How UK universities encourage creativity and innovation

Well, it all started when the first homosapiens had the crazy idea to rub two rocks together and created fire!

Since then men innovated in all aspects of life, architecture, medicine, agriculture, mathematics, and the list goes on. It is thanks to creativity and innovation that humanity can now enjoy the current living standards.

Did you know? British universities play an important role in the integration of new innovations that have pushed for national and international development.

According to Reuters Ranking, UK universities are the second most innovative universities in Europe, universities are an essential part of the innovation route as they nurture future generations of entrepreneurs.

How do UK universities foster innovation?

Specialist advice, access to the latest facilities and equipment to develop innovative products, and support for research projects, UK universities provide valuable support and services to small businesses, enterprises, and not-for-profit organizations. Over the next five years that support will add up to an estimated £11.6 billion.

Not only do British universities support businesses and enterprises, but they also generate new promising businesses themselves such as spin-off and start-ups companies.

What are Spin-Off and Start-Up Companies?

While the terms are sometimes used as synonyms, a start-up and a spin-off have important differences.

Put simply, a start-up is a business that was just started by a faculty member or a student, meanwhile, a spin-off is a company set up to make use of the intellectual property (innovations, and inventions) that originated from within a university.

UK universities and innovation,

UK universities are the most active in terms of creativity and innovation, here are some of our partner universities that have broken records in this field!

The University of Sheffield

With a commercial portfolio featuring 30 Spin-Off companies such as Absynth Biologics Aclipse One, Inc AegiQ Ltd, Asterion Ltd, Cyberselves Universal Ltd, and many others.

The most relevant innovation made by The Université of Sheffield would be the New Gene Therapy, a method to treat rare diseases by replacing defective genes with new ones.

Queen Mary University of London

Owner of Queen Mary Innovation Ltd, a company that protects and exploits QMUL’s intellectual property. QMUL commercial portfolio currently sits at 18 companies, the most prominent ones would be Chromosol, Actual Experience, ChatterboxLabs, BioMin, and the list goes on.

The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester Innovation Factory, an organization responsible for commercializing the university's intellectual property, has been helping UoM academics and students create new businesses with their inventions. In the last 2 years, the university added more than 13 Spin-Off companies to its commercial portfolio ( SmartIR Ltd, Aletheia Imaging Solutions Ltd, Link Biologics Ltd…).