CEO Maxine Ficarra reflects on her time at PraxisAuril
I remember my first day at Praxis like it was yesterday. I joined the day before the first Creating Spinouts training course in March 2003. Sat amidst the legal department at the then Research Services Division within Cambridge University, (where Praxis was hosted prior to its incorporation in April 2004), I distinctly remember the hushed atmosphere in the huge open plan office - which I was completely destroying with around 50 direct phone calls to all the delegates who were due to arrive in Manchester the following evening!
That first week in post as Programme Manager was a bit of a baptism by fire, since I had had no previous experience of the academic sector and certainly no prior knowledge of technology transfer! But it was obvious to me right from the start that this was a very special group of people, all passionately volunteering their time to build an ambitious national training programme for Technology Transfer/Knowledge Exchange practitioners.
And the rest, as they say, is history. The first few years were spent focussed on extending training programmes and expanding the volunteer base so that we could cover new subject areas, that were very much in demand by then. I remember that the very first Advanced Licensing training course sold out within a few days and we welcomed 90 delegates to Nottingham for that inaugural programme. There was such enthusiasm to be part of this new network, driven from the grassroots of the sector, that it became clear early on that as important as the training content itself was, the opportunity to connect with peers from other institutions and to learn from a widely diverse range of perspectives that were represented at those events was vital. Until that time, it was often the case that only senior leaders had been able to build those sorts of connections – and of course, this all pre-dated social media.
In 2005, the Department of Trade and Industry, encouraged Praxis, Unico and Auril to work together to further professionalise the sector. This collaboration spawned the Practical Guides and centrally-run conferences by Unico, as well as the formation of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer by AURIL. Praxis and Unico further cemented their relationship early on with a decision to share central admin services; a successful partnership which led to a formal merger in 2009 and the extension of the organisations’ remit beyond professional development to ‘developing, promoting, and connecting’ our sector. Over time as the activities of PraxisUnico and AURIL became less discrete as well as the sector redefining first as knowledge transfer and then knowledge exchange, it became evident that a further merger would provide a significant opportunity to provide a strong voice for the whole sector, coinciding with a period of increasing scrutiny by government and its agencies. The people at the heart of all three organisations, working together towards a common cause, to represent the entire KE sector.
The opportunity to be a founding partner of the global alliance ATTP was a further significant step-forward for PraxisAuril and knowledge exchange. Working with esteemed colleagues from AUTM in the US, ASTP in continental Europe and KCA Australasia to define and guide professional standards for our sector was hugely powerful, not just because of the step-change it elicited in the KE profession taking ownership of recognition for and highlighting the successes of KE people to external audiences, but because of the international colleagues it connected and empowered. ATTP now includes 14 professional associations for knowledge exchange practitioners from all around the world.
And ‘the people’ is where my role has really focussed over the years. Volunteer-led organisations are a special kind of entity. Leading and developing an organisation which depends entirely upon the goodwill of an exceptionally talented but very busy group of individuals, requires a very particular dynamic and approach. Foremost, it’s about having professional executive support in place, a team and an approach designed to ensure that the very precious ‘creative’ time those volunteers contribute is utilised to maximum effect. Equally important is making volunteering for PrA personally and professionally valuable and, maybe even more importantly, fun! Ensuring that our volunteer contributors benefit in a variety of ways from their association with PrA is crucial to the organisation’s success. Marrying a professional exec of individuals who strive for absolute perfection with a group of time-constrained volunteers has its operational challenges at times, but it has always been an absolute pleasure to work with so many smart, creative and talented individuals.
And now, the PrA network consists of over 5000 individuals from across a hugely diverse range of activity and backgrounds and perspectives – which is a real strength of the UK’s KE ecosystem. As was the theme of our recent record-breaking conference, KE really is a people business – and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for the next generation of KE practitioners and PrA’s professional exec team are significant. Long may that success continue!
