News

A review of university-investor links has been published, commissioned by Research England from Mike Rees, former deputy group CEO of Standard Chartered, start-up commercialisation expert and angel investor.  Research England asked Mike Rees, former deputy group CEO of Standard Chartered, to review ways to strengthen university access to finance that supports spin-out company formation and university-investor relationships. The review focused on universities with large-scale investor links and those seeking support through schemes, such as the Research England Connecting Capability Fund (CCF). The Rees Review listened to advice from a broad range of stakeholders, through more than 90 interviews, and drew evidence from a data report by Tomas Coates Ulrichsen (Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI) Policy, University of Cambridge), also commissioned by Research England. 

The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Services Framework is a national agreement available to members of NEUPC, LUPC, SUPC, APUC, NWUPC, HEPCW. The IPR Services framework agreement gives members of NEUPC, LUPC, SUPC, APUC, NWUPC, HEPCW access to suppliers who can provide legal advice and guidance, licensing and registration services on all matters relating to the creation, development and production of patents, trademarks, copyright, design rights, trade secrets and intellectual property rights. NEUPC will be holding supplier review meetings with all the approved suppliers on the intellectual property rights (IPR) services framework from Monday 29th to Wednesday 31st July and would appreciate feedback on the IPR framework via a short survey.  The survey allows you to rate suppliers on various aspects of framework activity, including communication, pricing and tender responses.  The survey will close on Friday 26th July.

WHERE SCIENCE MEETS BUSINESS Falling Walls Venture is a global platform for the most promising research-based start-ups nominated by academic institutions from across the world. We provide a stage for pioneering founders who have turned science into business, creating entrepreneurial solutions for today’s most pressing challenges. The fast-paced pitch event is part of the 2-day Falling Walls Conference.

In vitro platform for retinal toxicity assessment and disease modelling Newcells Biotech Ltd. has developed an in vitro model of the retinal pigmented epithelium, to assess the safety and efficacy of novel ocular compounds. This technology could better predict the outcome in the human eye and reduce the number of animals used to assess the toxicity of ocular drugs. An end-user pharmaceutical company, able to provide access to ocular compounds and data with known in vivo/in vitro toxicity profiles, is sought to validate the model.

The 2017-18 HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) data has been released today as an open data set by HESA. Headlines are highly positive, with year-on-year increases in all categories except consultancy, bringing the UK total to a record £4.5 billion.  

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a shortlist of 24 projects in the first wave of its Strength in Places Fund.

PraxisAuril, the UK’s world-leading professional association for knowledge exchange practitioners, is partnering with Oxentia, Oxford’s Global Innovation Consultancy, to deliver a series of training courses in new international markets.

PraxisAuril and ARMA have submitted a joint response to Research England's Knowledge Exchange Consultation.

Today Research England is publishing a report summarising how universities are working to deliver the Government's Industrial Strategy. This focuses on use of the additional funds provided by Government for Research England to allocate for knowledge exchange through Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF).

Congratulations to Sean Fielding, Director of Innovation, Impact and Business at the University of Exeter who has been appointed as the new Chair of PraxisAuril until 2021.

As a second generation of quantum devices begins to move out of physics labs and into the marketplace, Andrew Fearnside, Senior Associate at Appleyard Lees, offers a tour through the developing commercial landscape.

Clinical trial launches to develop breath test for multiple cancers

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our members for their support over the past year. I hope you can take a moment to celebrate what we achieved with that support by reading on, and onto a short summary of our 2018 impact.

Research England has published three documents that will help higher education institutions (HEIs) prepare for the upcoming consultation on the future Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF). The documents are: 

Central Queensland University is leading a cross-institutional research project that investigates the continuing low level of collaboration between industry and the research sector. It is a fundamental first step in developing stakeholder-driven strategies to more effectively facilitate collaborative partnerships. The project is funded by a grant from Central Queensland University and has been approved by the Central Queensland University Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number 21006.

The Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards recognise, reward and celebrate the impacts achieved through academic and business partnerships.