Challenge

The Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Programme (LIF) is the leading global programme to build entrepreneurship capacity. In five years the programme has trained nearly 950 entrepreneurs from 17 countries around the world. Funded by the Newton Fund and managed by the Royal Academy of Engineering (the Academy) with support of local partners, LIF is designed to build a global community of entrepreneurs and help commercialise innovations that address the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Approach

The Academy has engaged Oxentia as a delivery partner to provide expert coaching and mentoring to cohorts of leading innovators from 16 Newton Fund partner countries. In the first instance, Oxentia provides specialised coaching support to the delegates, as part of an intensive two-week training programme, helping them develop new business strategies, and improve their business plans and investment pitches. The programme includes training modules, ‘group activity’ based case studies where the LIF fellows have opportunity to apply the skills they learned to real-life challenges, as well as mentoring by experienced technology transfer coaches and serial entrepreneurs. After the two-week training programme, LIF fellows return to their respective countries and then receive ongoing follow-on support for several months to help advance their projects towards commercialisation, as well as participating in tailored follow-on events in their own country.

Impact

Since the inception of the LIF programme, LIF fellows have secured $62.6 million in innovation funding and have helped to create 1,727 new high-value jobs. The transformative impact of the programme is felt worldwide, 49% of ventures are commercialising in two or more countries and over 35 partnerships with UK institutions have been formed. The Academy commissioned a detailed study of the impact of this leading programme in one of the participating countries, the Philippines, which was conducted by Oxentia.