Oxford to help academics set up social enterprises

The innovation arm of the University of Oxford is to support students and academics in establishing social enterprises that follow a charitable agenda but seek to generate profit.

The social enterprise service, provided by Oxford University Innovation, will initially focus on the development of about 25 projects. These include Greater Change, a secure, cashless app that facilitates donations to the homeless; and LIFE, a VR-based emergency instruction platform.

The decision represents a shift in the university’s innovation policy, which previously only supported the creation of regular start-up businesses by the student body and spinouts based on academic intellectual property.