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Following official endorsement by UK Government in its Independent Review of University Spin-Out Companies in November 2023, the USIT Guide has achieved further global recognition over the past 12 months since its launch. In the UK, the Government has followed guidance from the USIT Guide to commit to accelerate towards university-friendly university policies and develop standardised spin-out term sheets to expedite the process of venture creation.

Running a startup company and leading it towards growth and success requires a certain combination of skills: the ability to build a business plan, create hiring and training plans, develop a brand, oversee resource allocation, act as main point of communication to stakeholders and customer base, create a value proposition, attract investment, and the list goes on. University spinouts also require the technical skills to develop a particular technology or service.

TenU announces the appointment of Tim Haines, Executive Partner and Managing Director at Abingworth LLP, a leading global life sciences venture investment firm, as its new Chair. Tim becomes Chair effective immediately, taking over from Professor Andy Neely, Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor of Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge, who has held the position since 2022.

Simon Hepworth, Director of Enterprise at Imperial College London, has taken on the role of president of TenU. He takes over from Paul Van Dun, General Manager of KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD).

The Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies recently published by the UK government recommends that TTOs with a lower pipeline of disclosures team up to offer joint TTO services. In this timely event, TenU convened four speakers to share best practice on collaborative initiatives designed to build critical mass for thriving ecosystems.

In 2023, our efforts focused largely on the launch of the USIT Guide in April and on supporting the UK Government in the delivery of the Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies. We were delighted to find that the Review had recognised the many strengths of the university innovation sector, featuring the USIT Guide prominently as an example of best practice. Read on for other exciting developments.

TenU welcomes the UK Government’s Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies. The review puts forward recommendations to accelerate the UK towards the rapid creation of spin-outs on market-competitive terms and encourages further collaboration across the UK’s innovation ecosystem. Its recommendations, if successfully implemented, should enhance the economic and societal impact of university-inspired innovation, which continues to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.

An exciting panel of speakers from leading US and UK venture capital firms and technology transfer offices came together in London to discuss the origins, merits and impact of international initiatives to support university-investor negotiations leading to investments in spin-outs. Listen to the podcast, which was brought to you by Global University Ventures, as the contributors of the US-BOLT and the USIT Guide discuss motivation, challenges, and how speed is more important than perfection.

Hannah Burnau, the first TenU-MIT TLO Intern, writes about her trip to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was sponsored by TenU. The trip included meeting with the team of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office (MIT TLO), as well as with Ananay Aguilar, Head of TenU, exploring the campus and visiting the MIT Museum. A science graduate and JD candidate, Hannah shares her reflections and adds: “I hope to work in the technology transfer and patent field.”

Paul Van Dun, General Manager of KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD), will be the new president of TenU until the end of 2023. Paul takes over from Anne Lane, CEO of UCL’s technology transfer company UCLB.

Watch the videos from the launch event of the USIT Guide here. The agenda for the launch event included a keynote from George Freeman MP, Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and two panel sessions discussing two topical questions: 1. Can the relationship between VCs and universities be an international differentiator? 2. What will it take to deliver the UK's Science Superpower agenda?

Governments and companies across the world are aiming to achieve net-zero emissions targets. These will only be achieved with technological innovations. Reports suggest that climate tech investments are soaring, but climate tech is a broad field. Selecting the most promising technologies with the highest impact is key. How can we focus efforts and concentrate our resources?

Across the globe, recruitment and retention has been a hot topic, with staff being a scarce resource. As part of TenU’s efforts to exchange insight on operational issues, UCL Business hosted the first TenU Operational Symposium (TenU OS) on the recruitment and retention challenges faced by TenU members.

Funded by Research England, the USIT Guide is the result of a first-of-its-kind collaboration of six university technology transfer offices and seven leading Venture Capital Firms. It consolidates the many hard lessons learnt from years of negotiating major and complex spin-out deals, and makes these lessons available for all.

TenU, the collaboration of leading UK, US and mainland European technology transfer organisations, has appointed Andrew Wilkinson, CEO of the University of Manchester Innovation Factory, as its new president. Andrew takes over the role from Anne Lane, CEO of UCL’s technology transfer company UCLB.

As universities welcome their students for the new academic year, TenU looks back at last year’s successes to reflect on the future.

Last year, a European report on venture capital funding announced that women-founded start-ups outperformed men-founded ones by 96%, nearly twice the capital productivity. Yet of all companies that received investment, only 1% were of all-women-founded companies, while 94% were of all-male-founded teams. Could the low prevalence of women VC partners—7%—be at the root of this strong bias? Why is that so and how can we change that? What are people doing already that we can learn from?

In May, we had the pleasure to reunite all of the TenU members in London. We used the time to meet George Freeman, the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation; discuss successes and challenges with government officials, and share effective practices with new and old friends and colleagues. The following set of three podcasts offers insight into some of the discussions had, with a focus on three areas that will be central during the next five-year phase.

This interim report outlines some of the lessons from the first half of the programme. For this, we draw on the weekly survey completed by each of the 12 participants after each session. We find that leadership, DEI and collaboration are key tenets of the programme that have already become key discussion points and objectives for the participants.