Spinouts are taking centre stage, but quality beats quantity

UCLB CEO Anne Lane welcomes a renewed focus on spinouts, but disputes claims that there are too few.

UK universities have been accused of failing to reap the rewards of research by not creating enough spinouts — companies formed from academic innovation. It’s good news that spinouts are taking centre stage. But I respectfully disagree with this assessment: our spinout ecosystem is thriving.

We are an innovation nation, underpinned by world-leading universities. Over the past ten years, nearly 1,200 successful spinouts have emerged from 91 UK universities, and UCL’s spinouts alone have attracted £3 billion of external investment in the past five years. But it’s quality not quantity that matters. These spinouts have generated £20bn in investment into the UK and created nearly 29,000 jobs. They have also scaled up solutions to complex societal challenges, from reducing carbon emissions to treatments for rare inherited diseases.

Two factors are critical: money and collaboration. We need a quantum leap in private investment to create the next billion-pound business, the next global deep-tech disruptor or blockbuster drug — especially those university derived technologies that address the big “missions” of our time such as curing cancer, treating Alzheimer’s and transitioning to net zero.

A year ago, the Mansion House Compact proposed pension funds should be enabled to do exactly that — invest in novel technologies and innovations. That could free up billions, not just tens of millions. We hope government moves forward with the plans. Meanwhile the Independent Spinout Review from last year is filled with ideas waiting to be implemented. But universities can do even more by collaborating to create and nurture an innovation ecosystem with organisations such as our NHS hospitals.

Unlocking institutional investment and crowding in international venture capital investment will be the key to a step-change in innovation which will underpin the productivity, jobs and growth on which our national success depends.

Learn more about UCLB’s spinouts, here.