Government provides £30 million in funding for university spinout companies

The government is providing £30 million to universities in Merseyside, East Anglia, the Midlands, and North East England to help them grow spinout businesses.

Spinouts are innovative companies created from within research institutions, but the government said red tape, talent shortages and a lack of access to funding is holding back innovators from turning their ideas into viable growing businesses.

The new £30 million in funding from Research England will support universities and industry expert in four regions to incubate and spin out new companies.

The funding will be provided as follows:

• North East: £8 million over five years for Strategic Commercialisation Ecosystem North East (SCENE).
  
  Universities involved: Durham University, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, University of Sunderland, Teesside University.
  

• Midlands: £10 million over five years for Forging ahead/Forging beyond which targets the heath, advanced manufacturing, net zero, and creative and digital sectors.
  
  Universities involved:  Loughborough University, Aston University, University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, Cranfield University, Coventry University, Derby University, De Montfort University, Keele University, Leicester University, University of Lincoln, University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University, University of Warwick, University of Wolverhampton.
  

• Merseyside: £4 million over three years to Biologics Regional Innovation and Technology Ecosystem (BRITE).
  
  Universities involved: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Edge Hill University.
  

• Lincolnshire and East Anglia: £5 million over three years for Agri-Tech Commercialisation Ecosystems (ACE).
  
  Universities involved: University of Lincoln, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, Cambridge Enterprise.

Science minister, Lord Vallance said:

"The UK is home to some of the world's best universities, and we have deep strengths from life sciences to cutting-edge fields like quantum and engineering biology.

"But we can and must do more to unlock scientific research's vast economic potential, and to help our innovators world-leading public sector labs turn brilliant ideas into businesses that attract investment and sustain jobs.

"The funding and guidance we are announcing today will reinforce those efforts."

Guidance for university spinouts

The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) has published new guides which provide advice on how public sector organisations can create spinouts.

The publications are The Knowledge Asset Commercialisation guide with overarching guidance for commercialisation including options for routes to be taken (licensing, spinouts, joint ventures etc), and The Knowledge Asset Spinouts Guide which outlines the practicalities of the spinout route.