A Friends of Imperial College lecture - 'Spinning Gold: Innovation and Wealth Creation'

Investors and researchers debate innovation and wealth creation in Universities.

Imperial College Innovations Group shared the secrets of its commercial success with the Friends of Imperial College group and alumni on Tuesday 23 September.

Spinning gold - innovation and wealth creation - was an overview of technology transfer issues that included speakers from academia and industry.

Technologies developed at Imperial have resulted in the creation of over 60 companies since 1997. Susan Searle, chief executive of Imperial Innovations, the College's technology transfer arm, gave an overview of Imperial's commercial activities and led a panel of speakers in exploring the interaction of business and universities. She states:

"Spin-out company formation can be a challenging process, so it is vital that academics have access to the financial and management expertise needed to take a product from initial idea to final market launch. Our spin-outs operate within extremely diverse fields, and a number arise from multi-disciplinary research, something we are very proud of. The range of technologies so far commercialised include power generation, materials, therapeutic drugs, software, medical instrumentation and genetics.

"Imperial has a strong entrepreneurial culture and it is essential that we continue to support that, so that the innovative research being carried out here can be applied to provide solutions to global needs."

Steve O'Dea and Bruce Garvin, directors of the Imperial spin-out Ceres Power, and David Klug, Professor of Molecular Dynamics at the College and director of the spin-out Powerlase, followed this with tales of their own experience of the highs and lows of commercialising their research.

Richard Harris, an early-stage investor in spin-out companies, then gave his own opinion of Imperial's technology transfer record and discuss what more universities can do to make their research attractive to industry.

The event will took place in the Clore lecture theatre at Imperial's South Kensington campus. The audience included over 85 Friends, alumni and guests who afterward joined the presenters at the Rectors Residence, 170 Queens gate for a lively networking reception.

The Presentation from the evening (PDF)