Shared Knowledge Exchange Services (ShaKEs), a new national collaboration to bolster research commercialisation and innovation across Scotland’s smaller institutions, has appointed Rachel Simpson as director.
Simpson is employed by Queen Margaret University but is based at Abertay University.
She will also work with the University of the Highlands and Islands, Robert Gordon University, the Glasgow School of Art, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Edinburgh College. ShaKEs is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.
Simpson has been tasked with creating impactful collaboration between the seven institutions, industry, and the public and third sectors.
She will build a commercialisation team and design and test a commercially sustainable co-owned model that can serve as an alternative to traditional tech transfer.
“The ShaKEs project is a fantastic opportunity to deliver meaningful and long-term impacts from Scotland’s world class research. It is a substantial and progressive commitment from the partners, and I look forward to the opportunity to innovate as part of an ambitious programme.”
Rachel Simpson
Simpson was previously the assistant director, commercial, at the University of Dundee, where she had worked since September 2019, although she had already been with Dundee’s tech transfer team from January 2014 to April 2018.
From June 2018 to September 2019, she was the head of commercialisation at the University of Hull.
