Alloca&ng  resources  for    Knowledge  Exchange:  What's  your  

strategic  focus?  

Dr  Dave  Bembo  Associa&on  for  University  Research  &  

Industry  Links  (AURIL)  UK    

Scope:  

AURIL    A  brief  introduc&on    

UK  Higher  Educa&on  Sector  Size,  shape,  research  performance    

The  External  Environment  Funding  for  Research  The  Impact  Agenda  

UK  KE  State  of  the  Art  in  2011  Guidance  &  Approaches  to  IP  Management  

AURIL  Structure  

Company  Limited  by  Guarantee  

11   Elected   Members   form   Council;   Execu&ve   Director   and  administra&on  team.  

Ins&tu&onal   membership:   Universi&es,   Public   Sector   Research  Organisa&ons,  NHS  Trust  IP  Hubs  

1,600  people  on  electronic  mailbase;  1,200  people  using  AURIL  Social  network  –  ‘My AURIL’ -­‐  KT  2.0  !  Plus  Twi`er,  LinkedIn  etc.  

Annual   conference;   workshops   &   discussion   fora   e.g.   Directors   Cut;  guidance   and  policy   documents;     consulta&on  with  Govt  &  other   KE  stakeholders,  UUK,  CBI,  Funding  Councils  &  Research  Councils,  etc.  

Non-­‐HE  Members  Include:  

Companies  such  as  AstraZeneca,  GlaxoSmithKline    

UK  Research  Councils  such  as  MRC,  BBSRC,  AHRC,  EPSRC,  ESRC    Government  Stakeholders  

Solicitors  Intellectual  Property  Office  and  Patent  Agents    

Accountants  Exploita&on  Organisa&ons  

Business  Support  Organisa&ons    Higher  Educa&on  Funding  Councils  

University  Sector  in  the  UK    115  universi&es  inc  ‘post  1992’  (+  50  other  Higher  Educa&on  Ins&tu&ons)  

Over  180,000  academic  staff  

1.9  million  undergraduate  students;  578,000  postgraduates  

Total  sector  income  of  £26.8  billion  [see  next  slide]  

Strong  science  base:      8%  of  publica&ons  on  Web  of  Science,  12%  cita&ons,  14.4%  of  World’s  top  cited  publica&ons  ....  especially  given  rela0vely  low  investment  of  circa  4%  Gross  Expenditure  

HEIs  are  major  contributors  to  UK  economy  (HEFCE’s  Higher  Educa0on  –  Business  and  Community  Interac0on  Survey)  

Source:  HESA,  UUK,  HEFCE,  2009-­‐11;  Evidence  2011  

UK  HEIs,  huge  diversity  in  size  and  mission:  

24  HEIs  with  income  <£20  million  22  HEIs  with  income  £20-­‐50  million  48  HEIs  with  income  £50-­‐150  million    71  HEIs  with  income  >£150  million    

From  highly  ac&ve  in  research  and  KE  (e.g.  20  Russell  Group  members)  to  highly  teaching  focused  

e.g.  Funding  Council  Quality  Research  QR  funding  is  part  of  Dual  Support  and  is  based  on  RAE  research  quality  *  volume  *  subject  weigh&ng.    In  Wales  alone  (10  universi&es)  QR  ranges  £139K  -­‐  £39.9  million  for  2011-­‐12  (280x)  [QR]  

With  so  much  varia0on  in  research  capacity  &  quality,  clearly  KE  resources  and  priori0es  will  differ  hugely  also.    

Evidence,  2010  

The  External  Environment:  Funding  for  research  

Investments  under  pressure  

Budgets  under  pressure  

Govt  CSR2010  UK  science  funding  a  10%  reduc&on  in  real  terms  

Wakeham  Review  Warns  of  the  need  to  maintain  not  grow  the  volume  of  research  funded  under  Full  Economic  Costs  FEC  

Focuses  on  TRAC  rates  and  Full  Economic  Costs  FEC  base  of  HE  research  ac&vi&es  ;  driving  down  overheads  via  indirect  costs  rates  –  and  increasing  efficiency  

Research  Equipment  Sharing  

h`p://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/reviews/fec/fECReviewReport.pdf  

....  and  Reindexa&on  too  !!  

The  Impact  Agenda    

Increasing  emphasis  on  demonstra&ng  the  economic,  societal  and  health  benefits  of  the  UK  research  base.  At  the  &me  of  applying  for  research  funding,  Pathways  to  Impact,  2  pages,  speculaBve.  Currently  a  secondary  funding  criterion.    

The  Impact  Agenda  II  

Assessment  of  Impact  –  part  of  assessing  research  quality  in  the  Research  Excellence  Framework,  REF  2014.  (Impacts  on  academia  less  relevant.)    

Impact  forms  part  of  REF  for  the  first  &me  in  2014.  20%  of  overall  score  for  a  department/school  (may  increase  to  25+%  in  future  assessments).  [Also  Research  Outputs  65%  and  Environment  15%].  

Impact  assessed  on  the  basis  of  case  studies  (not  anecdotes!)  :    

 I.  Quality  of  underpinning  research  is  important    II.  Contribu&on  of  the  research  to  the  impact  (causal  link)    III.  Nature  and  extent  of  the  impact  or  benefit    IV.  Independent  source  to  verify  claims?  

On  average,  each  case  study  may  be  equivalent  to  8  publica&ons  in  REF!  

Knowledge  Exchange  professionals  have  a  major  role  in  delivering  Impact.  The  Impact  agenda  increasingly  influences  resource  alloca&on.  

ProTon  Annual  Survey  of  KTOs  reveals  huge  varia&on  in  size  of  staffing  complement  and  focus  of  work  

No  data  on  office  size  from  UK  HE-­‐BCI  survey  –  but  very  diverse  priori&es  

Research  support  and  KE/KT  roles  ozen  merge  seamlessly  

Skills  overlap  considerably  –  e.g.  in  legal  knowledge,  contract  &  IPR  nego&a&on.    

Collabora&ve  research  and  knowledge  transfer  funding  schemes  can  have  a  large  degree  of  overlap,  e.g.  Knowledge  Transfer  partnerships  KTPs  and  CASE  PhD  studentships  with  industry  

Increasing  funding  for  transla0onal  research  in  biomedicine  (from  e.g.  Medical  Research    Council)    

Follow  on  Funding  from  UK  Research  Councils,  and  now  European  RC  also  

European  FP  bid  support  in  HEIs  is  generally  regarded  as  a  research  support  ac&vity,  but  usually  involves  private  sector  partners,  =  Knowledge  Exchange    

Easy  to  underes&mate  the  KE  capacity  of  ins&tu&ons  

Universi&es  react  to  changes  in  external  policy  and  other  opportuni&es  to  support  KE  –  this  affects  how  we  operate  and  priori&se  ac&vi&es  and  can  shape  our  KE  capacity  

e.g.  UK  Funding  Council  KE  funding  can  be  by  alloca&on    formula  (HEFCE  HEIF)  or  may  require  a  specific  strategic  focus  (e.g.  HEFCW  I&E,  formula  +  compe&&ve,  collabora&ve  element)  

Regional  government  priori&es  for  business  engagement  and  support  for  SMEs  play  a  role  in  shaping  university  KE  ac&vity  (e.g.  support  for  priority  business  sectors,  enterprise  zones)  

The  availability  of  European  Structural  Funds  can  have  a  huge  influence  over  KE  ac&vi&es,    e.g.  in  Wales  total  Funding  Council  support  for  KE  in  universi&es  is  £8.2  million.  In  contrast,  there  are  individual  ERDF  R&D  projects  of  £25  million  funded  at  universi&es  and  focused  on  working  with  SMEs  (e.g.  ASTUTE  sustainable  manufacturing  engineering).    

The  challenge  is  to  ensure  that  we  support  our  own  strategic  priori&es  and  exercise  selec&vity  in  reac&ng  to  external  ini&a&ves.  The  risk  is  mission  driK.    

Current  State  of  the  Art  in  UK  university  Knowledge  Exchange  -­‐  some  examples    

2011  update  to  IP  Guide  for    UniversiBes  

UK  Intellectual  Property  Office  Universi&es  UK  AURIL  PraxisUnico  

Available  at:  

h`p://www.ipo.gov.uk/about/press/press-­‐release/press-­‐release-­‐2011/press-­‐release-­‐20110519.htm    

Managing  Intellectual  Property  for  HEIs  –  in  2011  

Original  2003  Guide  –  more  of  a    how  to  guide  or  ‘recipe  book’  for  IP  assessment  and  protec&on.  

2011  Guide  –  encourages  HEIs  to  consider  their  strategic  focus  and  formulate  &  adopt  IP  policies  which  support  this.    One  size  doesn’t  fit  all.  

Staff  resources  for  KE  should  be  configured  to  match  strategic  and  opera&onal  priori&es...  and  budgets!    

“The  issue  is  not  simply  one  of  protec&on  in  order  to  encourage  commercial  investment.  University  researchers  require  con&nuing  access  to  the  results  of  their  research  for  use  in  future  (research)  projects  and  teaching.    (These  may  be  more  important  than  IP  exploita&on  income.)  

Effec&ve  IP  management  is  required  to  ensure  that  this  is  the  case…….    Nego&a&ons  and  agreements  therefore  need  to  be  structured  so  that  future  needs  of  the  university  can  be  accommodated.”  

“There  is  undoubted  poten0al  for  universi0es  to  generate  surpluses  from  the  IP    management  func0on,  although  there  is  a  need  for  realism  over  the  scale  of  returns.”  

Knowledge  Exchange  policies  and    their  intersec0on  with  other  university  policies,  e.g.:  

 Human  resources  (IP  ownership;    sharing  of  revenues  on    successful  exploita0on)  

 IP  generated  by  students    -­‐  balancing  clean  IP  posi0on  versus    duty  of  care    

The  2011  Guide  is  intended  to  provoke  debate  within  ins&tu&ons  in  order  to  allow  HEIs  to  make  be`er  informed  judgements  about  how  they  manage  IP  and  how  they  expect  to  benefit  from  this  ac&vity.    

Easy  Access  IP  

University  of  Glasgow  with  University  of  Bristol  &  King’s  College  London    

Partnership  established  March  2011  with  £80,000  from  UK  Intellectual  Property  Office  

One  page  licence  agreements,  freely    accessible  online,  non-­‐exclusive  or  exclusive,  royalty-­‐free  with  the  obliga&on  to  report  on  exploita&on  

Managed  as  a  knowledge  exchange  offering,  alongside  technology  transfer  

Recognises  the  wider  benefits  of  increasing  the  volume  of  university  IPRs  in  evalua&on  and  use  in  industry    (Impact  agenda)  and  that  IP  exploita&on  has  a  greater  value  to  universi&es  than  simply  income  genera&on  

h`p://www.gla.ac.uk/businessandindustry/easyaccessip/      

Fusion  IP  Working  with  an  external  technology  transfer  partner  

Fusion  IP  owns  the  rights  to  100%  of  university-­‐owned  research  generated  at  The  University  of  Sheffield  and  Cardiff  University.      

No  affect  on  contract  research  or  ac&vi&es  where  there  is  a  contractual  obliga&on  to  a  funder.  Important  to  promote  this  accurately!  

Universi&es  are  shareholders  in  Fusion  IP.  Exclusive  10  year  agreements  to  access  new  IP  generated  by  research.  

Integra&on  &  co-­‐loca&on  with  university  technology  transfer  teams.  

Very  credible  and  professional  team  –  important  for  confidence  in  investors  &  venture  capitalists  which  may  have  been  reluctant  to  work  with  a  university.  (A  lesson  originally  learned  from  UK    University  Challenge  awards).  

Ringfenced  investment  fund  of  up  to  £20  million  but  has  a`racted  more  in  co-­‐investment.    

Very  effec&ve  partnering  and  synergy,  adding  a  new  dimension  to  university  tech  transfer  and  also  very  efficient  in  sharing  resources  and  bringing  in  new  exper&se.    

In  summary...    

UK  Higher  Educa&on  sector  is  significant  in  size,  hugely  diverse  and  economically  important.  

Many  ins&tu&ons  generate  a  huge  volume  of  new  knowledge  and  intellectual  property,  others  are  focused  on  student  educa&on.  Their  individual  approaches  to  KE  reflects  this.  

The  UK  sector  has  reacted  to  Government  requirements  to  demonstrate  the  value  (Impact)  of  its  research.    The  current  economic  condi&ons  are  further  influencing  this.  

New  models  of  KE  available  to  the  UK  sector  reflect  the  environment.  Consider  the  benefits  of  pu�ng  IP  to  use  in  private  sector  versus  genera&ng  revenue,  also  outsourcing  of  KE  exper&se,  resource  pooling  and  shared  services.