Product category:
Engineering Education, Resources and Standards
News Release from: Brunel University
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 01 October 2004
Brunel bucks spinout trend
Brunel Enterprise Centre is claiming a market-leading spinout success ratio and has outlined its unique approach to creating business success from an extensive academic research base.
Brunel Enterprise Centre (BEC), the commercial arm of Brunel University, is claiming a market-leading spinout success ratio and has outlined its unique approach to creating business success from an extensive academic research base Recent Government reports indicate that significantly less than 10% of UK academic spin-out initiatives are successful
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 28 Sep 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
CAE technology conference attracts big guns
This year's Altair Technology Conference will take place on 2nd November at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.
Jargon buster cuts through the ATEX jungle
ABB has published an "ATEX jargon buster" that helps motor users cut through the jungle of terms and definitions that make up the new ATEX Directives.
Brunel predicts that 25% of its current portfolio of startups will succeed, and has set in place a long-term strategy to maintain this success ratio.
"All too often, business creators overlook the 'soft' aspects of business - building teams and shaping propositions - and focus too heavily on the 'hard' view of the potential value of the intellectual property at the company's heart", explains Keith Robson, Director of Enterprise, Brunel University.
"Our approach differs in that we keep incubation, management and funding closely integrated, thereby ensuring that each pound invested contributes to the success of the business as a whole".
Further reading
New general manager for drives, motors, machines
Steve Ruddell is the new general manager of ABB's drives, motors and machines division in the UK.
Government needs to support vocational training
The Government needs to be more supportive of firms willing to participate in vocational qualifications and training schemes, a West Midlands' engineering company has warned
Combined with this market leading spin out success, Brunel has just concluded a GBP 4.5 million arrangement with Close Venture Management to support spinout companies.
Investors in the VCT will benefit from the considerable new tax breaks announced in the recent UK Government budget, in particular, investors may receive income tax relief at 40% on the amount invested provided the shares are held for a minimum of three years.
Additionally, Brunel has been the lead institution behind the award of a GBP 10.5 million consortium bid (the second largest in the country) entitled WestFocus from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEIF) to create and manage a commercialisation platform spanning seven higher education institutes.
The partnership is set to set up spinout success for many years to come, and with extremely aggressive targets, Robson and the Brunel team expect its success rate to continue apace.
Targets over 5 years include: the launch of 100 HEI startups and spinouts; over 1000 SMEs will be working with Brunel and WestFocus; GBP 13.6 million of research-intensive knowledge will have been disseminated; and over GBP 8 million will have been generated by commercialisation activity.
"Critically, budding entrepreneurs must be challenged in the early stages to shape their expertise into a commercially-viable proposition", concludes Robson.
"In addition, we focus very closely on the balance of personalities in each new company to ensure skills and character traits are complementary - properly mixing business and academic brains and expertise to long term success".
• Brunel University: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Engineeringtalk email newsletter
• Engineeringtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
