Dr Matt Wells talks about his journey from materials research to working in commercialisation and how his priorities evolved along the way.
Dr Matt Wells, a commercialisation associate with Cambridge Enterprise and materials science researcher, shares his thoughts on academia, transferable skills and priorities with Sonali Shukla, Careers Consultant.
What’s your position and what does your role entail?
I’ve been now with Cambridge Enterprise for seven months as a commercialisation associate. The role is about trying to maximise the impact of university research by supporting paths to commercialisation. It’s something that I never would have thought of during my PhD, or really even during the first five years of my postdoc. But in the final year of my postdoc the opportunity came to light, and that happened to come at a time when I was starting to realise that, although there were many things that I liked about academia, perhaps it wasn’t sustainable for me in the long term.
The Cambridge Enterprise opportunity coming when it did was an ideal sidestep in a way, allowing me to keep a lot of the things that I really valued in academia and stay connected with that world
Maybe my risk appetite in life was starting to decrease, and so it became less and less acceptable to me to have that situation of a rolling two-year or three-year contract. The Cambridge Enterprise opportunity coming when it did was an ideal sidestep in a way, allowing me to keep a lot of the things that I really valued in academia and stay connected with that world, and engaged with cutting edge research.
Cambridge Enterprise allows me to also have many of the things I was starting to lose patience with in academia. I now have security and a clear progression that’s not dependent on experimental results, or the whims of the funding bodies.
You mentioned this shift in priorities over time. Reflecting back, what would you say your priorities were when you started your PhD or postdoc?
Starting my PhD I had the perhaps slightly naïve desire to want to do something that was going to make a difference or have a positive impact on the world. Research seemed like a good way of doing that. I liked the problem solving. There’s a bit of a puzzle element to exploring questions like, “what happens if you do this?” or “can we do something useful with that?” which excites me. As a PhD student, there is also the mentality that it’s for three years time, and then you’ll look for a job. That’s quite a natural progression of things, but as a postdoc that sense of progression can start to feel less tangible, and that’s fine but for only so long.
What skills have you developed in your postdoc that you’ve found most valuable in this role?
In my role now, although my expertise is mainly in materials science, I cover all the physical sciences, and occasionally life sciences as well. People may come with any kind of invention within that broad scope and, we have to be able to speak to them, understand their work, and decide if there is something which in theory could be patented, or if not then how else we could best help them commercialise their work. Is it something that’s novel or new that’s not been done before? Is there a market for it? Is it useful? So you have to get to grips very quickly with a field about which you may know nothing.
For me, that’s pretty much what I did for my postdoc; I came into the field of solid oxide fuel cells never having done anything on them before. Same with the PhD; I hadn’t actually heard of the subject of my PhD when I started it.
I don’t read especially quickly, but I’m very quick at extracting the information I need from a paper or an article. I think that’s the central skill here – being able to know what to look for and what to Google as well is a key thing. A postdoc gives you a lot of those transferable skills.
Is there anything that really surprised you in your new role? Something that you couldn’t have anticipated being embedded in academic research?
Not really – the job and what the role would entail were well described in the advertisement. One concern I had (maybe “concern” is too strong of a word) is that in academia nothing is really structured or regimented. As long as you have a rough organization system for your data, then it’s fine. Everyone organises things in their own chaotic manner and life goes on.
I wasn’t sure of how I would fit into something that does have to be much more organised, and where you have to organise things in the same way as everyone else. So I suppose I was pleasantly surprised that it came quite naturally and easily for me.
As you came to the end of your postdoctoral funding, you were exploring multiple routes forward, including applying for an EPSRC fellowship. How did your thoughts evolve as to what you wanted post-postdoc? If I recall, you were considering multiple opportunities, including Cambridge Enterprise and fellowships at the same time?
Yes, the overall decision process quite closely overlapped in time. I think it would be fair to say in any case that by the time I did the interview, I had serious doubts about whether I wanted the fellowship. My application was originally rejected on the basis that fuel cell research doesn’t come within the scope of energy research. I managed to refute that and EPSRC said they would reassess it.
The reviews of my application were then very positive, and I started thinking, “This is research that I want to do. I think this is exciting and interesting!”
But then, I was also thinking that in two years or three years time, I’m in the exact same position. Yes with a good CV and good experience, but the odds of getting a follow-on fellowship are just as slim really as they were before.
Had your priorities shifted at this point?
I could stay in academia, but it would come at a cost.
My partner and I were starting to think at this point that we’d like to stay in Cambridge long term, and the odds of getting a permanent position in Cambridge are in most cases fairly negligible.
I could stay in academia, but it would come at a cost: I would have to move to wherever the opportunity was. I think when you’re fresh out of undergrad or a PhD, it’s relatively straightforward to say, “ok, we’re moving here and that’s exciting.” But as we got older, had both our careers to consider, bought a house etc, you just gradually become more and more settled. That’s good in its own way too, but it shifts that balance of priorities.
For those reasons, I was starting to think, maybe in the long run this isn’t necessarily the right path for me. Until the Cambridge Enterprise job though, I hadn’t seen anything that I felt would still keep me in touch with academic research, at least in some sense, while also offering the stability and career progression opportunities that I was starting to feel I was missing.
I also considered the possibility of joining a startup company or something like that. And again, that would be an exciting route, still very much making a positive difference, doing something interesting and research based. However, the stability felt, if anything, slightly worse. So again, that didn’t really feel like it was solving the problem.
What advice do you have for postdocs that are where you were just a couple of years ago?
Don’t be afraid to explore new opportunities, because it might work out.
I don’t know, I think general advice is difficult. I probably enjoyed being in academia more than most; I loved being in the lab more than most. So for that reason, I’d say that I was someone who was going to be difficult to prise away from academia. I was very sceptical about whether I would enjoy life outside of academia in the same way. Maybe the broad brush advice would therefore be, “Don’t be afraid to explore new opportunities, because it might work out.”
I’ve been lucky that Cambridge Enterprise has worked out for me and I am enjoying it. But I suppose even if I wasn’t, that wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I could have still applied for a postdoc again and gone back down that road. In fact, I think I would have been better qualified as a result of the new experiences.
Don’t pen yourself into one fixed idea of a career path. Because there’s a good chance it won’t work out quite as you expected, and that usually ends up being for the best.
Working at Cambridge Enterprise has given me a much better understanding of what it takes to commercialise research, and which research is likely to make a real commercial impact and which research is likely to just result in some papers.
I think it may have been helpful for me not to look at it as kind of slamming the door shut and leaving academia forever, but as a chance to gain some new skills and potentially close the door behind me if I’m happy with that further down the road. So yeah, I think as well as don’t be afraid to try new opportunities, don’t pen yourself into one fixed idea of a career path. Because there’s a good chance it won’t work out quite as you expected, and that usually ends up being for the best.