The UK has a long and rich history of innovation. Once a driving force of the British empire, research and development (R&D) in the UK now focuses on turning that technical knowledge into high-tech exports to bolster the economy. Much of this is driven by one of the country’s main economic pillars – education.
Three UK institutions are in this year’s Times Higher Education World University Rankings: Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London. Along with University College London, ranked 17, these universities form the heart of the country’s technology transfer efforts, often referred to as the “golden triangle”. Each maintains a thriving tech cluster, with Cambridge home to the largest centre of innovation in Europe – in 2012 it became the first UK university to raise over £1bn in external funding for its spin-outs.
While the golden triangle tends to grab the most commercialisation headlines, it would be disservice to ignore the rest of the UK.
South-west of the triangle sits SetSquared – a commercialisation partnership involving Russell Group universities Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Surrey, and Southampton. This partnership has led to 37 spin-outs in the past four years, six initial public offerings (IPOs) in the past five years with a collective value in excess of $390m, and more than $700m of external funding raised. It is incubating more than 300 companies and has provided $46m of seed financing for its spin-outs.
Just over the border from Bristol is Cardiff, capital of Wales. The region has stagnated since the loss of its mining industry in the 1980s, but it is seeking to capitalise on the strength of Cardiff University’s biotech research with a new $150m Wales Life Science Fund. The area now has all the tools it needs to construct its own tech cluster. While the Welsh Assembly has much work to do before it can match the golden triangle, Cardiff and the surrounding area enjoy a strong graduate pool from multiple universities, and recently attracted life sciences firm ReNeuron to act as a beacon to other life sciences considering the move to south Wales.
Cardiff, along with Sheffield University, uses Fusion IP to act as a tech transfer office (TTO) for its commercialisation efforts, which also works with several other UK universities to support spin-outs. A subsidiary of commercialisation firm the IP Group, the firm enjoyed a strong 2012. It held its first material exit, selling drug research firm Simcyp to life sciences company Certara for $32m, netting $6.4m for Fusion, a 200-fold return on its original investment. It launched two new spin-outs, raised $16.4m in external funding, invested $4.5m in its portfolio firms, and increased its portfolio value to $31m. It raised $30.4m for new commercialisation opportunities recently, and is also supported by a $45m venture fund, IP Venture Fund II, managed by its parent.
See our magazine PDF or www.globaluniversityventuring.com for the rest of the article, which also looks at Scandinavia.