonatan Pinkse speaks to recent alumni of the programme - now working in innovative companies or accelerators around the world - about their careers, dissertations, innovation and how COVID-19 is impacting their work.

12:50 Q&A

13:10 Closing remark

MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

The MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship is a unique master's course offered by Alliance MBS.

Students studying this programme develop the skills to address the challenges of innovation and technological change, learn how new, innovative products get to market, how companies introduce innovation and how enterprises set up new ventures, and engage with the challenges faced by individual entrepreneurs, small and large companies and governments in delivering innovation.

The course is taught by members of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research – a world-leading centre of excellence in the study of science, technology and innovation policy and management.

IME Virtual Alumni Workshop: Making your MSc go further