HAVING accepted an invite from organiser Olga Kozlova to announce the winner of this year’s Converge Challenge, Nicola Sturgeon said: “I want to see a ‘can do’ culture define us as a country on every level, and the talent and determination of these finalists shows that we are well on the way to fulfilling that vision”.

The presence of the First Minister on stage, never mind the impact of her words, quite fittingly illustrates what Ms Kozlova has achieved since 2011, when she first realised her plan of developing an entrepreneurship programme for people from an academic background.

Ms Kozlova says the 2017 winners and finalists, who were unveiled last month at an event at the Glasgow Science Centre, demonstrated a “real step change in ambition in participation.”

This year, the Challenge received 212 applicants from 17 of Scotland’s universities and research institutes. In 2011 it received 30.

Even taking into account the growth in awareness that comes as an initiative such as this gains traction, the uplift is striking.

“It shows that [young academics] are better prepared and that it is because they are more motivated and committed to starting a business, and universities are better at supporting them,” she says.

With first-hand experience of launching a business from an academic background, Ms Kozlova is well-placed to comment, and in her view, the rate at which businesses are being created centring on the inventions of PhD students is rocketing.

“Over the last 10, and especially five years, it has become almost the norm for them to think of the commercial application,” she says. “I was in the minority, now there are a lot more scientists seriously considering how what they are doing can be used in real life.”

This year’s overall winner was Dave Hughes of University of the West of Scotland for his project novosound, which allows expectant parents to see their unborn child with the image quality of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans.

Mr Hughes invention uses sensors, systems and software to reduce the cost of high resolution imaging and can be used in the medical, dental, and industrial markets.

Other notable companies to have come through the process are patient monitoring firm Snap 40, dementia care app MindMate, golf performance wearable Shot Scope and personal alarm system Pick Protection.

Ms Kozlova says she is very proud to have played a part in the development of these businesses.

“Our main aim is that at the end of the programme [entrants] know how to talk to a customer, they known how to do an elevator pitch, learn how to exhibit in a business environment and have a full business plan.”

She says fledgling business owners see the deadlines provided by the process helpful, adding that it allows them to identify where there may be gaps in their business plan.

More than £60 million has been raised in funding by companies which have entered the challenge from 2011 to 2016.

A total of 180 projects have gone through the system, leading to the creation of 79 businesses. Starting a company is a straightforward administrative process of course, keeping it going is the challenge.

“What we also do is look at the three year survival rate,” says Mr Kozlova. “From 2011 to 2014, that is 78 per cent so we’re doing really well.”

Ms Kozlova arrived in Scotland in 1999 to undertake a PhD in cell biology at the University of Edinburgh. Arriving from Kazan in Russia, where she had studied microbiology, she went on to spin-out her drug discovery business.

Although the business ultimately failed, it planted the seed that would become the Converge Challenge.

“It was high risk and didn’t work out, but what it did was give me passion,” she said. “I was a young scientist and all I knew was the lab and my experiments, but, I thought, how do you find out if what you have has a market, and if you can make money on it?”

She says PhD research has become a lot more mainstream, particularly for younger post-docs. “Universities are getting much better at telling people they don’t have to be academic, that they can look at other options,” she says.

This can include collaborating with industry or setting up a company.

While the universities shape the minds, Ms Kuzlova says Converge Challenge helps teach practical business training, such as how to pitch to investors.

Noting that while Scotland has a “fantastic” angel investment community, she adds: “What we don’t have is the scale up funding which comes from venture capital.”

To address this, she advocates the establishment of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), which forms part of the SNP’s current programme for government.

“What we’re trying to do with Converge Challenge is get these businesses to have real ambition, but to deliver that they need investment,” she says. “We hope that the SNIB backs the truly scalable businesses so they can develop internationally, find a way of de-risking, and attract more venture capital money into Scotland.”

One clear passion is the promotion of female entrepreneurs. Having been horrified that just 18 per cent of entrants to the first Converge Challenge were female, Ms Kuzlova has worked towards parity, reaching 43 per cent this year – with two of the three big winners being women.

She says this has been driven in part by growing numbers of female role models, including Ms Sturgeon, and a growth in female academics. “We have to do more, be louder about it, and celebrate success. That’s the only way we’ll get equality.”

Ms Kuzlova adds there are now far more women attempting to commercialise their ideas in the lab. And to them she says this: “Don’t think you have to be perfect. And please don’t be scared to try. At a lecture, if there is a question and answer, women raise their hand but if they don’t get picked they don’t raise it again. You have to keep raising your hand.”