UUK calls for a national investment campaign to promote startups and spinouts

Universities UK’s submission to the Treasury ahead of the 28 October Budget asks the government to get behind a “national investment campaign” involving cross-regional partnerships, which would push for more private investment in start-ups, spin-outs, scale-ups and social enterprises:

“To catalyse, leverage and scale universities’ exciting innovations, mobilising increased private investment, we need a national investment campaign. This will help realise the opportunities provided by university research and innovation across the whole of the UK.”

The submission argues that in many places outside the Greater South East, investment ecosystems are underdeveloped – and that a “combination of university expertise and potential, local partnerships, and targeted government investment can unlock significant private investment.”

Northern Gritstone and Midlands Mindforge are presented as examples of best practice, which should be in place in every UK region. Noting the Royal Academy of Engineering’s recent finding that UK university spinouts have nearly tripled in value since 2020, UUK suggests that there is still much “untapped potential.” The representative body recently set a target of doubling the level of external investment flowing into UK university innovation by 2035.

Government backing, it is argued, can also help universities play a central role in the scale-up fund being explored by a consortium of UK pension providers.

Overseas investments

At Labour conference last week, a Universities UK reception saw Karim Palant, director of external affairs at UK Private Capital, say that Britain’s private equity firms are keen to support the quest for greater foreign direct investment in UK innovation. He suggested that the relationship between universities and private equity is set to “deepen” in coming years, highlighting a series of events taking place in the Midlands, northwest England and Scotland over the autumn aimed at attracting investment.

Palant, a former Labour party official, also expressed concerns about any steps taken by UKRI to revise its terms and conditions attached to intellectual property, a move that has been reported in the press as under consideration.

Elsewhere in foreign direct investment news, the Telegraph has reported that the United Arab Emirates is “threatening to pull the plug” on its possible spending in areas including the Oxford-Cambridge corridor. The move is described as “retaliation” for the findings of wrongdoing related to Manchester City football club.