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International research commercialisation collaboration TenU has announced a £4 million boost for its programmes over the next five years. The funding includes a £2.5 million grant from Research England, endorsed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The Research England grant will help fund the collection of international evidence on best practice in ecosystem building, such as how to create resilient networks and partner with investors, developers and local communities to support economic growth through university innovation. Identifying and developing the next generation of innovation leaders is another key TenU priority, including the continuation of its successful TenU Future Leaders Programme – an international platform for training and exchange.
TenU was formed to capture effective practices in research commercialisation and share these with UK and US governments and higher education communities, in order to increase the societal impact of research. Members are the technology transfer offices of the University of Cambridge (UK), Columbia University (USA), University of Edinburgh (UK), Imperial College London (UK), KU Leuven (Belgium), University of Manchester (UK), MIT (USA), University of Oxford (UK), Stanford University (USA) and University College London (UK).
Dr Ananay Aguilar, Head of TenU
Research from these universities has led to world-changing innovations ranging from rapid whole genome sequencing (Cambridge) and programmed T-cell therapies (University College London) to fibre optics (Imperial) and the page rank algorithm technology that became the basis for Google (Stanford).
One of the most high-profile examples of research commercialisation activity by a TenU member is Oxford University’s partnership with AstraZeneca that saw a Covid-19 vaccine developed and rolled out in less than 12 months. It has had the greatest global reach of any of the Covid vaccines – reaching more than 180 countries – and has accounted for more than a quarter of the billions of Covid jabs administered around the world.
TenU members are also involved in ambitious projects around the UK to accelerate the growth of university spin-outs and other science and technology companies through the creation of innovation districts – with the potential to provide tens of thousands of new jobs over the next few years. The universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Imperial College London are among those involved in the high-tech hubs designed to provide the specialist infrastructure needed to power the growth of the knowledge economy.