Training Resources

The bitesize video resources here are designed to be short but impactful introductions to topics related to research translation. They have been designed to allow you to develop your skills and knowledge quickly, easily, when you need. Many of the resources complement face to face training events and more in-depth online modules. Information on these events and modules can be found on the CATS Events Page and also in the bi-weekly CATS Newsletter. 

Creating Impact from Research - This traning video will equip you with some practical templates, strategies and tactics for exploring ways in which you can create impact from your research, and expand your professional transferable skill set. It will give some insights to help:

  1. Recognise why government and charity funders have an increasing expectation of researchers and their institutions to support translational research and the creation of impact.
  2. Define ‘translational research’ and why it is relevant to you
  3. Reflect on whether the proposed Impact from your research is realistic/relevant
  4. Identify the key next stages to move your Impact idea forwards
  5. Recognise the translational routes/business models to achieving Impact
  6.  Identify relevant potential partners and stakeholders to engage with
  7. Develop an awareness of the importance of intellectual property and the basic principles of protection and confidentiality

Working with Industry and Translational Research -  This traning video will equip you with some practical templates, strategies and tactics for exploring ways in which you can enhance the impact of your own resaerch by engaging with external partners. It will give some insights to help:

  1. Define ‘translational research’ and why it is relevant to you.
  2. Understand why non-academic partners want to work with universities
  3. Articulate what benefits can be gained from working with non-academic partners
  4. Address your own concerns about working with non-academic partners
  5.  Identify relevant potential partners and stakeholders to engage with
  6. Present your research in different forms to different audiences, including defining and communicating their USP
  7. Reflect on how translational skills are applicable to careers outside the University
  8. Identify researchers with similar issues and share knowledge and resources

Introduction to Impact & Innovation – This video gives an overview of impact, what it is and how it is created, exploited and protected. The session includes input from University colleagues from the Bioscience Impact Team and Cambridge Enterprise on how best to drive your innovative research forward from the bench to the clinic, along with information on the internal structures and supports to help you do so.

Introduction to Medical Devices - The term “medical device” can apply to something as simple as a scalpel or as complex as an MRI machine.  Whatever the scale and complexity of device you are thinking of creating, there will be certain commonalities that you need to understand and address.  This video will introduce you to the basic principles and help guide you to think about how you will investigate key questions to help:

  1. Define a medical device
  2. List the different classes of medical device
  3. Differentiate the components of a medical device e.g. physical; software; consumables; data
  4. Understand the importance of developing the technical, commercial and regulatory programmes in step with each other.
  5. Analyse the market for a medical device
  6. Distinguish between beneficiaries, end-users and customers
  7. Interrogate where the value lies in a device
  8. Recognise the importance of strong IP protection for the greatest commercial advantage
  9. Understand the routes to market and the business models commonly used in this field
  10. Recognise that it is cheaper, easier and faster to solve the right problems early, rather than try to fix them retrospectively.
  11. Understand the importance of a Target Product Profile
  12. Be familiar with the concepts of Registration and CE marking
  13. Realise the importance of developing and selling internationally
  14. Be aware of emerging fields e.g. Wearables
  15. Focus on human centred-design and useability
  16. Be aware of post-marketing surveillance
  17. Appreciate that the development of medical devices is complex and always takes more money and time than you would expect.

An Introduction to Drug Discovery and Development The drug discovery and development industry is a massive and highly regulated global activity.  The field is increasingly complex and covers a range of modalities including small molecules, biological therapeutics, vaccines, and gene and cellular therapies.  It typically takes 15 years between starting a new programme and actually being able to sell the drug and attrition rates are extraordinarily high, possibly reaching 95%.  In this two-part video we will explore the way the industry works, and investigate the routes by which academic researchers can create attractive opportunities for drug discovery from their basic research.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this video the viewer should be able to:

  1. Identify all the major stages in drug discovery and development and the key questions being addressed at each stage.
  2. Differentiate between a tool compound and a drug.
  3. Distinguish an attractive from an unattractive target from an industrial perspective
  4. Contrast what academia and industry mean by Proof of Concept.
  5. Recognise the main pain points for industry.
  6. Compare the opportunities and challenges for different disease classes e.g. rare diseases cf. oncology cf. neurosciences.
  7. Contrast the technical benefits and drawbacks of: small molecules; biologicals; gene and cell therapies; new modalities?
  8. Recognise the different ways in which companies work with academia and the opportunities these business models create.
  9. Understand when pre-competitive collaborations are a viable option
  10. Analyse why companies enter into large collaborative relationships in a specific field
  11. Distinguish Collaborations from Contract research
  12. Analyse the market conditions that favour the creation of a spin-out
  13. Analyse the market conditions that favour the creation of licensing deals