New group will boost impact of Edinburgh research
Edinburgh is to be a founding member of an international initiative that will increase the social and economic value of its research.
TenU – which brings together ten leading research intensive universities in the UK, US and Europe – will enable improved collaboration between technology transfer offices (TTOs), which are responsible for the commercialisation of research.
Covid recovery
As countries seek to rebuild their economies in the wake of Covid-19, university TTOs will play a key role in turning early-stage, research-based innovations into new products and services across different sectors.
TenU is funded by Research England, which has provided £1.5 million to support it and a new Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI).
In addition to Edinburgh, the other members of TenU are the universities of Columbia, Cambridge, Imperial College London, Leuven, Manchester, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, and University College London.
Research from these universities has led to many significant breakthroughs including Edinburgh’s work to develop the world’s first artificial vaccine against viral hepatitis B.
The University’s research commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations, will be the main point of contact for TenU.
Over the last year, the TenU group has been benchmarking and sharing ideas so this funding will enable us to get more research done. If an academic has an idea to commercialise we work with them to find routes to do that, for example by helping them collaborate with industry.
Covid innovation
In the past four months, the University has been working on more than 50 new projects centred around tackling Covid-19.
TenU will assist in the global drive to combat the virus, through developing and implementing best practice in research commercialisation.
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Associated image: getty/gorodenkoff