Written evidence to BIS Select Committee inquiry on university-business collaboration

23 April 2014

The UK’s comparative advantage in business-university collaboration derives from excellent research within our world-class universities and their strong links with business.

The strength of our research base enables the UK to attract high levels of inward investment and the best international researchers to locate within our centres of excellence, underpinning innovative business and research clusters.

The Government should continue to support universities’ efforts to build strong links with business and public services and to establish their own spin-outs and other commercial activities. The availability of proof of concept funding and financial and tax support for early stage ventures from universities should be enhanced.

The Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) is extremely effective in developing knowledge-based interactions between universities and businesses, and facilitating innovation which results in economic and social benefit to the UK. HEIF and equivalents in the Devolved Administrations must be maintained and targeted to support research-intensive universities where they can have most effect.

Research excellence must be at the heart of the Catapults. They should be engaged directly with the UK’s excellent research-intensive universities, enabling them to build on areas of existing strength and comparative advantage.

Professor Sir Keith O'Nions, President and Rector of Imperial College London, and Dr Tim Bradshaw, Head of Research and Innovation Policy at the Russell Group, gave oral evidence at a hearing of the BIS Select Committee on Tuesday 10 June 2014. You can watch their evidence below: