Psion and British Aerospace help Imperial College to win University Challenge Award

10 March 1999

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine will receive £3 million from the Department of Trade and Industrys £45 million University Challenge Fund to add value to technologies with commercial potential arising from research. Imperial College must match this support with £1 million, which will include donations from Psion plc and British Aerospace plc.

Professor Bill Wakeham, Deputy Rector and Pro-Rector (Research) commented: "Imperial College chose to make a solo bid to University Challenge as the number, quality and diversity of technologies with commercial potential generated by our research programme is more than sufficient to warrant this level of support. There is a well developed and integrated infrastructure to support our in-house preparation of professional investment proposals, and so we are well placed to maximise the benefit of this funding. We hope the award will make an enormous difference to what we are now able to achieve."

Imperial College will use support from the Seed Fund to finance:

• the setting up and early support of new companies
• strengthening the patent position on a technology
• establishing proof of principle of research ideas
• building working prototypes
• providing market analysis for novel products
• showing drug activity in pre-clinical or early human studies.

All these projects are a stage of development towards a commercial product, that cannot generally be undertaken within the academic environment, where funding is dedicated to original research.

Imperial College commercialises its technology through a wholly-owned subsidiary company, Imperial College Innovations Ltd (Innovations). Dr Jonathan Gee, Chief Executive, commented: "The Seed Fund will enable us to add value to those ideas emerging from the research programme that have the greatest potential for commercial exploitation, but are still at an early or embryonic stage. If we can start the development process, we can start to realise that potential."

"University Challenge will help us retain a larger share of income arising from the commercial development of our research. Developments undertaken with Seed funding will move projects nearer to market and so increase the likelihood that they will succeed. Thus their value is increased when we negotiate a licence with industry for the work, or establish a new spin-out company around the technology."

Notes to Editors:

1. In addition to licensing novel technologies to existing companies, Innovations is now very active in facilitating spin-out companies to commercialise the Colleges work. Imperial College already holds an equity stake valued at around £5 million, in 12 companies, established around technologies developed within the College, and a new subsidiary company, Imperial College Company Maker has recently been established to provide mentoring services for new spin-outs.

2. Imperial College had the highest total income of all UK university institutions in 1998 at £309 million. This beats Oxfords £304 million and Cambridges £293 million. (Source: Nobles Higher Education Financial Yearbook, to be published in the spring). IC also has the largest research income (£180m) and the largest working estate of any university institution in the UK and was rated second overall in the Financial Times Guide to Britain's top 100 universities (Financial Times 29 April 1998).

For further infor infor information contact:

Dr Jonathan Gee, Imperial College Innovations Ltd
47 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ
Tel: +44 (0) 171 594 6575, Fax: +44 (0) 171 594 6561
e-mail: j.gee@imperial.ac.uk

Dr David Holbrook, Imperial College Company Maker Ltd
47 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ
Tel: +44 (0) 171 594 6597, Fax: +44 (0) 171 594 6561
e-mail: d.holbrook@imperial.ac.uk

Tom Miller, IC Press Office - Tel: +44 (0) 171 594 6702