Vanissa Wanick: How a spinout has become a vehicle for sustainable knowledge exchange in Arts & Humanities

In this episode, we meet Vanissa Wanick, senior lecturer in Interaction Design and co-founder of Nucleolus, a spin-out games studio from the University of Southampton.

Nucleoulus was founded by a group of like-minded academics and together they design and build  meaningful, player-centred experiences, from games that solve health-care challenges to increasing citizen engagement.

Vanissa’s path is different from most academics. She started as a designer in Rio de Janeiro, worked in industry, completed an MBA in marketing, and then earned a PhD in Advergaming.

Vanissa shares practical thinking on turning research into products people actually use and how to leverage your institution’s commercialisation support systems rather than feeling the need to be an expert in everything.

She speaks openly about the challenges and opportunities of commercialisation in Arts & Humanities, why the word “commercialisation” is off-putting for many researchers, and how formally establishing a company has created a powerful vehicle for delivering impact.   

This episode is a great reminder that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to commercialising university research.