Written evidence submitted by the University
of Edinburgh (TIC 32)
INTRODUCTION
i. We are pleased to participate in this important
process and to comment on the Fraunhofer model and its relevance
to research in the UK. We believe that, as one of the leading
research-intensive Universities in the UK with a long heritage
and exceptional track record in commercialisation, the University
of Edinburgh is well placed to comment on these issues. In 1969,
the University of Edinburgh recognised that it needed to formalise
the way it transfers new discoveries into industry to ensure that
society can benefit, and hence established the Centre for Industrial
Consultancy and Liaison, now known as Edinburgh Research and Innovation,
to promote and encourage collaborations with industry. In the
past 40 years, there has been an accelerating pace of scientific
research underway at the University with significant technology
discoveries that have been translated from the laboratory into
industry.
ii. The University of Edinburgh can lay claim
to a notable series of research and innovation "firsts"
during the past 40 years. These achievements have all made a major
impact on the industrial world:
- The first automated industrial assembly robot
- The first genetically engineered vaccine against
Hepatitis B, still being used to save lives to this day
- The first miniature digital camera which led
to mobile camera phones.
- The first prototype sensor-assisted "SMART"
wheelchair for children with severe and multiple disabilities
- developed in 1987 by Paul Nisbet in the Communication And Language
Learning (CALL) Centre.
- The largest ever spin-out from a Scottish university
- MTEM Ltd which raised initial funding of £7.4M and was
subsequently sold for $275M to PGS Ltd.
iii. One of the highlights of the University
of Edinburgh's commercialisation activities has been the creation
of new companies, and in the past 40 years over 200 new companies
and businesses have been formed by the University, including a
record total of 40 new companies in 2009/10.
iv. In its annual survey comparing the exploitation
performance of Scottish Universities against US Universities,
the University of Edinburgh regularly outperforms key US universities
when comparing key commercialisation statistics (including numbers
of companies formed and numbers of licences concluded, per $M
of research income received[36]).
RESPONSES TO
QUESTIONS
1. What is the Fraunhofer model and would
it be applicable to the UK?
1.1 We welcome the UK Government's initiative
in allocating a substantial sum of money to the development of
Technology Innovation Centres, and are keen to be involved in
any trial of this or a related concept in Scotland. Nonetheless,
the research landscape of the UK is quite distinct from that of
Germany and a simplistic translation of the Fraunhofer model to
the UK might be unwise. In Germany, universities focus on higher
education and basic research, and Fraunhofer Institutes undertake
applied R&D and provide technology development services. In
addition, Helmholtz Research Centres focus on long-term strategic
research on issues of national importance in areas such as energy,
health, space, transport and the environment, and Max Planck institutes
focus on specific areas of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research
and large-scale research facilities.
1.2 In the UK we have a system that has the major
research intensive Universities, of which Edinburgh is one, with
a growing culture of spin-outs and start-up companies. It is an
expansion of this process and the appropriate development of discovery
science to a state that can be readily adopted by industry that
is required. It is therefore possible for Scotland and the UK
to build on and adapt, rather than simply adopt, the Fraunhofer
concept, perhaps in a more integrated and agile way.
2. Are there existing Fraunhofer-type research
centres within the UK, and if so, are they effective?
2.1 In the UK while there are no specific Fraunhofer
institutes there are a variety of specialist research centres
more generally within the Universities. Indeed, this embedding
enables a strong connection between the staff doing the fundamental
research and those developing the outputs into commercialisable
propositions.
2.2 The University of Edinburgh hosts a number
of research centres which embody characteristics of Fraunhofer
research centres, in that they undertake fundamental research
as well as applied and collaborative research with business partners,
support technology development, as well as providing incubators
for spin-out companies and small high-tech start-ups. Below are
examples of centres that have been particularly effective in working
with industry:
Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of
Edinburgh
- 2.2.1 The MRC
Centre for Regenerative Medicine (MRC-CRM) at the University of
Edinburgh brings together world-leading basic stem cell research
with established clinical excellence aimed at developing new treatments
for major diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes,
degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's
disease, and liver failure. The centre stands next door to Edinburgh's
new teaching hospital (the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh) providing
the perfect basis for "bench-to-bedside" translational
development.
- 2.2.2 The MRC-CRM is committed to building
both strong industrial collaborative links, specifically companies
who are seeking to develop technologies in any area of stem cell
biology and therapy, interested in derivation and GMP production
of new stem cell lines or interested in the development and use
of stem cells for drug screening. In addition, Edinburgh is home
to two complimentary companies specialised in the GMP manufacture
of stem cells, Roslin Cells and Angel Biotechnology, the latter
of which recently manufactured the product for Reneuron's first
fully regulated clinical trial of a neural stem cell therapy for
stroke taking place in Scotland.
- 2.2.3 The Hauser Report intimated that stem
cells and regenerative medicine was an obvious area where a UK
TIC could lead the world. Scotland is currently ranked 1st in
the world for citation impact of stem cell research; Edinburgh
alone is 3rd.
Scottish MicroElectronics Centre (SMC)
- 2.2.4 The SMC is a world class Centre for
Incubation, Research & Development in the semiconductor sector.
A joint venture between the University of Edinburgh and Scottish
Enterprise. The SMC provides a dynamic environment that links
academia and hi-tech companies. This successful collaboration is
at the leading edge of Scotland's semiconductor and MEMS activity.
It aims is to provide a hothouse of companies and activity to
supply the UK with a leading Centre of Excellence in the semiconductor
field. The SMC delivers services in four key areas: Incubation,
Analytical, Processing & Assembly.
Informatics - ProspeKT
- 2.2.5 The School of Informatics at the University
of Edinburgh is the largest and arguably the best research grouping
in the UK with worldwide alliances with Stanford, MIT and Cambridge
in entrepreneurial education. The commercialisation and Knowledge
Transfer effort within Informatics has been reinforced through
a partnership with Scottish Enterprise in the ProspeKT Programme.
ProspeKT ensures that the research delivers value to major IT
companies as well as generating spin-outs and start ups and seeks
to deliver a complete innovation ecosystem.
- 2.2.6 The ProspeKT programme offers support
in commercialisation through a dedicated support team and has
delivered the creation of 33 start up companies over a four year
period with a total investment of £11 Million.
Edinburgh BioQuarter (EBQ) - Translational Medicine
- 2.2.7 Translational medicine is not a speciality,
but rather a way of approaching science to speed translation of
medical knowledge to health and wealth gain. It has yet to be
adopted widely by academics and companies in practice, but represents
the current best approach to Cooksey's first "translational
gap" that has bedevilled successful drug development in pharma/biotech.
The US Government is expected imminently (Dec 2010) to announce
investment of around $1 billion in developing major centres in
translational medicine to address this. EBQ provides an ideal
infrastructure that drives translation of products from the laboratory
bench to the clinic ("bench-to-bedside"). Specifically
it affords the near unique combination of a major acute teaching
hospital, new medical school, massive interdisciplinary research
institutes and commecial incubator and development space on a
single cohesive integrated campus. In addition, mindset and approach
are equally important as there is considerable commonality of
process for translation between organ-based specialities. EBQ
is designed with these goals in mind and in this respect, can
function as a showcase, or centre of excellence driving best practices.
- 2.2.8 EBQ has built a commercial management
team with over 100 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company
experience between them. This team is on hand to help bridge that
gap between academic research and development of commercial clinical
products. As well as helping to commercialise technology coming
out of EBQ, this team is also actively courting industry to accelerate
the commercialisation process. EBQ has already attracted major
venture and private capital to support its efforts (>£12m)
EBQ expects to spin-out 11 companies over the next two years.
3. What other models are there for research
centres oriented toward applications and results?
3.1 There is no one-size-fits-all model for such
centres; consequently it is clear that for any model to be successful
flexibility will be key. This flexibility should allow for
a variety of structures, for example a hub and spoke model that
acknowledges regional strengths and exploits the strengths of
multiple Universities as well as those associated with a single
University; in areas where the UK has no significant indigenous
strength but where we have potential to grow significant businesses
as well as those areas where the UK has companies of scale.
3.2 While connectivity with Universities that
carry out world-class research is vital, such centres focus on
translating such research through to application. They should
not focus only upon today's industry but have an eye to what comes
beyond. It should be a requirement that innovation centres promulgate
the mechanisms used by them in the transfer of innovation.
3.3 It is necessary that such centres be located
in proximity to and be connected with established world standard
academic groups which have sufficient scale to grow and support
such completely new structures and can provide the necessary well
trained human capital.
3.4 Strong partnerships with both international
Universities, research centres and companies, which acknowledge
the existence of the UK in the global economy, will be necessary
to ensure successful centres. In this respect, the development
in Scotland of the various research pools, and their particular
shift into knowledge exchange and engagement activities in the
most recent phase, show a strong record of success.
4. Whose role should it be to coordinate research
in a UK-wide network of innovation centres?
4.1 It is clear that appropriate mechanisms for
the inputs of both public and private organisations will be necessary.
This input should not constrain the flexibility that will be required
for these centres to be autonomous or require unnecessary and
duplicate reporting. There are two aspects to co-ordination.
- 4.1.1 Co-ordination nationally across all
such centres.
It is clear that Technology Strategy Board is the
appropriate body to provide this level of co-ordination in collaboration
with agencies such as RCUK, OSCHR and Scottish Enterprise as required.
This co-ordination will also need to take account of the major
research intensive Universities who have considerable strength
and experience in delivering innovation from their research base.
- 4.1.2 Co-ordination within a centre.
The co-ordination within a centre is the responsibility
of the management of the centre with oversight from appropriate
partners, both public and private.
5. What effect would the introduction of Fraunhofer-type
institutes have on the work of Public Sector Research Establishments
and other existing research centres that undertake Government
sponsored research?
5.1 There are a variety of existing centres within
the UK which are in general publicly funded and which often have
a focus on fundamental research. As such they have strong links
with existing research-intensive Universities. Where appropriate
these centres will clearly be an integral part of innovation centres.
However, we should not seek to divert the primary purpose of such
centres, which is to drive innovation and accelerate the commercialisation
of fundamental research.
University of Edinburgh
1 December 2010
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