Contest for venture capital funds heats up

The first round of the new university challenge fund has attracted 45 entries to date, science minister Lord Sainsbury told a Royal Society conference this week, writes Julia Hinde.

He said that more than 90 educational institutions were involved in the bids and that the overall standard of applications for the seedcorn fund, which will help commercialise promising research, was very high.

The Office of Science and Technology, the Department for Education and Employment and the funding councils are also discussing a third leg of university funding to complement research and teaching funds, he said.

This would fund "application work" that led to better links between universities, businesses and local communities.

"We think this is an interesting idea," he said, adding that an announcement could be expected in the new year.

The conference on Intellectual Property and Venture Capital: Universities, Entrepreneurs and Finance in Partnership, heard that four out of five technology spin-off companies "fall apart".

Sue Birley, professor of entrepreneurship at Imperial College, said that turning university research into spin-off companies raises managerial issues that are new for many in universities.

"There is no doubt that, when universities put their minds to it, we can make it work for the benefit of both the university and the academics," she said.

She told the conference that commercialising university research raised important issues such as ownership of intellectual property, conflicts of interest between the institution, department and academics, levels of support provided by the university, liability and equity.

"These are not trivial," she said. "Many of these will be familiar to our venture capital colleagues, but have not been discussed generally within the university sector."