League of European Research Universities (LERU)

Event

League of European Research Universities

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is a well-established network of 24 research-intensive universities.

Representatives from LERU’s policy and thematic groups meet regularly throughout the year. The next meeting is taking place in Cambridge where the Innovation thematic group (ENTE) will gather for two days.

This event includes a keynote from Prof Sir John Aston, as well as a panel session chaired by Prof Andy Neely and featuring Cambridge Enterprise’s CEO Jim Glasheen, Kathryn Chapman from Innovate Cambridge and Anne Dobrée of Parkwalk. For the full agenda please use the button below.

Agenda

LERU advocates, at both a national and European level, for the importance of basic research, while articulating the vital role universities play in society. It has become an influential voice in European policy discussions on higher education and research.

Central to LERU’s work is the publication of policy papers and statements, as well as the organisation of events and meetings. LERU also provides a valuable forum for members to exchange expertise, share best practice and stay connected on emerging priorities.

The LERU network

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is a prominent advocate for the promotion of basic research at European research universities. They strongly believe that frontier research plays an essential role in the innovation process and significantly contributes to the progress of society.

They aim at furthering politicians’, policy makers’ and opinion leaders’ understanding of the important role and activities of research-intensive universities. Their 24 members bring together representatives to work on LERU policy development and engage in mutual learning in many areas.

To pursue its goals effectively, LERU also maintains contacts with institutions around the world that contribute to science policy making and research funding, including, among others, their European and global partner networks CE7 and GCRIUN.

Introductions

Sir John Aston

Professor Sir John Aston is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge and is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life.

John is an applied statistician with particular interest in statistical neuroimaging, official statistics and statistical linguistics. He has methodological interests in functional and object data analysis, time series and image analysis, and spatial-temporal statistics. John also leads research into the use of quantitative evidence in public policy making, works with those in public life to ensure the best methods are used, and aims to improve the use of statistics and other quantitative evidence in public policy debates.

John is a non-executive board member of the UK Statistics Authority and from 2017-2020 was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office and Director-General for Science, Technology, Analysis, Research and Strategy. He was a founding director of the Alan Turing Institute. He is a member of the London Policing Board and the current President of the Royal Statistical Society, where he will serve as president during 2025-26. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Cambridge, John held academic positions at the University of Warwick and at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. John was knighted in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to statistics and public policymaking.

Jim Glasheen

Jim is Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise. He has over 25 years of experience across industry and university environments in both Silicon Valley and the Cambridge Massachusetts innovation ecosystem.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise in 2024 Jim was Co-founder and President of two biotech companies, Atalanta Therapeutics and Clade Therapeutics. He also served as Executive Vice Chancellor – Innovation and Business Development at UMASS Medical School. Prior to these roles, Jim was a venture capitalist for ~20 years, as General Partner and Life-Science Co-Lead at Palo Alto based firm Technology Partners Venture Capital.

Jim completed a post-doctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley and holds a PhD in Biology from Harvard University, a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Fellowship at Universität des Saarlandes and a BS from Duke University.

Koenraad Debackere

Koenraad Debackere is a professor of economics and management of technology and innovation at KU Leuven. He has been managing director of KU Leuven, and currently is the chair of KU Leuven Associatie, executive director of KU Leuven R&D, and a member of the Board of Governors of RWTH Aachen.

He was and is member or chair of various international scientific advisory boards in the areas of innovation and technology development & policy (LERU Enterprise & Innovation, and ENGIE), intellectual property management & policy (4iP Council), and product innovation management (EIASM-IPDMC).

He has held directorships in several investment and technology companies, and currently is chair of KBC Group and a board member of Umicore.

He studied engineering, economics and business at the University of Ghent and MIT and held visiting professorships at several international universities.

Andy Neely

Professor Andy Neely is Professor of Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. His previous appointments include Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, Royal Academy of Engineering Professor of Complex Services at the University of Cambridge, Deputy Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research, a UK national research programme and the Director of the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield University.

As Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge Andy had responsibility for all of the University’s activities relating to innovation, commercialisation, start ups and spinouts. He sat on the boards of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s technology transfer business and Cambridge Innovation Capital, a venture capital fund. He played a leading role in establishing Innovate Cambridge, a city-wide initiative to develop a community-based innovation strategy for Cambridge.

During his career, Andy has founded several major research centres and groups, including the Cambridge Service Alliance at the University of Cambridge and the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield University. He is co-founder of Anmut, the data valuation specialists and a Non-Executive Director at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

He has written over 100 books and articles, including “Measuring Business Performance”, published by the Economist and “The Performance Prism”, published by the Financial Times. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to research and university-industry collaboration.

He is widely recognised for his work on manufacturing and service operations, including the servitization of manufacturing and the design and deployment of strategic performance measurement systems. Currently he is working on AI and its practical application in organisations.

Declan Weldon

Dr Declan Weldon has a proven track record leading business and technology teams serving a range of industries involved in engineering, pharma, food and healthcare services in Europe, North America and China.

In his previous role as Executive Director of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Engagement at the University of Glasgow he developed and executed a new Innovation Strategy building a new capability to support the research base, led the University’s participation in Glasgow’s Levelling Up – Innovation Accelerator program and developed the Entrepreneurial Campus Program.

Prior to this as Deputy Director for Research & Innovation in Trinity College Dublin, he has successfully led on the University’s strategy and delivery for industry partnerships, Knowledge Transfer (TTO), New Campus Companies and Academic Consultancy. Dr Weldon also sits on the Advisory Board Spin-outs Denmark and has previously served on the board of University Bridge Funds 1 & 2, and COPD Support Ireland.

He has PhD in Chemistry from Trinity College, Dublin, and holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.

Anne Dobrée

Seasoned technology seed investor with 20+ years of experience of commercialising technology from the research of world class Universities. Currently investing in *university tech companies* across the UK as part of the team at Parkwalk Advisors.

Previously Head of Seed Funds at the University of Cambridge, leading a team producing top performing societal and financial investment results from University people and technologies. Skilled at bringing together entrepreneurs and investors as well as commercial and technical expertise. Able to align the interests of the University of Cambridge, company founders and investors alike to create exceptional investment opportunities. Experienced start-up director with a demonstrated history of working across a range of early stage technology companies. Established the University’s acceleration programme Founders at the University of Cambridge.

During her time at Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, Anne’s successes include:

>210 investments in >110 companies, totalling >£30M by the Seed Funds team
Establishing the UCEF funds with Parkwalk Advisors – as of Sept 2023, nine funds which have invested £20.4M into 108 rounds/60 companies. Valued at >£50M
Securing additional £30M investment from the University into Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds
Spinning out Cambridge Innovation Capital from the University with Tony Raven and Edward Benthall – now a £250M+ fund.

Kathryn Chapman

A molecular bioscientist, Kathryn has had a distinguished career in diverse leadership and strategic roles across the public and private sectors.

Following a successful research career at the University of Manchester, Harvard Medical School, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and GlaxoSmithKline, Kathryn has played a pivotal role in shaping inclusive innovation landscapes, building cross-disciplinary virtual and physical communities and creating novel models to remove barriers to success.

This includes a decade building and leading the innovation strategy for NC3Rs, a UKRI Research Council where Kathryn founded and directed a new challenge-led open innovation platform, CRACK IT which increases cross-discipline and cross-sector industry/academic partnerships in applied research. Kathryn also co-established the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge, providing a physical hub for translational science and collaboration between industry and academia. The Institute is a centre of excellence for target validation through artificial intelligence, machine-learning, functional genomics and tool compound analyses. Most recently, prior to joining Innovate Cambridge, Kathryn directed the innovation strategy at the Babraham Research Campus, launching LiveLabs incubator space and leading the Campus accelerator, entrepreneurship and innovation activities.

Throughout these roles. Chapman’s focus has been on spearheading initiatives that propel startups, entrepreneurs and businesses towards success and driving meaningful change at a national and international level.

Kathryn has 50+ research publications and has been on a wide-range of national and international review panels (Innovate UK, Innovative Medicines Initiative and BBSRC). She holds an honorary professorship at the University of Coventry where she sits on the Vice Chancellor’s advisory group.

Timo Minssen

Professor Timo Minssen is Professor of Biotechnology Law, specialising in legal aspects of biomedical innovation, at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Centre for Information & Innovation Law (CIIR). In 2016, Professor Minssen has been appointed as Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and has also been Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, Harvard Law School and the Chicago-Kent College of Law, as well as Max Planck stipendiate at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competion in Munich. He was trained in the German Court system (Referendariat), worked for a short period at the European Patent Office (EPO) and was engaged in interdisciplinary epigenics-research at the Swedish Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies in Lund.

At the University of Copenhegen, Timo is scientific advisory board member of the Copenhagen Centre for Regulatory Sciences (CORS). He also heads the Copenhagen Biotech and&Pharma Forum (CBPF) and is PI and WP leader in four interdisciplinary pharma- & biotech- related research projects concerning User Generated Law, Synthetic Biology, Biobanking, Personalised Medicine, Additive Manufacturing and large European research infrastructures. He is a frequent lecturer on a variety of biotech and pharma related topics with many publications in leading international journals. In 2012 he published a study on the patentability of biopharmaceutical technology in Europe and in the U.S., which was awarded with the Swedish King Oscar stipendium. He is also a regular contributor on Harvard Law School’s “Bill of Health” blog. At present he is finalising a book on pharmaceutical competition law with Oxford University Press.

Research Focus

Whilst in Cambridge, Professor Minssen’s research will concentrate on several publications which are close to completion. These cover the areas of:

Patent law issues in 3D bioprinting.
The interface of biopharmaceutical IPRs and competition law.
Standardisation in systems biology, IPRs and user-generated solutions.
Legal issues in the gene editing revolution.

In addition, he will participate in panel discussions and present on on:

Clinical trials, data transparency and IPRs at the C5 Life Science IP Summit in London, 20-21 October.
Patent Failures on Life Science Frontiers in Oxford.
Patenting DNA at the 2016 Philomathia Symposium at the University of Cambridge.

League of European Research Universities (LERU)