Professor Sarah Hainsworth OBE introduced Enterprise Day with an acknowledgement to Professor Jonathan Knight, Vice-President for Enterprise, for founding Enterprise Day which is now in its fourth year and increasingly unifying our entrepreneurial ecosystem. Professor Knight then provided the welcome address in his last academic year in the role as VP Enterprise. He said:

This is an annual chance to reflect on our activities in the area of Enterprise and Innovation. It’s an understatement to say it’s been a busy year. Our activities have developed strong regional integration through collaborative projects. Some of these projects are enabling us to support numerous early-stage businesses through our Innovation Centre. The Innovation Centre is supporting 43 high tech startups and scaleups, with £15 million turnover and creating 33 new jobs over the past year.

Professor Millie Stone, rheumatologist, Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence, and Visiting Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bath, provided the keynote speech on her experience as a digital health CEO and Founder. She said:

My original ambition was to be one of the top Ankylosing Spondylitis doctors and researchers in the world! However, in 2007 when my daughter was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma – a devastating form of cancer in which she had a 1 in 16 chance of survival – I needed to reset to become number one Mum! I also realised it was time to innovate pathways of care delivery to improve outcomes for my patients. Following a Masters in Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge, I founded iOWNA in 2019 – a digital healthcare company inspired by my personal experience and challenges around patients with chronic diseases receiving the right information at the right time to get the best outcome.

I aligned iOWNA’s mission with my own, enabling people to live longer and healthier, by setting out to simplify the complex web of communication in the healthcare system, keeping all parties on track. The purpose driven app provides pathways of care for patients with chronic diseases which is a fast growing large market where at least 1 in 2 individuals will suffer a chronic disease by 2030. If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.

The afternoon talk for Enterprise Day was from Greg Wade, Head of Innovation Policy at Universities UK (UUK). He highlighted their ‘Unis Start Up the UK’ campaign which was being launched at Parliament that day. Greg said:

Universities UK recognises the value and impact of universities, especially in terms of growth. Through our new ‘Unis Start Up the UK’ campaign we are raising awareness of what universities are doing. For example, between 2014/15 and 2022/23 there was a 70% increase in active startups from UK universities and in 2022-23 there were 60,000 people in the UK employed by university startups. This is an increase over the last decade of 177% and we want to ensure that this trend continues. For every pound spent there is a fifteen-pound return. Growth is a priority for the government. For me, enterprise underpins growth and we call on the government to recognise the strong social and economic contribution generated by the enterprise from UK universities.

Throughout the day there was a Santander sponsored business networking fair where University startups could showcase their enterprises.

More on University of Bath innovation with impact successes which were recently celebrated in parliament as part of UUK's 'Unis to Start Up the UK' launch.