Spin-out fever: Spinning out a University of Oxford company and comments on the process in other universities

Abstract

University spin-out companies are increasing seen as a favoured route for commercialisation of university intellectual property. There has been criticism in the Lambert Review of Business–University Collaboration in 2003, commissioned by the UK Government in 2003, that there have been too many spin-outs of low quality and that a measure of quality is the amount of external equity they attract. This has been refuted by Dr Williams of the University of Warwick technology transfer office. Oxford University has created 42 companies with no failures. The rigorous process involved in the creation of an Oxford spin-out is given in some detail. The author then goes on to discuss his experiences of other university spin-out models. Finally, some of the tax problems that caused universities across the UK to stop spinning-out companies recently are discussed. In conclusion despite the criticisms, the author believes the process of creating companies to commercialise university R & D is critical to the overall success of UK plc in the long term.