Innovative UCLB idea scoops UK intellectual property office prize

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced UCL Business PLC (UCLB) as a winner of their Fast Forward 2011 competition, which aims to support ‘the very best and innovative knowledge transfer practice’, helping to translate the outputs of the country’s research base into economic or social benefit for the UK.

UCLB’s entry was selected from over 70 applications received by the IPO and the £60,000 prize will allow UCLB to further develop its innovative electronic licensing portal ‘E-LUCID’. This will include the provision of an automated solution to the processing of Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), an area that is also of interest to organisations such as Cancer Research Technology, which supported the UCLB bid. In addition, the monies will allow UCLB to adapt the E-LUCID portal for use by other UK universities to market their own software and materials, an area that partners including Cambridge University are keen to support.

Dr Steven Schooling, Director of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Built Environment at UCLB, said: ‘We are delighted to win this award. It will allow us to enhance our knowledge transfer activities in the software and materials areas at UCL (University College London), whilst also providing a further basis for collaboration with the technology transfer offices of other UK Higher Education Institutes.’

Links
E-LUCID website
IPO website

About E-LUCID
In 2010 Dr Steven Schooling, Director of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Built Environment, and Marina Santilli, Business Manager of UCLB, launched E-LUCID, a web portal for the online licensing of university IP. E-LUCID provides a simple solution for handling the licensing of academic software and assists UCL academics in maximising the impact of their research. Uniquely, in comparison to other university technology promotion portals, software promoted on E-LUCID has clearly stated licence terms and a transparent pricing structure. E-LUCID also allows for dual licensing strategies, where the software may be offered free of charge under certain conditions and for a fee under a proprietary commercial value. Since the launch 12 months ago, 1000 software licences have been secured, with an initial portfolio of 10 software products drawn from across UCL. Originally created for the licensing of software, the E-LUCID system is being extended to cater for transacting MTAs across UCL.

About UCLB
UCLB is responsible for commercialising innovations arising from the research base at UCL, one of the UK’s leading research-led universities. UCLB undertakes a broad range of knowledge transfer activities, covering the facilitation of consultancy and collaborative research engagements through to technology transfer, company incubation and investment.

For more information on UCLB, please click here.