The University of Manchester's Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health is to get an injection of business acumen with the appointment of its first Entrepreneur in Residence.
Dr Lucy Buckley, a leading figure in the Greater Manchester business community, will start the Royal Society scheme, part of its Science, Industry and Translation programme, on 1 March 2025.
Dr Buckley, who has over 20 years of experience in business across diverse sectors of healthcare, will spend one day a week at the university, developing bespoke projects with university staff and students.
Her career spans the healthcare system from academic drug discovery to all aspects of the product life cycle in the pharmaceutical industry.
Latterly, she has turned her hand to digital health, launching a Care Quality Commission-registered online fertility clinic. She has also held clinical roles in both the NHS and private sector.
Throughout her professional life, Lucy has been committed to her values of strong governance, ethics and compliance and has experience of a wide range of regulations across healthcare and data security.
She will provide support and expert advice on promoting innovation and the translation of research, as well as research and development.
And she will pass on her extensive knowledge on the scientific challenges faced by industry in the health sector.
After qualifying as a pharmacist at Cardiff University, and working in community and hospital pharmacy, she went on to take a PhD in drug discovery at The University of Manchester's centre for applied pharmacokinetic research in 2006.
The PhD was sponsored by a major pharmaceutical company which meant she spent time in their labs, her first taste of working across academic and industry.
From 2014, she worked at a major pharmaceutical company and built relationships with both clinical and academic key opinion leaders and worked with them as advisors to help drive scientific projects and improve patient outcomes.
Soon, she was in a position to set up her own business, called Dr Fertility, the first online primary care provider for fertility to be registered with the Care Quality Commission.
The company raised over two-and-a half million pounds to make the transition from ecommerce into a digital health provider for fertility. Dr Fertility provided fertility care delivered by both Doctors and nurses for anyone trying for a baby.
Her new venture, The Digital Health Assurance Company was launched in November 2023 to improve quality of care in digital health while supporting businesses to grow and scale.
The company has brought together a diverse range of experts and healthcare professionals with experience in academia, the pharmaceutical industry and the private and public healthcare sector.
Dr Buckley said: "I have experienced the roller coaster of raising venture capital and the challenges of being an executive."
"So, I have lots of experience to pass on to the scientific community in the Faculty of biology, medicine and health."
She added: "Scientists are sometimes regarded by investors as not having commercial acumen. Many often undersell themselves."
"Academics have many transferable skills that are essential in business such as identifying problems, developing innovative solutions, testing hypotheses, gathering and analysing data and making evidence-based decisions'
"One of my key aims of this role is to help bridge that gap between academia and industry.
"If your business idea is strong, I passionately believe there are always opportunities to make that dream happen."
Professor Allan Pacey, Interim Dean and Vice President of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health said "It is very exciting to welcome Lucy to the Faculty though this prestigious Royal Society scheme"
"I first met Lucy over 10 years ago when I helped with the first start-up company Dr Fertility. It's been great to see her go from strength to strength and be recognised by The Royal Society by being awarded this prestigious Royal Society scheme
"The University of Manchester is a global leader in Digital Health, being ranked by the Times Higher Education as first in the UK and fourth in the world.
"I hope that Lucy will be able to help us capitalise on this and held our researchers to navigate the tricky path of commercialisation."
