How hot is your innovation?
31st October 2009
Oxford University Innovation – the University of Oxford’s technology transfer company – is working to assist academics to commercialise projects as varied as a smart-metering technology which could reduce your energy bills, to a chilli sensor which uses nanotechnology to judge the ‘heat’ in a chilli sauce.
Innovation
In most cases, successful commercialisation involves Isis licensing inventions to existing companies. However, each year a number of spin-out companies are also set up, receiving start-up funding from angel investors and venture capital groups. NaturalMotion, which provides software to give virtual characters movement and personality in games such as Grand Theft Auto, is one example, and two other spin-outs have recently listed on the AIM stock exchange: Oxford Advanced Surfaces and Oxford Catalysts.
Isis is also the main port of call for companies wishing to find experts from the University to work on specific technical problems, on scientific due diligence or to assist them in developing technology and product road-maps.
“We work with companies in all kinds of ways, sometimes providing an expert who will act as an independent external reviewer, sometimes providing access to scientific facilities and equipment, ,” says Steve Lee, who heads up the company’s Oxford University Consulting division. OUC has provided experts to the National Audit Office, Sharp Laboratories, the BBC and Microsoft, among others.
Having built up the technology transfer practice for the University, Isis responded to external demand for services using this experience by setting up Isis Enterprise.
“For the last three years Isis Enterprise has been working with public and private sector clients beyond Oxford, helping clients develop their own technology transfer and innovation management processes using our experience, networks and skills in evaluating new business options,” says Isis managing director, Tom Hockaday.
As companies increasingly seek technologies and innovations from outside their own organisations they are moving towards a model of “open innovation”. “Networks which connect industry with academia are key to this process,” says Hockaday. “Isis runs the Oxford University Innovation Society, which provides an excellent platform for these initiatives.”
Isis is keen to keep in touch with Oxonians, old and new, who are interested in Oxford research and innovation, accessing its expertise, or becoming involved in new spin-out companies.
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