This was an important discussion at the Lord’s Science and Technology Committee concerning the Independent Review of the UK’s University Spin-out Ecosystem and whether the government’s proposed actions are advancing progress.

Addressing the House, Andrew Williamson said:

  • The recommendations emphasised the need for a set of best practices to be adopted by all stakeholders, and for university tech transfer offices to autonomously manage business affairs, building upon existing initiatives like TenU. Government involvement, facilitated through Research England, aims to spur the adoption of these best practices, nudging university leadership towards quicker adoption
  • The report also highlighted a crucial gap in translational funding, where UKRI funding often falls short in advancing technology to the commercialisation stage. To address this, a £20 million translational fund has been announced. Though modest in scale, if this is successful in the first couple of years we would hope to see this expanded.

 

Watch the full session here.