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Director

National Innovation Centre for Ageing

Outline Brief

Create the future of Ageing with us

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Introduction

The National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) is a key part of an integrated strategy for ageing

innovation at Newcastle upon Tyne, involving the region’s Universities, City Council, Combined

Authority, NHS Trusts, and Local Enterprise Partnership, and reinforced in our local industrial strategy

and investor priorities. This plays to Newcastle University’s long-standing world-leading research

strengths in Ageing. NICA is also firmly aligned with UK Government priorities, with Ageing Society

being one of four Grand Challenges in the national Industrial Strategy, and close relationships

established between NICA and UK Research & Innovation and the Department for Business, Enterprise

and Industrial Strategy.

NICA aims to bring together in one centre, world-leading scientists from a range of key disciplines to

work together with industry, the NHS, the public and public sector to create a critical mass of expertise

in the ageing and innovation arena to develop, evaluate and bring to market products which optimise

health and wellbeing as people age.

We are currently focused on the development and building of the NICA headquarters which will be

located in the new Catalyst Building on the Newcastle Helix site. The new building is due to open in

late 2019. NICA’s strategy is to adopt a ‘living lab’ approach, with products and systems being

deployed and tested in real world settings: the city of Newcastle upon Tyne will therefore act as a

Demonstrator Project, scalable to other locations nationally and internationally. Through its

established partnership with Newcastle City Council, NICA will engage local people and institutions as

key partners within these networks, bringing new approaches from international best practice to bear

on the city’s social and economic fabric.

For the new Director, this will be a singular opportunity. NICA was created to effect real change, and

its success will be judged in two ways: firstly, by the percentage of the population impacted by its work

and secondly in terms of wealth created for both the country and business.

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The National Innovation Centre for Ageing

NICA is a collaborative venture between the UK Government Department for Business, Enterprise and

Industrial Strategy (via a grant administered by the Medical Research Council) and Newcastle

University. A linked grant administered by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

supports the National Innovation Centre for Data at Newcastle University. Newcastle University was

chosen to host the NICA facility because of the ‘breadth and depth’ of ageing research at the University

and the ‘truly interdisciplinary’ nature of its work. This relationship remains central to NICA’s journey.

Since its inception in 2017, NICA has established a team; built a wide network of regional and national,

SME and corporate, business contacts; initiated collaborative projects with businesses and academics;

developed citizen engagement through an expanded VOICE network; influenced UK and local

government industrial strategies; and begun to connect with complementary national and

international organisations. NICA’s will relocate to its new premises in late 2019, enabling joint

working with partners and expanded public, civic and business engagement.

Moving forward, NICA will have an operating model offering greater autonomy and flexibility. While

there is a strategic plan in place which will give shape and direction, the new Director will be given the

latitude and support to succeed.

Aims and objectives

The NICA Benefits Realisation Plan (2017) set out the following ten-year objectives:

Objective 1: Identify commercial opportunities in the ageing sector and collaborate with academic, public, private and the community and voluntary sector to translate and commercialise these for economic benefit.

Objective 2: Drive public engagement in the design and introduction of new goods and services for the ageing market.

Objective 3: Raise awareness of the growing ageing issues amongst academia, business, public and the third sector to catalyse engagement by all in problem solving.

Objective 4: Catalyse the development of an internationally-recognised ageing cluster on the Helix site that drives innovation, commercialisation and growth in the ageing sector.

Objective 5: Establish NICA as a viable, self-sustaining organisation by 2025.

NICA draws on a distinctive model to link academia, innovation and commercialisation organisations and industry whereby NICA benefits significantly from University back office support, substantial investment and free access to researcher capabilities, but is staffed by Innovation Associates with sector expertise to bridge with industrial and other partners. The NICA model is also distinct in its close integration with the public (explicitly, VOICE) to co-partner with academia and industry in the development and evaluation of new products and services.

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NICA has access to core recurrent funding of £10M from the University, currently profiled as £1M

running expenses per annum, and receives capital investment from MRC towards the £35M Catalyst

Building.

Given the potential scale of its mission, it is essential that NICA focuses on specific opportunities in

defined sectors if it is to demonstrate the bringing to market of products optimising health and

wellbeing within the funding time frame. Given the lack of definition of pathways for products and

services to reach the ageing market, it is essential that NICA harnesses worldwide expertise by

connecting to complementary national and international networks and centres of excellence thereby

helping to fill gaps in knowledge, and to enable best practice to spread amongst UK businesses. A key

component is the understanding of citizen needs and aspirations nationally and internationally, which

is facilitated by NICA housing the VOICE network.

A Visualisation of the planned Helix site

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Our host, Newcastle University

Ranked in the top 150 of world universities, Newcastle University aspires to be people-focussed,

harnessing academic excellence, innovation and creativity to provide benefits to individuals, to

organisations and to society as a whole. As a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive

universities in the UK, Newcastle has a world-class reputation in ageing and health, cities, culture and

creative arts, data, and energy.

Newcastle University Institute for Ageing (NUIA)

The original Newcastle University Institute for Ageing and Health, was founded in 1994 and was the

first in its field in the UK to establish unique, multidisciplinary environment for research, training and

engagement with public and business, based on the rapidly developing Campus for Ageing and Vitality

(CAV). Initially the Institute mainly concentrated on biomedical research in ageing. However, as the

breadth and depth of ageing–related research has rapidly increased at Newcastle University over the

last decade, the Institute was transformed in 2014 into the cross faculty, inter-disciplinary Newcastle

University Institute for Ageing (NIUA). In 2019, the University purchased the whole of the CAV campus

from the NHS Trust, providing more than 20 hectares for future development of research facilities,

testbeds and living laboratories.

NUIA facilitates research and innovation in three key areas:

• How do we age?

• How can we age better?

• How can we address the economic and social challenges of ageing?

International excellence in research is reflected in the recent awards of funds for a series of new

buildings and research-council funded Centres. Building on a distinguished history of research on age-

related diseases, the Campus now contains a Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU), focused on early

assessment and intervention in multiple disorders, and the National Institute for Health Research

Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) in Ageing and the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical

Research Unit in Lewy Body Dementia. It also leads in two national Clinical Research Networks (stroke

and neurodegeneration).

The Institute attaches great importance to addressing the needs of society and has played a leading

role in developing Years Ahead, the North-East Forum on Older People. It has made major

contributions to enhancing the profile of ageing research through leading roles in activities of the

House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, the Government Office for Science ‘Foresight’,

and the European Union.

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The Institute continues to make fundamental contributions to understanding why and how we age.

Co-location of clinical research facilities with state-of-the-art laboratories hosting world-leading basic

science research teams has enabled the development of a very strong record in translational medicine.

Strong connections exist also with cutting-edge technology (ICT and bio-engineering) and with

mathematical, statistical and computing sciences in the fast-growing area of systems and synthetic

biology.

Business Development and Enterprise at Newcastle Newcastle University takes its role in economic development – in the city, region and wider world –

very seriously and performs well in all Higher Education sector Knowledge Exchange metrics. A recent

analysis of five years of Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey data

demonstrates performance in the top Quartile of the Russell Group for collaborative and contract

research, as well as in graduate entrepreneurship activities, and strong performance in a number of

other areas such as consultancy, facilities hire and licences. We have consistently been in the top 10

UK universities for the number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).

We have developed strong relationships with key corporate partners, for example holding Global

Principle Partner status with Siemens. We have access to significant funds for knowledge exchange

via, for example, EPSRC and ESRC Impact Accelerator Awards and our MRC Proximity to Discovery

award, to strengthen and deepen our industry partnerships. We are extending our reach into the SME

community in our region; for example, our ERDF funded ‘Arrow’ Project, starting in April 2018, aims

to provide support to, and foster long-term relationships with, the innovative and research driven

companies which will drive future economic growth in the North-East.

Our Business Development and Enterprise team comprises three Faculty-focused teams plus a

company creation team, a dedicated KTP Unit and teams managing corporate and SME engagement

activities. We have experienced business development and knowledge exchange professionals with

domain specific knowledge of academic disciplines and an ability to work closely with the academic

community while also maintaining close links with the business world.

We have significant technology transfer successes such as the licensing (and consequent royalty

streams) of an oncology drug (approved by the FDA in 2016, EMA approval anticipated in 2018). We

have track record of successful spin-outs and start-ups in life sciences, engineering and other

disciplines; for example a monoclonal antibody eventually acquired by Leica, and one of the world’s

leading sub-sea engineering companies, still based on the banks of the Tyne.

Recent developments have included the successful piloting of the ‘Northern Accelerator’, a new

scheme in collaboration with Durham University which seeks to place executives in potential spin-outs

post-formation. The scheme has led to a significant upturn in both the quality and quantity of our spin-

outs and, working in collaboration with Durham and other regional partners, we will extend the

resources, reach and scope of this programme during 2018.

Our work in this area has attracted national attention, most notably through UK government support

for three national Innovation Centres – in Ageing, Data and Energy storage. Other national recognition

– such as winning the Times Higher Education Knowledge Exchange award in 2017 for our KTP project

with the National Centre for the Children’s Book – demonstrate the breadth of our activities across

the University.

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The Catalyst Building – NICA’s new home

NICA’s new home from January 2020, The Catalyst, will be innovative and aesthetically pleasing,

attracting both the curiosity of the general public and industry partners. NICA will benefit from its

bespoke design promoting so-called ‘quadruple helix’ interactions amongst researchers, applied

innovation practitioners, companies, public service and local government staff, and the public. NICA

will also benefit from co-location with the National Innovation Centre for Data which shares a similar

mission and approach. The entrance and ground floor will create an open, inclusive and engaging

atmosphere, whilst being easily accessible for older people and national and international businesses

alike. The open-plan ground floor will merge into linked spaces for co-design and creativity but also

offer quiet, relaxing spaces. The building will have some degree of flexibility and allow reconfiguration

to meet the needs of a diverse range of users.

A range of key activities will need to be accommodated including:

Exhibition, Event and Meeting Spaces (Engagement and knowledge exchange)

Large, accessible and flexible spaces for conferences, permanent and commissioned exhibitions and

co-creation and community activities including knowledge exchange, market building and shaping, and

engagement activities.

Demonstrator and Creative Spaces (Co-design and prototype development and testing)

Realistic home and work environments, in which designer and public co-creation teams explore user

needs, and test and trial emerging solutions for example, smart home.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support and Incubation (Prototype to product development and

marketing)

Traditional office and workshop space will house key applied research groups actively working to bring

products to market together with entrepreneurs and business research and development teams

working on new solutions. This space will act as incubators for new businesses but will also be a fertile

ground for creating advocates for this innovative environment.

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The Opportunity

The Director will report into the University Executive Board through the NICA Board Chair, Professor

Brian Walker. The intention is to create an autonomous operating model and a clear mandate.

The Director will play a key role in developing the NICA organisation, shaping the culture and creating

a successful business which will have a material impact on the global ageing market while directly

benefiting the UK economy. This success depends on strong and visible leadership, and an ability to

work effectively and credibly with industry, academia and government alike.

The Director will work closely with academics within NUIA and across the three faculties at Newcastle

University and the Business Development and Enterprise team. The post is intended to help to fast-

track some of the translational developments associated with age–related research at Newcastle as

well as partnering other world class academic, applied research and commercialisation organisations

such as the UK Catapult network and industrial collaborators, to bring novel products and services for

the ageing demographic to market.

The Director is responsible for:

• Providing strategic leadership

• Setting, delivering and monitoring NICA’s key strategic objectives

• Assessing and managing risks

• Ensuring NICA complies with its legal, regulatory and contractual obligations

• Securing future funding for sustainability

• Establishing strong relationships and active collaboration across the sector and with other

ageing research and innovation centres e.g. Centre for Ageing Better, Nesta etc.

Key Priorities include:

Further evolution of the NICA strategic plan. Define and shape long term sustainable delivery

for NICA in line with key policy and strategic objectives e.g. Innovate UK and the broader UK

Government’s ageing and life sciences strategy.

Develop a financial model to encompass syndication by company subscription to develop pre-

competitive research to overcome barriers to accessing ageing markets.

Prioritise sectors in which NICA recruits and develops in-house expertise, to encompass:

Consumer Insights; Consumer products; Homes; Digital Health; Financial Services. Build a

pipeline of projects and start work on the first of these.

Leverage age-related design expertise to complement the NICA offer.

Commission in-house and collaborative project(s) to identify non-sector-specific obstacles to

Ageing innovation.

Attract and secure relevant commercial partners for co-location in The Catalyst building

focussing on businesses operating in NICA’s identified priority sectors.

Continue to build upon close collaborative relationships with the ageing researcher

community at Newcastle University and other leading centres.

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Use training programmes, including exchange and other fellowships, to build capacity and

expertise in priority sectors; attract and train an active cohort of in-house innovation experts.

Build an international Ageing Innovation Network with leading international institutions.

Work closely with the University to oversee the launch of the new Catalyst building, facilitate

interactions with other regional stakeholders, and progress a master plan for ‘living lab’

developments on the Helix site and at the Campus for Ageing & Vitality.

Operations:

• Update the annual strategic plan and deliver against these goals.

• Develop the necessary organisational and operational structures for NICA to deliver its

products and services to market.

• Build the operational processes and tools required to achieve on-going compliance with

necessary legal, regulatory and contractual obligations.

• Work to secure further private and public funding in line with the business plan.

Human Capital:

• Define the roles for the NICA team and ensure implementation.

• Establish scientific and industrial advisory panels (with the Board’s input as required) to

represent the broader ageing community.

Communications:

Refine and deliver on a communication and engagement plan which engages key stakeholders and

partners, particularly the public and industry.

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Person Specification

Candidates for the role will have credibility with, and insight into, the perspective of both academic

and commercial partners, a strong track record involving academic-commercial collaboration, an

existing relevant network of contacts and relationships, and evidence of strong strategic and

organisational skills.

You will need to provide evidence of:

• Outstanding leadership from an industrial and/or academia environment

• The ability to translate ideas into action

• The ability to lead an inter-disciplinary programme of research and engagement

• Credibility with senior academics

• Credibility with senior figures in industry

• Outstanding powers of communication and persuasion.

Experience and knowledge

Demonstrable experience of working at senior level in strategic planning across complex

organisations

• Significant experience of delivering large scale, multi-sector innovation activities including

development of sustainable funding support and appropriate governance and monitoring

activities

• Experience of leading, managing and motivating inter-disciplinary teams in business focused

research and innovation in a challenging environment

• Negotiating with and influencing diverse stakeholders, understanding their agendas and

winning their agreement for the organisation’s benefit;

• Knowledge and understanding of the Higher Education environment.

Skills and abilities

• A deep understanding of technology transfer and commercialisation of research, including

product/service development, IP and licensing, and venture capital

• Expertise in the development of systems/facilities to support innovation and implementation

• Ability to interpret, develop and implement plans in response to national/international policy

• Dynamism and creativity able to use every opportunity to build and promote the organisation

• Fluency in English with excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to deliver

complex messages to a range of audiences

• Ability to work as part of a team and adopt a coaching style to drive individual and

organisational performance

• Ability to interact, communicate and work across cultures and language differences

• Strong track record of maintaining a partnership approach and matrix working

• Well-developed management and negotiation skills

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For further information… Please contact Mike Dixon at Dixon Walter on 07876751896 or at mike@dixonwalter.co.uk