Are you a researcher wanting to exploit your ICT research results and have you considered them as a spin-off, patent or licence? Are you an ICT start-up looking to bring a new idea or process to market? Have you been working hard on developing new ground-breaking technologies and disruptive services, but when it comes to exploiting them, you are unsure how to proceed?

Our aim is to help today's researchers create tomorrow's enterprises and we will help you.

About this workshop

Take part in the fifth in a series of Cambridge workshops dedicated to INTERPRETING THE CUSTOMER AND UX. The key theme of this workshop is innovation as a process. New methodologies for interpreting the customer will be introduced and tools for capturing customer needs will be provided.

During this workshop, you will

• Learn how to secure and assess customer input to drive your innovation forward
• Understand the importance of user experience (UX) in the design of a product or process
• Learn tools to help you prioritise and integrate UX feedback into product development

Guest Speaker

Dr Anna Mieczakowski is a researcher and UX strategist assisting companies in successfully defining their customer bases, product development activities and internal business processes to set strategy for new and existing products and services. She holds a PhD in user-centred design from the University of Cambridge and has a background in User Experience (UX) consulting, management consulting and organisational operations. Her user-centred design work has been published in public reports and articles in leading international journals, books and conferences, as well as being disseminated in design exhibitions for both public and business benefit. In 2012, Anna founded Ameliot to help organisations build better products, services and experiences that best meet customers’ needs and enhance business performance.

About MERLIN project

MERLIN (Methodologies for Researcher Led Innovations) will support market-oriented researchers, SMEs and start-ups across Europe, to consider the full potential of their research and to shape ideas and outputs into innovations to be ready for market validation and commercialisation, by using modern needs-first, market-led methodologies.

MERLIN offers a range of dynamic workshops and relevant training to guide researchers and businesses on the journey to commercialisation. The programme, consisting on 8 workshops, will equip participants with knowledge, skills and network to generate market-led business models to unlock potential and accelerate this journey. MERLIN will organize 2 meetups with potential partners, customers and investors by the end of each year, to help participants grow. Moreover, selected participants will be invited to participate in Startup Europe events.

MERLIN has been funded in the context of the Innovation Radar initiative of the European Commission, under the Digital Single Market strategy.