Publications

Improving Spin-out Data with the Spin-out Register: Design Principles and Opportunities (2024)   Joint publication with Research England   Joscelyn Miller  Tomas Ulrichsen Ellen Bamford (Research England)

Background

Previous UCI reports have shown that university spinouts play a crucial role in driving innovation across strategically important sectors for the UK economy. There is a clear policy desire to find ways of strengthening university ecosystems to encourage and enable universities to produce more, high-potential spinouts able to open up new wealth-creating opportunities for the UK.

This policy interest culminated in the Independent Review of University Spinout Companies (2023) led by sector experts, Irene Tracey and Andrew Williamson. The review highlighted that there are clear advantages to being able to understand the health and performance of the UK’s spinout ecosystem at a deeper level than existing spinout data currently allows for. Their recommendations included the specific need for “more data and transparency on spinouts through a national register of spinouts”.

Existing metrics on spinouts - primarily collected through HESA’s Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey - are increasingly becoming unable to fully and accurately capture the diverse range of spinout activity as it expands. In its current format, universities can struggle to submit robust and complete data to HE-BCI, which leads to inaccuracies and significant gaps when the data is used to develop metrics and for wider analysis. This results in data being provided as estimates and to high degrees of aggregation, with adverse implications for assessment frameworks such as the emerging Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) or consideration of wider use of these metrics.

Project Aims 

Working alongside Research England and HESA, we are now using the insights emerging from an earlier UCI pilot study with the University of Cambridge to advise on the development of a robust national Spinouts Register.

The aim for the Register is for it to significantly upgrade the existing spinout data frameworks, providing line by line information on spinouts in the UK, rather than simple aggregates.

We aim for it to be a publicly accessible core data resource that establishes a comprehensive and standardised repository of university spinouts across the UK. In addition, the Register has the potential to enable richer and more efficient data and evidence about these companies through ‘data products’ tailored to individual stakeholder needs, be it policymakers, funding agencies, universities, investors, researchers etc.

Its ultimate objectives are to enhance data quality, improve transparency, and support informed decision-making by enabling new and innovative evidence on the UK university spinout ecosystem.