Partners and the Open Innovation Industrial Consortium

Hosting partners 
 

ILESLA has a core group of hosting partners across which students may be based for the research phase of the programme. Of the six hosting partners, three are the universities that admit students and confer degrees. Students may be based at any of the six hosting partners for the research phase, but they must have a supervisor within their supervisory team who is employed by the university that admitted them. 

Current hosting partners include the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, The Open University, The Pirbright Institute, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and Diamond Light Source. With additional support from a consortium of world-leading academic institutions, facilities, research centres, industry and third-sector organisations, students will benefit from co-design of research and training with organisations that provide the UK’s national capabilities in synchrotron and neutron science, research into viral diseases, weather, oceanography, climate change, land and freshwater ecosystems; and imaging capabilities that range from subatomic to Earth observation.

The Open Innovation Industrial Consortium (Open-IIC) 

The Open Innovation Industrial Consortium (Open-IIC; pronounced "Open-to-see") brings together an alliance of industry partners who are interested in undertaking research at the frontiers of life and environmental science. Participation in Open-IIC is subject to a Open Innovation agreement; all projects offered through Open-IIC are industry-derived and jointly supervised by the industrial partner and an academic supervisor at the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University or the Open University, as well as supervisors employed by other ILESLA partners. 

Our industrial partners also actively contribute to training offered within ILELSA. A subset of ILELSA students who are committed to working with industry will be offered Open-IIC studentships and will undertake rotations and research projects in collaboration with one or more Open-IIC partners. Students within the main programme are also able to choose Open-IIC projects if they are not taken up by students holding Open-IIC studentships.

Open-IIC projects are selected through a two rotation project process, so that an informed choice can be made by students. This means that the supervisory team, student and industry partner can design substantive doctoral projects that build on understanding developed through the rotations of mutual interests, capabilities and strengths.

In practical terms the open IP approach ensures that all student research is visible to all partner organisations, and if any IP arises from that work then the company sponsoring the research has first refusal on exploiting that research (jointly with the university, universities or research organisations at which the student is registered and at which the students’ supervisors are employed). From a student perspective this means that students can talk freely to each other and to all of the academic supervisors without concerns about IP, so we can build a true cohort approach.

We welcome queries from organisations that are interested in joining Open-IIC as an industrial partner.  Please email enquiries@ilesla.ox.ac.uk

From a student perspective, you will be  jointly supervised by an academic supervisor at Oxford, Oxford Brookes or The Open University or other ILESLA partners and a industrial supervisor, and you will undertake an internship hosted at your Open-IIC collaborator's institution. This provides a unique opportunity to train at the academia/industry interface, while helping to build your connections in the private sector. 

Collaborative partners beyond industry 

ILESLA’s partner network is not limited to industry. Collaborative partners include public- and third-sector organisations, research facilities and specialist institutes. These partners can work with academic supervisors across the ILESLA organisations to offer rotation and doctoral projects. Our partner list continues to grow; you are encouraged to reach out to public and third-sector organisations not in the list below if you particularly want to work with them. 

Some, but not all, of our collaborative partners are eligible to be BBSRC or NERC CASE/iCASE partners. If your partner is a CASE partner you will undertake a placement with that partner, as in the case of Open-IIC students. 

Engaging with ILESLA partners
 

Interactions with ILESLA partners can happen throughout your doctorate. A partner may contribute to a rotation project, a team project, a substantive DPhil or PhD project, host a placement or internship, provide specialist training, mentoring or career development, or access to data, facilities, samples, methods or real-world context. This gives you multiple ways to engage with a wide range of ILESLA partners.