Podcast: Unlocking Growth with Proof-of-Concept Funding
With the government’s new Industrial Strategy under development and the Spending Review planned for 2025, there is a lot of buzz about what the UK can do to build a strong economy that is driven by innovation. TenU will be making the case that a robust commitment to proof-of-concept (POC) funding should be top of the list if the UK really wants to kickstart economic growth. But how do we know that POC funding will really provide the quick fix we are looking for to boost the economy?
TenU’s One Year One Mission event tackled this question in our panel on POC funding, ‘Unlocking Growth’. Chaired by Andrew Williamson, Managing Partner, Cambridge Innovation Capital, the session brought together the following distinguished panel of speakers to discuss why access to funding is so essential in driving growth:
Paul van Dun, General Manager, KU Leuven Research & Development;
Anne Lane, CEO, UCL Business;
Russell Schofield-Bezer, Founder and CEO of RSBAdvisory Ltd and
Andrea Taylor, CEO, Edinburgh Innovations.
With just a few examples, their conversation illustrated the extremes of experience that exist currently within the UK, and why funding can really make all the difference in unlocking innovation. University College London’s technology transfer office (TTO), UCLB, has been able to draw on funding from previously successful research commercialisation, to launch a £7.5m POC fund. This has had a dramatic impact, with the number of spinouts from the university doubling in recent years. In contrast, the example of Edinburgh illustrated that funding in Scotland is still very limited due to different government funding approaches and the venture capital landscape being less engaged with science. The reality across the UK is very varied, with many universities having no access at all to POC funding.
It was valuable to have insight into the funding landscape elsewhere in Europe. In Belgium the Flemish Government provides nearly €45m per year to be distributed around five Flemish universities, with KU Leuven alone receiving €20m per year. This long-term funding commitment signals to academics that the country takes commercialisation seriously and has driven a complete culture change within these universities. The result is a cohort of academics who have a much better understanding of the needs of industry, rather than focusing solely on accessing research funding.
The panel also discussed different ways of allocating POC funding to achieve maximum impact. One suggestion was a centralised fund with support provided from TTOs to apply for the fund. Alternatively, an investment committee could bring insight from businesses and VCs. It was agreed that whatever approach is chosen, there needs to be capacity to mentor and guide the projects that receive funding. TenU will be working with other organisations representing the technology transfer sector in the new year to build on these discussions and develop a proposal for the most effective way to coordinate POC funds.
