Olga Kozlova: Why early career researchers can be a powerful driver for commercialising university research

In this episode of The Research Adventure Podcast we meet Dr Olga Kozlova, Director of Innovation and Engagement at the University of Oxford, where she leads the work to make Oxford and Oxfordshire a globally leading innovation ecosystem.

Olga shares her journey from founding a biotech startup through a Royal Society of Edinburgh enterprise fellowship, building and running Converge, Scotland's cross-university company creation programme, and leading innovation and industry engagement at the University of Strathclyde.

She explains why Oxford still needs more capital despite its global reputation, why the pipeline from early-stage pre-seed through to scale-up is the biggest challenge for deep tech commercialisation in the UK, and why investing in early career researchers is one of the  highest-leverage commercialisation investments a university can make.

Olga explores the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, why sponsorship is so valuable, what it would take to significantly increase the number of female founders and female investors, and why this is so important. 

This episode is essential listening for anyone working to build or improve a university commercialisation ecosystem.