Universities in commercial link-up
Dec 11 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal
University spin-out companies are among the region’s most promising scientific success stories. Durham and Newcastle universities are linking up in an agreement they hope will help attract investment to commercialise academic research and ideas. Karen Dent reports.
EFFORTS to give commercial clout to scientific discoveries coming out of Newcastle and Durham universities have been stepped up with the formalising of an agreement between the institutions.
The Angel Alliance, which is also supported by One North East, is the first time the two universities have signed such an agreement with the regional development agency. The agreement aims to help the two institutions, which have a combined annual research spend of £121m, to create a critical mass to attract further investment.
Alan Clarke, chief executive of ONE, said: “The new partnership will identify specific areas of science where the strengths of Durham and Newcastle universities are complementary and where, by working with One North East, there may be considerable economic advantage in exploiting this intellectual capital. It will also be a powerful partnership in bidding for research and innovation funding from central Government.”
Professor Nick Wright, pro-vice chancellor for research and innovation at Newcastle University, is taking the lead on the project.
He said: “Essentially it is a collaboration mechanism for Newcastle and Durham Universities. Within the North East, Newcastle and Durham are the two big research intensive universities. Each university on its own is medium-sized but together we would be a top five or six university. There are a lot of cases where if we work together we can punch above our weight.”
The alliance, which is still very much in the planning stages, is looking for central Government funding to help it turn spin-out enterprises into successful companies. It is also keen to increase the number of ideas that can be spun out into successful companies.
Prof Wright said: “Both universities produce around five spin-out companies a year but by working together we should be able to produce more.
“Both universities have strong graduate enterprise projects where we encourage our undergraduates to set up their own businesses. We run a joint competition between the undergraduates.”
The link-up will also allow enterprises to share more than just their expertise. “Research is increasingly very expensive, particularly scientific equipment is very expensive, so it would make sense to pool equipment to a certain extent,” said Prof Wright.
The two universities have shared their knowledge and expertise when working on various schemes in the past and this has laid the groundwork for the more formal Angel Alliance.
Prof Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: “Durham University already works closely with Newcastle University on a number of successful partnerships where we have complementary expertise, such as stem cells, energy and science outreach, which have laid the foundation for this alliance.
“As leading universities this alliance will provide more opportunity to combine our respective strengths and enhance the world-class research we are already undertaking.”
