October 2, 2023, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham

My experience of the Researcher Academy’s Innovation and KE training programme

Dr. Tharwat Hassan on his experience of the Researcher Academy’s Innovation and KE training programme.

~ Dr. Tharwat Hassan

I graduated from the University of Nottingham in July 2023 with a PhD in Chemistry. During my PhD journey, I used to receive regular emails from the Researcher Academy offering the available and upcoming short courses and training. I took the opportunity to attend various valuable courses. Amongst these courses, was the Innovation and Knowledge Exchange program. ‘Actually, participating in this course was the right decision I made!’’. Frankly, one of the things that motivated me to participate in this course was my work as an Assistant researcher in the Business Partnership Unit (School of Chemistry), where I started to improve my understanding of the importance and mechanism of mutual collaboration between academia and industry.

The course was organized over three workshops: Embracing Innovation Growth and Enterprising Mindset, Fostering a Creative Problem-solving Mindset, and Cultivating Innovation and Responsible Knowledge Exchange. It was really interesting to work in a team with different scientific backgrounds. I practically realized that we are different in our way of thinking and in our way of looking at challenges, but at the same time, we integrate with each other to achieve the required objectives when working as a team. This experience has had a significant impact on my career and supported my work as a KTP Associate. “I can honestly say that this course contributed to preparing me for this position’’. I have attended some KTP modules provided by Innovate UK, and surprisingly some of the knowledge I got from these KTP courses has already been covered during the innovation and KE program (The Researcher Academy).

The course was very rich and covered different aspects of innovation strategies. It has been organized and delivered perfectly by the Researcher Academy in collaboration with KE professionals. The learning process involved various case studies (different shapes and sizes) and different KE activities; therefore, it was a chance to practice my networking skills and broaden my own KE networks. Moreover, I realized that KE is a two-way process (interaction between two partners), not one way as I thought before attending this course. Furthermore, understanding the common motivations behind the KE initiative, integration between the role of innovation and the role of KE, and the required mind-sets for KE, helped me to adapt my own KE focused mind-set. Additionally, I learned more about the required mechanisms for knowledge exchange which significantly contributed to my current role as a KTP Associate working between Academia and industry.

It was really wonderful to explore the source of my ideas and the related inspiration, to make sure that my ideas are heard, to identify my energy levels, and to understand when I became forceful or forthright. Actually, the influence of such skills has become touchable now in my work where I am trying to apply creative problem-solving processes to overcome any challenges that may arise during my research work.

Lastly, if you are interested in getting the required skills in the field of innovation and knowledge exchange, then I strongly recommend this course to you.

Dr. Tharwat Hassan

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