Facing up to todays challenges: building for tomorrow
UK Knowledge Exchange, TechnologieAllianz, Berlin 16.04.2013
1. Research & Knowledge Exchange in
the UK
TechnologieAllianz, Berlin, 16-17th April 2013
Dr Dave Bembo
Chair of Council, Association for University Research & Industry Links, UK
Cardiff University, Research & Commercial Division
bembo@cardiff.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 29 20 875159
2. Scope:
AURIL: structure and function, activities
The UK research base
Drivers of Knowledge Exchange KE activity
Knowledge Exchange KE in the UK: statistics and current
trends
Proof of concept and securing early stage investment: latest
information from the UK
A non-exclusive list!
3. AURIL Structure
AURIL is a Company Limited by Guarantee. We are an SME!
Chair of Council 2013-14: Dr Dave Bembo. Executive Director: Dr Alasdair
Cameron. Offices & support staff based in University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
15 Members of Council (expanded in 2012), including Executive Director, a
representative of universities in Eire and one co-opted member.
Institutions (not individuals) are members: Universities, Public Sector Research
Organisations, other public sector and companies .
Circa 1,600 people on electronic mailbase.
Membership is entirely optional. Around 90 subscribing members currently.
4. Prof Oisin MacNamara launches AURIL’s revised CPD Framework, 2012 Conference.
Annual conference a major activity, held in October each year.
2011 in London, 2012 in Sheffield, 2013 in Cardiff.
150-200 delegates. Networking, talks from Government
policymakers and funders, workshops, consultations.
5. In addition to Annual Conference, also workshops &
discussion fora, e.g. Directors Cut;
guidance and policy documents; consultation with Govt &
other KE stakeholders, UUK, CBI, Funding Councils &
Research Councils, etc.
Core focus for AURIL:
* Advocacy, Influence, Promotion & Representation for KE
Professionals;
* Self-help and good practice sharing network for
KE/KT/TT/ILO Professionals.
Of AURIL’s member organisations, >90% are universities.
AURIL increasingly working in collaboration with other
professional bodies in the UK such as PraxisUnico & ARMA.
6. Examples of AURIL activities in 2012-13:
Recruited new Executive Director, Dr Alasdair Cameron
Moved AURIL Office & assets from Belfast to Strathclyde
AURIL 2012 Conference, Sheffield
Launched CPD Framework for Business and Community
Engagement
Scottish Government Single Knowledge Exchange Office SKEO
consultation & Innovation Centres in Scotland
Contributing to evaluation of the impacts of Lambert Toolkit
7. 2011 update to IP Guide for
Universities
UK Intellectual Property Office
Universities UK
AURIL
PraxisUnico
Available at:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/about/press
/press-release/press-release-
2011/press-release-20110519.htm
8. Managing Intellectual Property for HEIs – in 2011
Original 2003 Guide – more of a how to guide or ‘recipe book’ for IP
assessment and protection.
2011 Guide – encourages HEIs to consider their strategic focus and
formulate & adopt IP policies which support this. One size doesn’t fit all.
Staff resources for KE should be configured to match strategic and
operational priorities... and budgets!
“The issue is not simply one of protection in order to encourage
commercial investment. University researchers require continuing access
to the results of their research for use in future (research) projects and
teaching. (These may be more important than IP exploitation income.)
Effective IP management is required to ensure that this is the case…….
Negotiations and agreements therefore need to be structured so that
future needs of the university can be accommodated.”
9. “There is undoubted potential for universities to generate
surpluses from the IP management function, although there is
a need for realism over the scale of returns.”
Knowledge Exchange policies and their intersection with other university
policies, e.g.:
Human resources (IP ownership; sharing of revenues on
successful exploitation)
IP generated by students - balancing clean IP position versus
duty of care
The 2011 Guide is intended to provoke debate within
institutions in order to allow HEIs to make better informed
judgements about how they manage IP and how they expect
to benefit from this activity.
10. University Sector in the UK
115 universities inc ‘post 1992’ (+ 50 other Higher Education Institutions)
Over 180,000 academic staff
1.9 million undergraduate students; 578,000 postgraduates
Total sector income of £26.8 billion [see next slide]
Strong science base:
8% of publications on Web of Science, 12% citations, 14.4% of World’s top cited
publications
.... especially given relatively low investment of circa 4% Gross Expenditure
HEIs are major contributors to UK economy (HEFCE’s Higher Education – Business
and Community Interaction Survey)
Source: HESA, UUK, HEFCE, 2009-11; Evidence 2011
11.
12. UK HEIs, huge diversity in size and mission:
24 HEIs with income <£20 million
22 HEIs with income £20-50 million
48 HEIs with income £50-150 million
71 HEIs with income >£150 million
From highly active in research and KE (e.g. 20 Russell Group members) to
highly teaching focused
e.g. Funding Council Quality Research QR funding is part of Dual Support
and is based on RAE research quality * volume * subject weighting.
In Wales alone (10 universities) QR ranges £139K - £39.9 million for 2011-
12 (280x) [QR]
With so much variation in research capacity & quality, clearly
KE resources and priorities will differ hugely also.
0
20
40
60
80
<£20M £20-50M £50-150M >£150M
13. Evidence, 2010
The External Environment: Funding for research
Investments under
pressure
Budgets under
pressure
14. Govt CSR2010 UK science funding
a 10% reduction in real terms
Wakeham Review
Warns of the need to maintain not
grow the volume of research funded
under Full Economic Costs FEC
Focuses on Full Economic Costs FEC
base of HE research activities ;
driving down overheads rates – and
increasing efficiency
Research Equipment and Asset
Sharing;
‘Grand Challenges’, Big Projects &
Consortia
15. UK Research Funding base:
Research Councils and EU
Science budget protected in 2010 CSR, but
pressure on Research Council budgets has
resulted in ‘Demand Management’ measures.
‘Shaping Capability’ by the UK Engineering & Physical Sciences
Research Council, EPSRC. Prioritising funding for specific areas
of science, cutting the availability for others.
Huge interest in EU funding among UK HEIs. Opportunities in
some regions to align EU Structural Funds and H2020.
H2020 represents a great opportunity for universities and
private sector to build collaborative projects.
16. Research Excellence Framework
REF2014
Government assessment of quality of research, every 6 years or so
(2001, 2008, 2014). Managed by Higher Education Funding Council
for England, HEFCE (also in devolved regions).
REF is a major influence on all aspects of research in UK universities.
All-pervasive.
REF influences: recruitment, investment, reputation, financial
sustainability.
Quality Research QR funding awarded by allocation on previous RAE
and now REF results (plus volume measure & subject weighting).
17. KE and Research Funding: REF2014
REF scores Research on: i) The quality of research outputs
(with citation information in some areas); ii) The vitality of the
research environment; and for the first time iii) The wider
Impact of research.
Increasing emphasis on demonstrating the economic, societal
and health Impact of the UK research base. Case studies
used, arising from ‘quality research’, with verifiable data.
Change in focus of REF is achieving the intended aim: more
current interest from researchers in engagement with e.g.
private sector. Long term game.
Influencing demand for input from KE professionals.
Influencing roles? Creating new ones? ‘REF Impact Officers’.
18. No Professorial Privilege exists
IP generated by academic staff (professors, lecturers) and researchers is
primarily owned by the university as their employer (under the UK’s
Copyright, Designs & Patents Act, 1988)
Ownership of IP generated by postgraduate researchers such as PhD
students can be less certain
UK Universities are generally free to determine appropriate
commercialisation & dissemination routes
Universities usually (84+ %) have generous policies for royalty income
sharing with inventors
Spin-out companies provide good opportunities for founding academics
to take equity, often with buy-out of time / consultancy arrangements
Ownership of Intellectual Property generated by UK
universities
19. Annual survey of KE in the UK. Managed by HEFCE.
“.... examines the exchange of knowledge between universities and
the wider world, and informs the strategic direction of 'third
stream' activity that funding bodies and higher education
institutions (HEIs) in the UK undertake”
Surveys collect financial and output data per academic year, i.e. to
31st July in the UK.
Annual reports include information on commercialisation of new
knowledge, delivery of professional training, consultancy and
services, to activities intended to have direct social benefits.
2010-11 data published by HEFCE in 2012, the 11th successive year.
Higher education-business and community
interaction survey (HE-BCIS)
29. Fusion IP owns the rights to 100% of university-owned research
generated at University of Sheffield and Cardiff University (and
soon Nottingham & Swansea) .
No affect on contract research or activities where there is a contractual
obligation to a funder. Important to promote this accurately!
Universities are shareholders in Fusion IP. Exclusive 10 year agreements
to access new IP generated by research.
Integration & co-location with university technology transfer teams.
Very credible and professional team – important for confidence in
investors & venture capitalists which may have been reluctant to work
with a university.
Ringfenced investment fund of up to £20 million but has attracted more
in co-investment. And £20 million of new funding secured in 2013.
Very effective partnering and synergy, adding a new dimension to
university tech transfer and also very efficient in sharing resources and
bringing in new expertise.
30. Easy Access IP – a current UK
initiative in technology transfer
University of Glasgow, with Bristol , King’s College London and others.
Partnership established March 2011 with £80,000 from UK Intellectual
Property Office
One page licence agreements, freely accessible online, non-exclusive or
exclusive, royalty-free with the obligation to report on exploitation
Managed as a knowledge exchange offering, alongside technology
transfer
Recognises the wider benefits of increasing the volume of
university IPRs in evaluation and use in industry (Impact agenda)
and that IP exploitation has a greater value to universities than
simply income generation
http://www.easyaccessip.org.uk/
31. Comes from a variety of sources in the UK:
Funding for Proof of Concept work
32. Follow on Funding
Specific schemes include:
Impact Acceleration Accounts
Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme
Early stage Proof of Concept funding in the UK can
even come from funders of basic research
33. Issues for Research Commercialisation in the UK:
Bridging the Valley of Death (UK Government, 2013)
34. Bridging the Valley of Death
Uk Government’s Science and Technology Committee
The Science and Technology Committee is appointed by the House of
Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the
Government Office for Science and associated public bodies.
Started work in December 2011. Questions included:
What are the difficulties of funding the commercialisation of research,
and how can they be overcome?
Are there specific science and engineering sectors where it is particularly
difficult to commercialise research?
Should the UK seek to encourage more private equity investment into
science and engineering sectors?
35. The valley of death describes the point where a business, often a
technology based business, has a working prototype for a product or
service that has not yet been developed enough to earn money through
commercial sales. The company needs to find sufficient
money to develop the prototype until it can generate sufficient cash,
through sales to customers, that would allow it to be self sufficient and
grow. Growing companies will generate both jobs and wealth, a key
objective for any government.
“…. some discomfort with the phrase “valley of death” which implies
that it is only necessary to get through this particular stage. In fact
successful innovation is an interactive process in which
commercialisation plans have to be effective in all stages and sometimes
simultaneously” (University of Manchester)
36. Finding the cash to do business
Equity capital and public market finance
Venture capital, AIM – often results in loss of control, possibly to
overseas investors before a company grows to medium size
Current, often short term nature of equity investment – where the next
funding round is uncertain (lack of ladder financing)
Failure in the marketplace to provide significant long-term capital
(‘patient capital’) to enable companies to develop and grow.
Many UK institutional investors had withdrawn from the UK stock
markets. Pension fund and insurance companies in 1994 owned about
60% of the UK stock market; now less than 20%.
37. Non-equity based capital
Grants highly competitive & bureaucratic
Banks looking for significant loan securities despite Government
injection of cash (i.e. £20 billion for loans in 2012)
38. PraxisUnico Spin-Out Survey: Annual survey, long-term, comprehensive
dataset on UK spin-outs, well-informed commentary
2012 Survey comments:
demanding times;
process of spinning out companies and nurturing their development has
become more specialised:
concentrated on those universities which have sufficient experience to be
effective; supported by investors which focus specifically on this sector.
Several new investment funds for spin-outs:
Orion Fund for University College London and universities of Edinburgh &
Manchester (& MTI Partners), now aims to raise £50M (was £150M).
Other specialist investors: Imperial Innovations Group completed a £140M
fundraising in late 2010.
These are major universities and consortia.
39. PraxisUnico Spin-Out Survey (continued)
Investors encouraged by some high value exits:
$1 billion sale of Biovex to Amgen in January 2011;
recently the sale of Simcyp to Certara for $32M gave early stage
investor Fusion IP a 200x return on investment.
The result has been a stream of high value investments; over the past
18 months the Survey has identified 14 investments of £5 million or
over, ranging as high as £60 million secured by Circassia in April 2011
from a consortium led by Imperial Innovations.
The companies attracting this level of interest are predominantly in the
life sciences sector (over ten years, accounting for between a third and
a half of all spinouts). In the past five years, renewables and cleantech
sectors have become a larger part of the spinouts population.
