Kent is set to benefit from a half a million pound award from Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund which will see it connect with other universities from across the South East to share resources to boost the number and success of their spin-out companies.
‘The Golden Circle’ will support and develop the innovation potential of research-intensive universities adjacent to the ‘Golden Triangle’ hotspot around Oxford, Cambridge and London. Led by the University of Sussex, the project will involve Kent pooling its skills, expertise and capabilities with the University of Brighton, the University of Essex the University of Reading, Royal Holloway and the University of East Anglia.
Start-up companies often emerge off the back of intellectual property generated through university research. Traditionally, this spin-out activity has been concentrated amongst the largest, most research-intensive universities, but following an independent review commissioned by Research England in 2023, Research England has recognised that sharing of technology transfer capabilities across mid-sized universities could help them play a greater role in the UK’s spin-out ecosystem.
The grant seeks to unleash this potential by developing a distinctive shared Technology Transfer Office model in the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) Cluster X, post-1992 and specialist universities to form a unified and strengthened spin-out eco-system in a circle around London.
It will bring together the Golden Circle partnership to identify, develop and harmonise new and best practice in spin-out creation, raising capability and pooling access to investment by working with local supply chain collaborations, concentrations of highly specialized expert skilled workforces, and clustering of investor networks.
By doing so, it will help to anchor the core national innovation hotspot more solidly within its wider region, creating a more powerful and robust platform to advance the UK’s global competitive advantage.
Kerry Barber, Director of Research and Innovation Support, said: ‘We are excited to advance the University’s commercialisation efforts through our participation in this consortium. The collaboration provides an important opportunity to develop a sustainable model for supporting spin-out companies, while integrating resources across partners will allow us to access valuable training, share best practice, streamline processes, and create specialized materials to support spin-outs across all disciplines. With access to a number of new partners, including Intellectual Property specialists and a number of angels networks, we are delighted to be able to work in partnership to strengthen our approach to this regionally and nationally significant agenda.’