Dr Karim Bahou crossed from academic research into innovation, working in the difficult space where discoveries either find the partners, capital and infrastructure to grow – or remain ideas.
Karim Bahou began his career in organic chemistry.
A PhD at Imperial College London was followed by research in Australia and Liverpool. But the question that increasingly interested him was what happened after the science.
How does research become a product? How do universities find the right businesses? How do founders access expertise? Why do so many promising ideas struggle in the gap between discovery and adoption?
Those questions took Bahou out of academia and into innovation consulting, building partnerships between government, universities, larger organisations and SMEs.
He now leads innovation at Sister, Manchester’s major new innovation district.
His job is to create those connections at greater scale – helping founders reach partners, capital and academic expertise inside an ecosystem designed around turning research into real-world impact.
Bahou began by studying reactions between molecules.
He now works on the equally complicated reactions between institutions.
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Podcasts
Can Manchester Become Europe’s Innovation Capital with Dr Karim Bahou
In this episode, Oli Barrett MBE sits down with Dr Karim Bahou, Head of Innovation at Sister, Manchester’s £1.7 billion innovation district, to explore the future of technology, entrepreneurship and economic growth. From artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to startup ecosystems and the power of place, Karim shares why the…
