Connect Campaigns FAQs

We think the best way to understand the distinction between Connect Campaigns and Connect (our matchmaking system) is to consider Connect Campaigns as a "market-pull" model and the Connect subscription service as a "technology-push" model.

# How does Connect, the "technology-push" subscription model, work?

With Inpart's subscription service, we proactively push research with commercial potential out to our verified industry network (through intelligent matchmaking and proactive, personal alerts). These individuals have been curated to ensure they are interested and able to commercialise research or collaborate with academic teams. More than 6,000 R&D professionals, including 4,000+ biotech companies, engage technology through our system via this route, and we only provide end-users with access (no public users and no service providers).

Universities and academic institutes subscribed to Connect to showcase their latest early-stage research and assets receive introductions to new commercial partners, feedback from market-decliners, Impact Reports reviewing an array of statistics relating to interest and informing commercialization decisions, as well as an online dashboard to collaborate with colleagues, download marketing materials, create technology portfolios and engage Connect Campaigns through an easy-to-use system. For further information about joining Inpart alongside over 250 universities worldwide, submit a request to speak with a member of our team.

# How does Connect Campaigns, the "market-pull" model, work?

We consider our Connect Campaigns to be a 'market-pull' model, in that it is wholly driven by the requirements of an industry partner within a particular sector. We work with companies to identify and communicate their specific requirements, capturing this information in the form of an 'Industry Call for Opportunities' (ICO) or 'Request for Proposals' (RFP) summary document.

We proactively disseminate the campaign to organisations who can submit relevant research projects, IP, academic experts, centres of excellence, spinouts or biotech assets for engagement. This includes reaching out to both academic institutions and biopharma companies, depending on the scope of the campaign. We work with submitters to provide relevant, up-to-date information, and will facilitate introductions to the industry partners if the submission is of interest.

For an Industry Calls for Opportunities (ICO) campaign, an industry client will confirm which of the following types of opportunities they are interested in engaging:

• Technologies: a piece of intellectual property (IP), generated by a researcher and belonging to a university or research institute
• Spin-out companies: small company formed based on the intellectual property generated from university research
• Research projects: an ongoing academic research project with aims and objectives
• Academic experts: a university expert in a given field
• Centres of Excellence: a research group, unit or department focused on specific research topic or field
• Biopharma Assets: an asset or technology owned by a private biotechnology or biopharma company

Each submission would ideally comprise: 200-300 word description with weblinks and/or attached documents containing further information (where appropriate).

In an RFP campaign, an industry client is seeking novel research proposals to address their research needs. These calls will include completing a submission form to outline how you propose to work in collaboration with the industry client to address the challenge.

There is no limit on the number of opportunities you can submit to a Campaign. Submissions can be sent to campaigns@inpart.io

Alternatively, for universities that are subscribed to our Connect platform, opportunities can be submitted via your online dashboard.

This depends on the type of submission being put forward.

• For academic experts, centres of excellence and research projects, Inpart will ask the academic directly for consent to put forward the submission.
• For university-affiliated technologies or spinout companies, we ask for consent from a TTO member.
• Biopharma assets are typically submitted by non-university companies, so we seek consent from an appropriate member of the biopharma team

Yes! During our research for a Connect campaign, we will identify any highly relevant technologies from the Connect platform that should be included. Connect university users may also put these forward for consideration too, by contacting their assigned account manager or emailing campaigns@inpart.io

If you have a new technology you'd like to submit to both a Connect Campaign and your Connect portfolio, the best way to do this is using the '+ new technology' button in your university dashboard and including a note in your new upload with details of which Connect Campaign you'd like it included in as well.

The 'Institutions Submissions' page in the Connect Campaigns area of your university dashboard shows the submissions made by your institute to current and previous campaigns. The status of each submission can be found here too, along with updates on their progress and outcomes.

After the deadline has passed for a client's respective ICO campaign, we collate all opportunities into a report. The client undertakes a review of the report before actioning introductions to opportunities of interest. For opportunities not of interest, we aim to provide feedback about why they were not chosen.

This depends on the focus of each campaign. Some companies will be seeking submissions from biopharma companies, which can be related to their research programme or specific assets they have developed. If this is the case, companies can submit the 'Biopharma asset' opportunity type to the campaign. The other opportunity types require university affiliation or consent.

When an industry client wishes to engage an opportunity featured in their Connect Campaign report, we immediately introduce them to the related university or biopharma team.

Following this introduction, we take a hands-off approach and allow the industry client and university or biopharma representative to discuss next steps. The details of any potential collaboration would be entirely negotiated between the relevant academic/university representative and the client.

Outcomes range from funding academic research to sharing existing company know-how and other resources, licensing and long-term strategic partnerships. Inpart takes no fee for any success (our fee is paid upfront by the company client commissioning the report).

We ask that all clients review the submitted opportunities promptly and provide feedback, typically within eight weeks. This can however be extended to allow sufficient time for meaningful review, particularly when high volumes of submissions are received. If this happens, we will provide an updated timeline to the affected submitters.

The likelihood of an opportunity meeting the criteria for client introductions depends heavily on the relevance of the content for the specific campaign. The number of introductions we make between universities and the company therefore ranges, however, all corporate clients undertake a Connect Campaign in the knowledge that this is not simply a reporting exercise, it is a service designed to introduce parties.

Approximately 15% of opportunities within a report have been engaged by clients, with some garnering introduction rates over 25%. It should be stated that clients may also reach out to opportunities after a campaign concludes, owing to changes in priorities.

Every institution submitting an opportunity for a Connect Campaign will be updated on the status of their submission's progress. For opportunities deemed not sufficiently relevant to initiate an introduction, we will always let you know as soon as possible and provide at least some form of feedback from the client.

Unfortunately, opportunity-specific feedback is not always possible; this is because Connect Campaign reports regularly contain 50-100 opportunities, and we consider it unreasonable to expect an industry client to curate a response for each opportunity featured.

For universities who are subscribed to Inpart's Connect platform, if an opportunity is submitted to a Connect Campaign but is not already listed on the platform, there is the opportunity to post the submission to the platform. Through this route, opportunities receive a detailed level of market feedback based on quantitative and qualitative statistics reflecting market interest.

This is generally to prevent exposure of corporate/research strategy to competitors. However, we understand that this can make submitting opportunities less attractive, and generally we encourage our industry clients to use their company name where possible.

At the point of our client expressing interest, we reveal the company name and their contact details for follow-up to start a dialogue on collaboration/commercialization.

To note, Inpart only engages high-value clients serious about research commercialization and collaboration with universities, so we always encourage teams to submit content even if the client wishes to remain anonymous.