The UK should shift its spin-out policy towards a “professors’ privilege” model to help it achieve its ambition of becoming a science and technology superpower, according to a new report.
The study, conducted by thinktank The Entrepreneurs Network (Ten), says spin-out policy is “hugely consequential for the overall rate of innovation in an economy” but that the UK’s might be holding its brightest minds back.
It comes as the Government is conducting a review – led by University of Oxford vice-chancellor Irene Tracey and Andrew Williamson, a managing partner of the University of Cambridge’s in-house venture capital fund – into turning university research into commercial success.
Researchers say the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) model, which is the dominant one in both the UK and abroad, aims to add value by filtering, refining and packaging faculty inventions for industrial customers.
