by Alistair Lawson, SICSA KE Director
9 January 2018
Bliadhna Mhath Ùr! / Happy New Year!
It has been a busy few months since I took over the role of SICSA Knowledge Exchange Director at the end of April 2017. Planning for Demofest 2017 was already in hand at that stage, and thanks go to Steven Kendrick and Aileen Orr for their organisation and co-ordination of the event which was a great success at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, attracting 2 main sponsors (Toshiba Medical and The Data Lab); 10 event partners; 280 delegates (including a number of investors); 52 academic exhibitors; and two keynotes speakers (Gillian Docherty – CEO of The Data Lab and Shirley Anne Somerville MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science). Plans are underway for DemoFest 2018, which will take place at Our Dynamic Earth is likely to be in November 2018. We will be in touch when details are finalised.
One thing that we would like to do this year is to track the impact of DemoFest over a longer period of time. If you have any case studies of previous exhibitors who may have experienced longer term impact from attending the DemoFest event then please get in touch.
Another thing that we would like to do is reinvigorate some KE funding programmes which have not been available in recent years due to funding constraints. In previous years SICSA KE funding programmes included Early Career Industry Fellowships, Industrial Internships, and Distinguished Industrial Visitor Fellowships. Over the next few months we will be exploring how we might leverage funding for future KE programmes.
Meanwhile, if there’s anything you would like us to consider in terms of SICSA support for Knowledge Exchange activity, then please get in touch with me via sicsa-ke-director@www.sicsa.ac.uk .
I look forward to meeting you at the various SICSA events over the coming year