UK Universities’ IP and Spinout Policies – an Evolving Picture

About the conference

In February 2024, we organised a conference entitled Universities & Commercialisation: Implications of the Oxford Case, about the important court case of Oxford University Innovation v Oxford Nanoimaging. During the conference, we offered to collate and publish university policies, so that interested universities could benchmark their own policies against those of other universities. This conference will report on the analysis of IP policies that has now been conducted, and how those detailed policies relate to the high-level commitments that universities have made to UKRI.

This analysis has been overseen by a team comprising: Mark Anderson, Honorary Professor of Practice at UCL, Professor Naomi Hawkins of the University of Sheffield and Dr Alison Slade of the University of Leicester, who have also been working together on several IP-related academic projects. The project has been supported by Dr Josef Walker, Commercial Manager at the University of Leicester and aided by a grant awarded by the ESRC IAA fund.

Meanwhile, the subject of university IP and spinout policies has continued to receive public attention, including in the government-sponsored Tracey/Williamson Review of Spinouts in 2023. In September 2024, UKRI wrote to all UK universities, inviting them to confirm that they were following the best practices that had been recommended in that Review. Many universities have now done so.

The conference will also include structured discussions with audience members, intended to cast light on how the university sector is responding to the Oxford case, the USIT Guides, the Tracey/Williamson Review recommendations, and UKRI’s intervention.

Programme

13:30   Registration and Refreshments

14:00     Welcome and Introduction to the conference

14:10    Presentation by the Project Team on the key findings of the analysis of university IP policies and key questions for the day.

• Dr Alison Slade, Associate Professor, University of Leicester
• Dr Josef Walker, Commercial Manager, University of Leicester
• Dr Ashleigh Hamidzadeh, Researcher, University of Leicester
• Dr Naomi Hawkins, Professor of IP Law, University of Sheffield
• Mark Anderson, Honorary Professor of Practice, UCL Faculty of Laws

14:30    Q&A and discussion session with audience members and key speakers:
Financial terms: university shareholdings in spin-outs, revenue sharing with academics, revenue sharing among academics, other financial issues

15:15    Break – coffee, cake and discussion

15:45    Q&A and discussion session with audience members and key speakers:
IP terms: ownership of IP in articles and teaching materials, open access policies and how they are implemented, other IP developments including waivers of moral rights, professor’s privilege.

16:30    Panel with key speakers to address pre-notified questions, moderated by Mark Anderson

• Dr Alex Chaix, Deputy Director Commercialisation, UKRI
• Dr Carl Edwards, Commercial Manager, Leicester University
• Dr Simon Hepworth, Director of Knowledge Exchange, Research England
• Dr Anji Miller, Senior Academic Engagement Partner, LifeArc
• Dr Kathryn Walsh, Executive Director, UCL Innovation & Enterprise
• Dr Stuart Wilkinson, CEO, Knowledge Exchange UK