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UK universities earned £3.5 billion through provision of services to businesses in 2012-13, up from £3.4bn in the previous year, data have shown.
The Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey 2012-13, published on 20 March by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, looked at all publicly funded UK higher education institutions and their relationships with businesses. The survey is carried out annually, and a similar increase was seen in the 2011-12 survey.
In 2012-13, UK universities earned more than ever before from contract research: the total of £1.16bn was up from £1.08bn in 2011-12. Collaborative research involving public funding generated an income for universities of £951 million in 2012-13, which was an increase of £77m, compared with 2011-12.
Consultancy contracts earned UK universities £400m and facilities and equipment generated £142m.
Of the four UK nations, universities in England generated the most income from business interactions, with £1bn from contract research and £705m from collaborative research. Scotland received £110m from contract research, while Wales received £27m and Northern Ireland just £19m. In terms of collaborative research, Scotland generated £145m, Wales £70m and Northern Ireland £30m.
During 2012-13, UK universities as a whole generated £86.6m from intellectual property, including the sale of shares in spinouts, which was £7.2m more than in 2011-12.
The survey also analysed the number of spinouts and start-up companies in the UK. It found that the number of spinout companies that started with some university ownership fell from 158 to 126 between 2011-12 and 2012-13.
Most of these were based in England, with 85 being started in 2012-13, compared with 113 in 2011-12. Numbers also fell in Scotland, from 23 to 20, and in Wales, from 16 to 13, but the number of spinouts started with some university ownership in Northern Ireland rose from 6 to 8.
The number of staff start-ups dropped, from 84 to 62 during that period, although the number of graduate start-up companies increased from 2,729 to 3,502.
Further analysis and breakdowns of these figures are to be published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in May.
Meanwhile, the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has announced an inquiry into business-university collaborations. This follows January’s one-off evidence session on the Fraunhofer UK centre as an example of such collaboration.
The MPs have asked for written submissions on the strengths and weaknesses of business and university interactions as well as international comparisons. Specific questions relate to improving the uptake of knowledge transfer partnerships, effectiveness of government initiatives to support innovation and whether local enterprise partnerships are investing as much as they could in innovation.
The committee also asks for opinions on two recommendations made in the Witty review—that the weighting of the commercial impact criteria part of the Research Excellence Framework be increased to 25 per cent and that the Higher Education Innovation Fund be increased.