IDEA Board Shadowing Pilot – Register Your Interest

IDEA Board Experience Pilot programme, organized in collaboration with Oxford University Innovation and Oxford Sciences Innovation, will provide dedicated training and board experience for staff, academics, or post-doctoral researchers at the University of Oxford who identify as women or non-binary. Successful applicants will be apprenticed to a University of Oxford startup or spinout board. Participants will benefit from attending regular board meetings and be part of a dedicated cohort group which will comprise monthly workshops and networking sessions.

IDEA Board Experience Pilot’s purpose is to provide aspiring leaders and directors with insight into life inside the boardroom and provide them with experience of creating leadership strategies. The programme will be delivered using a hybrid learning method which complements participants’ professional lives and ambitions but also facilitates crucial networking and space for peer support.

After pre-training induction event in September 2021, the programme will revolve around monthly workshops and networking sessions which will focus on senior leadership in start-ups, spinouts and industrial settings. The programme consists of monthly training sessions delivered over the course of a year. Participants will attend board meetings with their assigned startup or spin-out and will have dedicated contact on the board to provide support and advice.

The pilot will include the following objectives:
 To increase awareness of the variety of senior leadership and board positions.
 To gain practical experience of board level dynamics and decision-making.
 To expand strategic thinking and problem-solving capability in a live setting
 To connect and encourage sharing diversity of expertise between participants and current startup and spin-out board members.