Embedding enterprise
Collaboration
Supporting entrepreneurs
IMPACT
PLANNING
FUNDING
BUILDING
ON FIRM FOUNDATIONS
THE BUSINESS
EXCELLENCE
Embedding
Collaboration
Impact
PARTNERSHIPS
ENTERPRISE
UNDERSTANDING
Networking
DIVERSIFYING
DEVELOPING
PRESS
MEDIA
GROWTH
PARTNERSHIPS
SUPPORT
APPS
&
IMPACT
EXPANDING
2011 2012
ANNUAL
REVIEW
Embedding enterprise
Supporting entrepreneurs
ON FIRM FOUNDATIONS
our people
ENTERPRISE
Stephen Caddick
UCL Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
Cengiz Tarhan
Managing Director,
UCL Business PLC
Anna Clark
Director, UCL Corporate Partnerships
Timothy Barnes
Director, UCL Advances and Director,
UCL Enterprise Operations
Trish Greenan
Acting Head, UCL Consultants Ltd
David Miller
Director, Translational Research and
Industrial Partnerships, UCL School
of Life and Medical Sciences
Enterprise School Knowledge Transfer Board Chairs
Geraint Rees
Deputy Head, UCL Faculty of
Brain Sciences and Director, UCL
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Alan Smith
Director, UCL Mullard Space Science
Laboratory, Head of UCL Space and
Climate Physics and Director, UCL
Centre for Systems Engineering
Claire Thomson
Lecturer in Scandinavian Film and
Head of UCL Scandinavian Studies
Dave Chapman
Engineering
Geoff Laurent
Medical Sciences
Steve Moss
Brain Sciences
Andrew Edkins
Bartlett
Neil Millar
Life Sciences
Alan Smith
Maths and Physical Sciences
Vice-Deans (Enterprise)
Stephen Humphries
Population Health
contact
For general enquiries, contact:
enterprise@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
CONTENTS
Enterprise at a Glance
3
Enterprise by numbers 2011/2012
2011/2012 Overview from the Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
UCL Enterprise strategy and organisation
Report Tag Cloud
Activity Reports
15
UCL Advances
UCL Business PLC
UCL Consultants Ltd
UCL Corporate Partnerships
UCL Translational Research Office
UCL Enterprise School Knowledge Transfer Board Chairs
Our Year in 30 Stories
29
Supporting entrepreneurs
Embedding enterprise
Collaboration
Our Year in the Media
73
Impact through publicity
Our Year in Awards
85
2012 UCL Awards for Enterprise
Our Year in Apps
Downloadable apps
99
UCL Engineering Front Building,
Malet Place
2
ENTERPRISE
GLANCE
AT
EXCELLENCE
IMPACT
INNOVATION
WEALTH
A
enterprise by numbers
OVERVIEW from the
Vice-Provost (ENTERPRISE)
UCL Enterprise strategy
and organisation
Report Tag Cloud
3
Enterprise
by numbers
More than
services and schemes to support
start-ups and growing businesses
across UCL Enterprise
40
Approximately
1,500
patents in more than 300 patent
families registered and more than
300 licences issued
More than
1,000
£4m
consultancy projects
delivered to date
institutional investment
in 2011/2012
£16m
of activity in Enterprise, UCL
Advances, UCL Business and
UCL Consultants
£100m
of enterprise-related
income to UCL in 2012
4
200
students sponsored by industry
each year, totalling more than
1,200 over the past six years
More than
$8m
the amount of venture capital raised by UCL student-led
companies in 2012. Three companies, Rolepoint, Ovia
and Vungle each raised more than $2m
2011 2012
An average of more than
In 2011, UCL generated
10%
of all IP derived income in
the UK HEI sector
Over
100
% increase in media
activity over the past year
Provided support for
300
of London’s small
businesses
5
2011/2012
OVERVIEW
FROM THE VICE-PROVOST(ENTERPRISE)
UCL’s enterprising community is committed
to innovation, impact and wealth – for UCL
and for the UK.
Enterprise touches on every aspect of
the UCL mission, from the hundreds
of collaborative research projects
with business and industry, to the
thousands of hours of training and
support for students and staff and
hundreds of innovative knowledge
exchange projects.
The great successes of UCL’s
enterprising community are the
result of the individual champions,
the students and staff of UCL.
The individual success stories are
important in their own right and
are academically and financially
rewarding for UCL. But they are
also a powerful illustration of our
continued commitment to core
values, to make a difference to
society, which is at the heart of UCL’s
success as one of the world’s truly
leading universities.
This year, we have seen a dramatic
increase in many areas of enterprise
at UCL – celebrated weekly in news
items around the world. Already, we
are recognised as an international
leading institution by our peers,
government, industry and the media
– but there is more we can and will do
in the coming years.
Exceeding our expectations
UCL is committed to enterprise
and innovation to enrich our core
academic activities and for social
and economic benefit for the UK.
This is at the heart of our enterprise
strategy and in this, the first year,
the UCL community has made
outstanding progress, exceeding
6
our expectations. This annual review
provides a snapshot of that first year,
which has seen an unprecedented
breadth, volume and diversity of
enterprise activities.
Supporting enterprise
In recognition of UCL’s excellent,
wide-ranging knowledge exchange
activities, the Higher Education
Funding Council for England
increased our Higher Education
Innovation Fund award from
£1.9m in 2010/2011 to £2.85m in
2011/2012. This award, which is
capped at the maximum distributed,
reflects our performance in a range
of income measures mainly derived
from the Higher Education Statistics
Agency (HESA) Higher Education
Business & Community Interaction
Survey (HEBCI).
Professor Stephen Caddick
UCL Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
UCL has, therefore, been able to
increase its support to enterprise
activities with an expansion to 86
full-time equivalent staff across the
dedicated enterprise units including
UCL Advances, UCL Business
(UCLB) and UCL Consultants.
To oversee the expansion of
support, Timothy Barnes has taken
on the additional role of Director
of Enterprise Operations and is
continuing to build and shape this
unit to support knowledge-based
services and industrial sponsorship
and collaborations. We were also
delighted that Dr David Miller has
taken the helm as the School of Life
and Medical Sciences, Director of
Industrial Partnerships.
This expansion of dedicated staff to
support enterprise at UCL has been
much needed as we have seen a
significant increase in activity across
the board. Our total annual income
recorded through the HEBCI survey
reached £100m per annum for the
first time. Of particular note is the
increase in the value of our industry
contract portfolio to £73m, up by 30%.
Part of this increase is a
consequence of a dramatic
expansion of postgraduate
studentships activity, with 240
students funded in conjunction
with industry, up from 173. UCL
Consultants now has more than 650
registered consultants, up from 513
in 2011. UCLB continues to deliver in
excess of £1m of profit, generating
10% of UK HEI’s IP income from
commercialisation activities.
UCL’s entrepreneurs
The UCL community is highly
entrepreneurial and our commitment
to stimulating the creation of
500 new businesses is a reflection of
that ambition. We were delighted to
support the creation of 34 new student
businesses in 2011/12. The creation of
an online student business directory
in 2011 shows the diversity and vitality
of our student business community.
We are delighted to see that several
of these fledgling businesses, such
as Vungle, have, this year, attracted
a total of $8m funds from external
investors such as Google.
Much of our support for
entrepreneurs, as seen in ‘Our
year in 30 stories – supporting
entrepreneurs’, p31–41, especially
students, is provided through UCL
Advances, established five years
ago. Advances now provides an
impressive breadth of support
through training, networking
and bespoke support for small
businesses.
In 2011/2012, UCL Advances
provided more than 34,000 student
learner hours of training and provided
support for 300 of London’s small
businesses. Advances is also
spinning off its own activities: Citrus
Saturday, a lemonade stall training
programme for school children, has
gone nationwide this year.
Alongside our tech-based student
businesses, UCLB has been
exploiting new opportunities for
entrepreneurship through app
development, which has proven
a highly successful route for
transferring the fruits of UCL research
to the wider world. New out this year
were the interactive Grammar of
English (iGE) and Chirp – a way to
transfer data through sound – both
based on UCL research.
UCLB has continued to be highly
active in raising dedicated investment
funding for its spin-outs. This year
saw the launch of the Orion Fund;
in this partnership UCLB is working
with technology investors MTI and its
counterparts UMI3 of the University
of Manchester and ERI from the
University of Edinburgh, to identify
investment opportunities in spin-outs
from the three universities.
EXCEPTIONAL
INVENTION
INVESTMENT
CONCEPT
EXPECTATIONS
Entrepreneurs
EXCEEDING
The vitality of UCLB’s innovation
pipeline was evidenced by the
exceptional level of invention
disclosures and £750,000 investment
through proof of concept awards.
Enterprise embedded across UCL
UCL’s Knowledge Transfer
Champions scheme as detailed in
‘Our year in 30 stories – embedding
enterprise’, p43–51, provides
members of academic staff
dedicated funding so they can pursue
their own projects and facilitate
other activities in departments
and faculties. The scheme was
significantly expanded in 2012, with
17 awardees, an increase from
seven in 2011. The fruits of the 2011
cohort can now be seen: Dr Claire
Thomson’s innovative applications of
the enterprise in Arts & Humanities
have encompassed publishing and
new media.
www.ucl.ac.uk /advances/students/business-directory
7
£165m
NIHR
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Successful delivery
CREATING PARTNERSHIPS
BUILDING A FUTURE
Meanwhile, Professor Muki Haklay
has been our champion for social
enterprise, not only through his
ongoing leadership of Mapping For
Change, but also in establishing new
support and funding in conjunction
with UCLB. It has never been easier to
set up a social enterprise at UCL.
The health and wealth agenda is
now centre stage in the NHS and
UCL has a unique role to play in this
nationally vital area. Our excellence in
translational health research has been
further underlined by our success in
winning £165m from National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR) for three
biomedical research centres – the
largest set of awards in the country.
These awards are only made to
centres committed to converting
basic science into market ready
therapies, diagnostics and medical
devices, and UCLB will play a central
role in delivering that translational
agenda. We were also delighted
to see a significant increase in
other translational funding, with the
Translational Research Office (TRO)
and UCLB working together to
facilitate grants from a
variety of public, private and
charitable organisations.
Collaboration and
cross-disciplinary
UCL’s participation in London’s Tech
City – an initiative championed by the
Prime Minister for building
a world-class tech cluster from Old
Street to the Olympic Park – has
stimulated some of the outstanding
new collaborations of 2011/12, as
seen in ‘Our year in 30 stories –
8
collaboration’, p53–71. Together
with Imperial College London, we
have developed two distinct, but
complementary, inter-disciplinary
research relationships with tech giants
Intel and Cisco.
These exciting new partnerships
are focused on aspects of cities
research, particularly exploring how
use of data can be used to enhance
the personal experience of city
dwellers and workers.
These so-called triple-helix
partnerships between universities,
industry and government offer
a powerful illustration of exciting new
ways of collaborating in research and
innovation. They also demonstrate
the important role globally-renowned
universities can play in attracting
inward investment, which is important
to the growth agenda.
UCL’s strength in cross-disciplinary
research is also showcased by UCL
Consultants’ major project with
ICANN, the organisation that oversees
internet addresses. UCL’s unique
expertise was selected to evaluate
new web addresses in non-Latin
scripts such as Hindi, Japanese,
Chinese and Russian. Chris Dillon,
Research Associate in Linguistic
Computing in the Faculty of Arts &
Humanities, is the lead on the project.
UCL is committed to supporting
London’s small business community
and in an exciting new collaboration
joined forces with Goldman Sachs
to deliver its 10,000 Small Businesses
training programme in London.
The first cohort of 25 small business
executives joined in spring 2012
and the course was oversubscribed
almost five times over. The course is
now an established part of the UCL
Advances programme.
Impact through publicity
We are committed to maximising the
impact of research through effective
publicity, as we can see in ‘Our year
in the media’, p73–83. It is important
that the fruits of our scholarly work
reach the widest possible audience
for the greatest benefit. Since the
appointment of our media manager,
Henry Rummins in 2012, we have
seen a dramatic increase in media
impact with pieces celebrating
UCL’s enterprise activities along
with comment and opinion articles.
In this period, we saw more than 40
specific items across all media, with
more than half in mainstream national
outlets. This is an increase of more
than 100% in media activity over
the past year.
In particular, UCL’s support for
entrepreneurs was highlighted in
the Times, FT, Guardian, City AM,
Mail on Sunday and BBC News
Online. Daily Telegraph (UCL – UK
universities producing the UK’s most
self-employed graduates) highlighted
UCL as a leader in the UK. The FT
(UK to teach Americans about startups) showed UCL’s internationally
leading credentials highlighting an
unprecedented new UCL-Fulbright
bursary for US students to study
entrepreneurship at UCL. UCL’s
Enterprise Awards also celebrated our
Bright Ideas scheme with one winner
(Old Bond Ltd) being featured in the
Mail on Sunday (Bike wheels lead the
way for bespoke advertising).
SUPPORT for entrepreneurs
DRAMATIC EXPANSION
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
Depth and DIVERSITY
There is a growing recognition
that universities such as UCL
now provide excellent support for
entrepreneurs as highlighted in
City AM (Why university is the best
foundation for start-ups).
Much was also made of UCL’s
involvement in the £150m Orion
Fund with pieces in the Daily
Telegraph and the FT.
In summary
It’s been an excellent start to the
five-year plan for Enterprise and
you can read more in this review.
But such is the strength, depth
and diversity of our activities that it
can only reflect a small proportion
of the outstanding work of the
UCL community. Every member of
UCL is to be congratulated for a
tremendously successful year and
with the promise of much, much
more to come.
Stephen Caddick
Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
“
Universities can
be powerhouses
of innovation
“
The media are now also beginning
to recognise the importance of
research-intensive universities
to the growth agenda. Our
collaborative partnership with
Imperial College London and Intel
was the subject of several highprofile media items including the
Daily Telegraph and BBC News
Online, with numerous more
specialised online media outlets.
Prof Stephen Caddick, writing in CITY AM
9
UCL ENTERPRISE
STRATEGY
ambitioN
EXCELLENCE
IMPACT
INNOVATION
WEALTH
In 2011, UCL announced an
ambitious new strategy for UCL
Enterprise, in which we aim to
double our activities across the
spectrum of enterprise. Success
will be transformations for UCL with
academic, reputational and
financial benefits that are essential
if UCL is to become the world’s
leading university.
The Enterprise strategy, is
focused on the following broad
strategic aims:
Excellence – fostering, encouraging
and broadening a culture of
enterprise in research and education
Impact – promoting and stimulating
enterprise and collaboration to ensure
the widest possible application of
UCL’s research for the benefit
of society
The Vice-Provost (Enterprise),
Professor Stephen Caddick, is
responsible for all enterprise activity
across UCL. He works across UCL
to develop opportunities for staff and
students to become entrepreneurs,
for academic researchers
to commercialise their research
and to ensure that academic
research benefits society through
business and universities working
more closely together.
Professor Caddick is responsible for
shaping the strategy for enterprise
activity across UCL, facilitated by the
Office VP (Enterprise) and Enterprise
Operations and delivered by UCL
Advances, UCL Business PLC
(UCLB) and UCL Consultants Ltd.
Innovation – creating and
developing opportunities for
innovation from the academic
activities of teaching and research
Wealth – to encourage, stimulate and
support activities that create income
for UCL and jobs and growth for the
UK economy
10
OVER THE NEXT
YEARS
we aim
to double
our activities
ORGANISATION
Vice-Provost
(ENTERPRISE)
Vision
Strategy
Leadership
Office vp
(ENTERPRISE)
Enterprise
Operations
Funding
Planning
Reporting
Partnerships
Co-ordination
Media Relations
UCL Advances
UCL Business
PLC
UCL
Consultants
Ltd
Staff Training
Business Support
Student Ventures
Licensing
Spin-Outs
IP Management
Consultancy
Expert Provision
Academic Services
11
dedicated
based
life
health
map
hospital
professor
key
antibodies
impact
staff
experience
process
delighted
strategy
advice
excellent
centre
successful
innovation
plan
barnes
company
exciting
media
involved
addresses
basic
committed
start-up
goldman
policing
computer
effective
champions
treatment
role
public
opportunities
academic
skills
intellectual
imperial
space department
cella
school
project
transfer
continue
awa
initiative
medical
consultants
aim
UC
es
potential
management
busi
urship
heritage
london
research
meet
sciences
industry
european
people
build
intel
deliver
activities
collaboration
office
engagement
result
resources
These are the key words in
this report. The larger the
word, the more frequently it
has been mentioned.
12
higher
care
responsible
largest
programme
engineering
internet
bring
associate platform
agreement
promoting
asia
students
past
best
carbon
growth
products
designed expertise
together leading
economic
offer
recognised
present
scheme
data
studies
areas
entrepreneurs
applications
conditions
diverse
commercialise
biomedical
nable
education
become
external
organisations
novel
improve
needs
REPORT TAG CLOUD
netw
sachs
partnership
society
change
social
caddick
entrepren
adva
humanities
culture
start
digital
concept
discovery
director
dr
agencies
grow
graduate
cancer
operations
including
development
facility
college
ensure
grammar
environment plc
ideas
disease
led
early
free learning
device
corporate
energy
already
global
physical
outlets
daily
analysis local
financial
highlighted
commercial
significant
explore
translational
interactive
range
achieve
annual
funding
citrus
ltd
knowledge information
case
uk
partners cityhelp
create
work
uclb
ard
year
china
work
core
bartlett
memory
services
studies
exchange
currently
team
electrical
technology
world market
benefit
english
app
medicine
cell
training
arts
board
investment
produce
national
sector
increase
enterprise
challenge
course
publishing
online
level
CL
number
siness
support
leader
icann
institute
university
highly
huge
conjunction
established
successful
access
important
provide
faculties
fuel
e
featured
children
arup
share
countries
government
chirp
international
patients
launch graphene
head
mobile
community
relationships
live
promising
13
14
14
© Copyright Tim Bowditch
Old Bond Ltd, a UCL student
company, offers animated
adverts on bicycle wheels
and appeared on the BBC’s
Dragon’s Den.
ACTIVITY
REPORTS
UCL ADVANCES
UCL BUSINESS
UCL CONSULTANTS
UCL CORPORATE
PARTNERSHIPS
UCL TRANSLATIONAL
RESEARCH OFFICE
UCL ENTERPRISE SCHOOL
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
BOARD CHAIRS
15
UCL ADVANCES
UCL Advances helps anyone
who wants to start, grow or learn
about business through training,
networking and support.
Timothy Barnes, Director,
UCL Advances
start
grow UCL ADVANCES
learn TURNS five
© Copyright Tim Bowditch
UCL Advances’ five-year
review
16
UCL Advances has done much in its
first five years to build upon UCL’s
heritage of entrepreneurship, building
valuable links with local companies
and potential investors, as well as
supporting students throughout
the early stages of their business
endeavours. This enables students
to make the transition seamlessly
from university to business, and to
leave UCL equipped with a wealth
of knowledge and guidance to draw
upon. It also helps existing small
businesses from outside UCL
to make the journey inwards,
benefiting UCL’s core mission
of research-led teaching and
maximising the impact that UCL’s
capability can have in society.
Since its foundation in 2007, UCL
Advances has been a pioneer among
UK universities and a key part of UCL
Enterprise’s activity. It is a national
leader in the field of entrepreneurship
and continues to be at the forefront
of innovations in delivering and
promoting entrepreneurship within
the UK’s higher education sector.
“Supporting students and graduates
setting up their own businesses is central
to UCL’s aim to make entrepreneurship a
core part of the university experience. We
offer funding, business boot camps and
free office space to give them the best
chance of their businesses becoming
the successes of tomorrow.”
Timothy Barnes, Director, UCL Advances
MAximising
IMPACT
5
entrepreneurial
YEARS
OLD
17
UCL BUSINESS
UCL Business (UCLB) helps
to develop UCL’s innovations from
the wide range of research carried
out across UCL. Through licencing
technologies, creating businesses
and utilising UCL’s specialist
subsidiaries to develop products,
UCLB supports and promotes the
development of UCL’s intellectual
property to deliver positive
benefits for all.
Cengiz Tarhan, Managing Director,
UCLB
EVEXAR MEDICAL
UCL BUSINESS SUBSIDIARY EVEXAR
MEDICAL LTD EXPANDS ITS PORTFOLIO
The Evexar selfilluminating
sigmoidoscope is
a single-use, fully
disposable device that
utilises a convenient
(universal) illuminator
inserted into the base
of the handle and a light rod
to direct light to the end of the
scope, where it is most needed. It is
a stand-alone, fully integrated system
enabling examination and therapeutic
procedures to be performed in clinics
and the operating room, giving
complete clinical freedom of use.
The system is completely disposable
as a unit and can be disposed of by
normal hospital procedures after use,
reducing the risk of cross-infection.
TEAM
EXAMINATION
18
SPECIALIST
DISPOSABLE
INTEGRATED
PROCEDURES
Karen Cheetham, Director of
Projects, UCLB, worked closely with
our clinician Steve Barker, regulatory
consultant Tony Thorne and a team
of designers to ensure that the final
design of the sigmoidoscope was in
line with clinicians’ expectations. It is
ideal for specialist clinicians to use
in hospitals and private clinics. As it
is self-illuminated, there is no need
for fibre optic cables or cleaning,
and the unique integrated obturator
design prevents obstruction of the
examination channel and light guide.
The sigmoidoscope has been CE
marked and was launched onto the
market at the Medica conference
in November 2011. This project
illustrates the skills contained within
the project management team and
the ability of the team to transform
a clinical concept to a global product.
“During the year, our
rapidly growing
subsidiary Evexar
Medical Ltd, which
develops innovative
medical devices,
launched its range
of novel, disposable,
self-illuminating
scopes, while
Pentraxin Therapeutics
Ltd extended its
partnership with GSK
to find a cure for
systemic amyloidosis,
a life-threatening
disease. Our first social
venture, Mapping for
Change, looks good
to deliver benefits
to society, and our
newest app, ‘Chirp’,
launched through
Asio Ltd, aims to
simplify the sharing of
information between
phones and electronic
devices. Lots of good
ideas being developed
to deliver real benefits.”
Cengiz Tarhan, Managing
Director, UCLB
£8.7m
£707,536
£546,000
Patent families
360 as at 31 July 2012
Total licences as
370 at 31 July 2012
2011/12
Turnover
Funding for 21 Proof
of Concept projects
in 2011/12
Investments
made in
2011/12
53
New licences
38 in 2011/12
Equity holdings as
at 31 July 2012
44
Drug discovery projects
21 as at 31 July 2012
New patents applied
for in 2011/12
UCL CONSULTANTS
UCL Consultants excels at bringing
together our experts with those who
are seeking to access the fund of
excellence that is the academic body
at UCL. We aim to provide a service
to our internal and external clients
that reflects and enhances the
world-leading reputation of UCL.
2011/2012 was a year of transition
for UCL Consultants. Trish Greenan
proved a valuable Acting Head of the
company prior to the arrival of a new
managing director in 2013.
Roger de Montfort will begin
in February, a former partner
at professional services firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers. His
appointment signals a significant
investment in UCL Consultants, as
we look to expand the company’s
consultancy activity nationally and
internationally with a range of both
public and private sector clients.
Trish Greenan, Acting Head, UCL
Consultants
EXTERNAL
CREATE
Expand INTERNAL
Investment
EXPERTISE
UCL OVERHAULS INTERNET
UCL WINS CONTRACT TO OVERHAUL INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES
UCL Consultants signed an
agreement with ICANN in 2012
to provide expertise to enable the
creation of new top level domain
names using Latin and non-Latin
scripts. ICANN – the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers, which coordinates the
internet’s addressing system – has
initiated the change, which will open
up an entirely new way of using
the Internet.
UCL is working with ICANN to evaluate
applications for new generic top level
domain addresses. As part of the new
generic top level domain program
there will be new addresses in nonLatin scripts such as Arabic, Chinese,
Hindi, Japanese and Russian.
20
The contract was won from ICANN
by UCL Consultants using Dr Chris
Dillon’s (UCL and ICANN Project
Leader and Research Associate in
Linguistic Computing, UCL Arts &
Humanities) rare combination of nonLatin script linguistic and computer
skills, against other bids from a
number of high-profile organisations
including professional services firms.
UCL Consultants was chosen as
a partner on this project because
of its ability to provide specialist
expertise, to offer access to a range
of departments and its experience
in putting together well-organised
mechanisms for inter-disciplinary work.
UCL Consultants took the project
from inception at bid stage, through
to sourcing of key personnel, project
management and completion.
“This is a gamechanging project and
UCL’s involvement
is confirmation of our
position as one of
the leading global
institutions in both
languages and digital
technology.”
Professor Stephen Caddick, UCL
Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
域
ICANN
“Selection as a panellist
for the ICANN work
on string similarity
for the new gTLD
programme and
commencement of the
work was a highlight
of 2012. We are
putting in place, from
scratch, processes,
procedures and an
army of linguistic
experts to provide
a comprehensive
project-managed
service which is
contributing to the
revolutionising of the
internet as we know
and use it.”
Trish Greenan, Acting Head, UCL
Consultants
GLOBAL
DOMAIN
NAME
UCL CORPORATE
PARTNERSHIPS
© Copyright UCL
Dr Anna Clark, Director, UCL Corporate
Partnerships.
UCL Corporate Partnerships
develops and manages successful
long-term relationships between
industry and UCL, and responds
to corporate and academic needs
through tailored partnerships,
high-value research initiatives and
global leadership projects. Corporate
partnerships deliver innovation
advantages to industry, enhance the
international reputation of companies
and generate sustainable revenue
and benefits to the university.
ENVIRONMENTAL
WORLDWIDE
SUSTAINABLE
LAUNCHED
UCL currently works with large
multi-national companies in energy
and resources, telecommunications
and information technologies,
transport and construction, as well
as with smaller companies in art,
advertising, communication, imaging
and entertainment.
DEDICATED
22
TRIPLE-HELIX
INTEL MULTI-MILLION USD TRIPLE-HELIX
PARTNERSHIP SIGNED 2012
In 2012, UCL, Imperial College
London and Intel launched the Intel
Collaborative Research Institute for
Sustainable Connected Cities in
a triple-helix partnership. With
high-level academic, corporate
and government commitment, the
world-leading initiative was unveiled
at a signing event at 10 Downing
Street in May.
The new London-based institute will
be Intel’s first research centre and
global hub dedicated to exploring
how technology can support and
sustain the social and economic
development of cities worldwide. It will
aim to address the social, economic,
and environmental challenges of
city life with computing technology,
helping to provide practical solutions
to problems ranging from droughts
and long commute times to wasteful
use of energy.
Using London as a test bed,
researchers will explore technologies
to make cities more aware by
harnessing real-time user and city
infrastructure data. As a result of the
partnership, UCL has been invited
to participate in high-value annual
Intel programmes, which provide
academics with support in early
career development and help
high-performing students to
reach their potential.
“In 2050, most of the
nine billion people
in the world will live
in cities, therefore,
the demands of
cities will be highly
representative of
the demands of
humanity. Addressing
these demands will
be at the heart of the
Intel Collaborative
Research Institute for
Sustainable Connected
Cities, driving the
development of new
services to enhance
people’s quality of life.”
Justin Rattner, Intel Chief Technology
Officer and Director of Intel Labs
10
CONNECTED
PARTNERSHIP
“UCL is to be congratulated for its
innovative and dynamic role in
the Tech City partnerships with
Intel, Cisco and Imperial. The
announcement of the ‘London
testbed’ partnership with Intel
at 10 Downing Street, with
Chancellor George Osborne,
was a highlight of 2012.”
Dr Anna Clark, Director,
UCL Corporate Partnerships
UCL TRANSLATIONAL
RESEARCH OFFICE
The aims of the Translational
Research Office (TRO) are to
enhance the culture of UCL which
sees promising breakthrough
research turned into therapies,
techniques and medical products
that benefit health. These aims are
achieved through interacting with
investigators, identifying research
with potential for practical medicinal
applications, advising on project
progression strategy and accessing
suitable funding.
The TRO has specialist knowledge of
funding for this purpose and provides
assistance with developing support
from the Medical Research Council,
Wellcome Trust, National Institute for
Health Research and others.
Dr David Miller, Director, Translational
Research and Industrial Partnerships,
UCL School of Life and Medical
Sciences
SMART SURGERY
SUCCESS
PARTNERSHIP
HEALTH
TRUST
INITIATIVE
FUNDED
£5M
UCL has recently been awarded three
projects out of a total of six funded
by the Health Innovation Challenge
Fund (HICF) under the Smart Surgery
call. HICF is a funding partnership
between the Wellcome Trust and the
Department of Health. These awards
are part of a major initiative between
the Medical and Brain Science
Faculties and Engineering at UCL,
which will boost the development
24
and clinical translation of innovative
surgical technologies. The combined
value of the awards exceeds £5m
over the next three years and builds
on significant previous investment
from EPSRC, the Royal Academy
of Engineering, Medical Research
Council (MRC), UK Charities
and the UCLH/UCL Biomedical
Research Centre which is funded
by the National Institute for Health
Research.
A key contribution to achieving
this success came from the TRO’s
Translational Research Managers
who helped to shape and co-ordinate
the applications and manage partner
interactions. These projects are
multi-disciplinary in nature and
additional partners include the
London School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine, UCL Clinical Trials Unit
and industry, as well as close links to
our partner hospitals. The TRO will
continue its close involvement with
the projects through the provision of
translational project management.
MILLION
INITIATIVE
INNOVATIVE
Dr David Miller, Director, Translational
Research and Industrial Partnerships,
UCL School of Life and Medical
Sciences
5
£
INVESTMENT
“Since their introduction
in 2009, the specialist
Translational Research
Managers in the TRO
have overseen the
development of
a pipeline of
translational projects,
which has grown at
a remarkable pace,
now numbering
approximately 25
with a grant value
approaching £30m.
The establishment
of an analogous,
dedicated industrial
partnerships group,
to work alongside the
TRO as part of the
Enterprise agenda,
offers the exciting
prospect of achieving
similar uplifts in our
industry interactions.”
UCL Enterprise
School KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFER Board Chairs
UCL comprises 10 faculties across
a wide variety of disciplines, making
it London’s largest leading multidisciplinary university. These faculties
are grouped into three schools
– the School of Life and Medical
Sciences (SLMS); the School of the
Barlett, Engineering Sciences and
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
(BEAMS); and the School of Law, Arts
and Humanities, Social and Historical
Sciences and Slavonic and Eastern
European Studies (SLASH).
Dr Claire Thomson, Lecturer in
Scandinavian Film and Head of UCL
Scandinavian Studies.
Training
The UCL Enterprise School
Knowledge Transfer Board Chairs
in each school seek to support
academic staff in their faculties to
ensure knowledge is effectively
transferred from the university into
useful applications for wider society,
whether that be through working with
business, corporates or influencing
government or other public bodies.
“Projects undertaken
by Knowledge
Transfer Champions
in SLASH have
spanned open access
publishing technology,
consultancy,
documentary
filmmaking and
promoting the impact
of the humanities
in the UK. We have
also focused on
developing skills
Intercultural
26
training in intercultural
interaction for tourism
professionals and on
integrating desktop
publishing skills into
teaching and learning.
On a personal note,
I’m proud of the
anthology of essays
published by my
students of Nordic
cinema, who learned
lots about desktop
publishing, editing,
design and marketing
along the way.”
Professor Geraint Rees, Deputy Head
of Faculty, UCL Brain Sciences.
Professor Alan Smith, Director of the
UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory,
Head of UCL Space and Climate
Physics and Director UCL Centre for
Systems Engineering.
“ As Chair of the BEAMS
Board, I have been
delighted to oversee
a number of important
Enterprise initiatives
over the past year. We
produced our first
enterprise strategy that
reflected departmental
and faculty priorities
and aligned with
UCL’s published
overall strategy. The
recruitment of the
second wave of
Enterprise Champions
followed our strategy
with an emphasis on
coherent academic
units such as the
Institute of Risk and
Disaster Reduction.
The Beams School
Knowledge Transfer
Board has overseen
the distribution of
much of the remaining
Collaborative Training
Account/Knowledge
Transfer Secondment
funding with many
exciting projects being
initiated. More than
anything, I believe
the committee is
providing an excellent
environment in which
enterprise-related
issues can be
discussed, understood
and improved.”
“I’m delighted to have
taken over as SLMS
Board Chair and
established effective
and enthusiastic
working relationships
with the team of ViceDeans (Enterprise) and
KT Champions. There
are huge opportunities
in SLMS to develop
enterprise and I am
particularly proud of
our highly effective
Translational Research
Office, where David
Miller and his team
have already helped
investigators accrue
nearly £30m portfolio
of technology transfer
grant funding.”
ENTERPRISE
OPPORTUNITIES
27
Citrus Saturday in London
28
OUR
STORIES
30
IN
2011/2012
YEAR
Supporting
entrepreneurs
embedding enterprise
collaboration
29
UCL Goldman Sachs
10,000 small businesses
participants
Supporting entrepreneurs
UCL continues to be a leading light
in the provision of a wide range
of support for budding student
and staff entrepreneurs, and that
provision has grown substantially
during 2012. In fact, UCL now
provides offered places on support
programmes to 2,500 budding
student and staff entrepreneurs
and was able to extend the highly
popular hatchery space to support
student start-up companies.
Thanks to the variety of support
programmes on offer, UCL
Advances has supported 64 new
student businesses as part of our
target to support 500 businesses
before the end of 2015.
Confirming UCL’s internationally
renowned programme of support
for entrepreneurship, the Fulbright
Commission announced this
year that it will fund a US student
to come to UCL to study the
university’s MSc Technology
Entrepreneurship programme.
UCL Business (UCLB)
continues to provide support for
high-value spin-out companies
and to protect, commercialise and
license intellectual property. In
the past year, they have recorded
in excess of £1m in profits, with
the value of the IP held by the
organisation also increasing
substantially. The technology
transfer company has also played
a key role in assisting the
biomedical research centre bids,
which were successful and have
resulted in more than £165m of
research income.
UCLB continues to work closely
with a wide range of partners
in support of fundraising
and have joined forces with
Edinburgh, Manchester and
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology to create the Orion
Fund, a dedicated £150m fund to
support early stage businesses
from the three universities.
1million
PROFIT
SIGNIFICANT
ENHANCEMENT
64
student companies directly
supported in 2011/2012
31
Supporting
entrepreneurs
REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
TO PRODUCE GRAPHENE
NOVEL PROCESS TO MASS-PRODUCE
GRAPHENE
Professor Neal Skipper, Dr Emily
“The discovery of
Milner and Visiting Research Fellow
graphene is one of the
Dr Chris Howard, UCL, along with
Professor Milo Shaffer from Imperial
most exciting in the
College London, have invented
physical sciences for
a revolutionary new method for
producing graphene.
many years. UCL is at
Just one atom thick, the honeycombthe forefront of research
shaped material has several
to explore ways that
remarkable properties, combining
mechanical toughness with superior
we can produce
electrical and thermal conductivity.
and work with this
It is the thinnest, strongest material
known to humanity – 100 times
revolutionary material.”
stronger than steel. Even more
remarkable, a sheet of graphene
as thin as clingfilm could hold the
weight of a car. It conducts electricity
and heat better than copper, and is
almost 100 per cent transparent.
Dr Tim Fishlock, Senior Business
Manager for Physical Science and
Engineering, UCLB
32
THERMAL
MECHANICAL
PRIZE
A
REVOLUTIONARY
PRODUCING
The invention is an important
staging post in successfully and
cost-effectively mass-producing
the material – a process that could
potentially be worth billions of
pounds. UCL Business (UCLB) is
continuing to work with UCL staff
to ensure that the discovery is
commercialised successfully.
INVEN TED
Supporting
entrepreneurs
ADVANCED MEMORY
CONCEPT
MATERIALS
Dr Tony Kenyon, UCL Electronic and
Electrical Engineering
MEMORY
“The fact that the ReRAM
chips can operate in
ambient conditions and
have a continuously
variable resistance
opens up a huge
range of potential
applications”.
ENERGY
ReRAM chips promise significantly
greater memory storage than
current technology, such as the
flash memory used on USB
sticks, and require much less
energy and space.
memory
ELECTRICAL
It is the first purely silicon
oxide-based ‘Resistive RAM’
memory chip that can operate
in ambient conditions – opening
up the possibility of new superfast memory. Resistive RAM (or
‘ReRAM’) memory chips are based
on materials, most often oxides of
metals, whose electrical resistance
changes when a voltage is applied
– and they remember this change
even when the power is turned off.
SPACE
A memory chip that is 100 times
faster than flash memory chips
and needs only one thousandth
of the energy to operate has
been developed by researchers
in UCL Electronic and Electrical
Engineering, and is being
supported with proof of concept
funding from UCL Business (UCLB).
SUPER
FAST
UCL BUSINESS ASSISTS IN DEVELOPMENT OF
AN ADVANCED MEMORY CONCEPT
FUNDING
RAM
33
Supporting
entrepreneurs
RICH FUTURE IN STORE
SECURES FUNDING FOR UCL GRADUATE’S
LITERARY IDEA
A graduate of UCL successfully
closed his latest funding round after
seeking investment from a syndicate
of Angels in the City.
Together with funding from London
Business Angels (LBA) investors,
Raoul Tawadey, who graduated
in 2008 with a degree in Natural
Sciences, will use the investment
to expand his company’s resources,
bolster technical development and
accelerate growth.
Raoul has benefited from
long-standing support from UCL
Advances for his business concept,
including a Bright Ideas Award to
provide seed funding for his idea
and space, free of charge, in the
university’s hatchery.
EXPAND
&
GROW
34
Circalit, Winner, UCL Bright Ideas Awards 2011
“I’m delighted
a syndicate of Angels
in the City investors,
together with LBA,
have underpinned
Circalit’s funding round.
Around 80 potential
angels from the City
of London have
participated, so
far, in the project of
investing in earlystage businesses
and I am delighted
that a number of
these individuals have
started to invest in the
city fringes, bringing
their financial capital,
experience and
contacts to support
the growth of these
businesses.”
Anthony Clarke, London Business
Angels Managing Director
INVESTMENT
BOOKS
His company, Circalit (now
ReadWave) has developed an
innovative digital publishing platform
which aims to become the ‘Youtube
for ebooks’, a place where writers
can publish their books on the web
and mobile devices, as well as selling
their works directly to readers at the
price that they choose. The content
they produce is then distributed
through Facebook and Twitter, among
other social media channels.
WEB
Supporting
entrepreneurs
CITRUS SATURDAY GOES
UK-WIDE AND BEYOND
NOW IN EDINBURGH, DUBLIN AND SOMERSET
Citrus Saturday is a programme
developed by UCL Advances
to encourage entrepreneurial skills in
young people and help them to gain
confidence in a working environment.
Using a handbook called How
to be an entrepreneur, pupils at local
schools and youth groups were
mentored by UCL students and
then went on to market and sell their
lemonade in prime locations across
central London.
BUSINESS
LEARN
create
SUCCESSFUL
Following 2011’s successful pilot,
Citrus Saturday went UK-wide in
2012, with similar events taking place
in Edinburgh, Somerset and Dublin.
LEMONADE
YOUNG
Citrus Saturday is a great opportunity
for UCL students to learn more about
working with young people and
engage with their local communities.
The volunteers receive training in
food hygiene and working with
children, they then help run a series
of workshops to teach the basic
business skills required, then help
the teenage entrepreneurs create
and run their own drinks businesses,
making and selling lemonade to
the public. The Citrus Saturday
programme runs just after the UCL
exam season ends, so it’s a fun and
rewarding start to the summer!
“Our role was
to support and
encourage our team
members – without
doing any of the
work for them. It
was important that
they achieve the
goals themselves,
otherwise they would
not get the most out
of Citrus Saturday.”
Maria Stanoniu (BSc Mathematics
and Statistics), UCL Student Mentor,
Citrus Saturday
35
ENGAGE
Supporting
entrepreneurs
BREAKTHROUGHS
IN TREATMENTS FOR
EYE DISEASES
UCL BUSINESS COMMERCIALISES TWO NOVEL
TECHNOLOGIES
UCL Business (UCLB) has
collaborated with scientists at
UCL to commercialise two novel
technologies that could enable those
currently incapacitated by loss of
sight to regain their vision.
The first instance is that of a new adult
human retinal stem cell treatment
to repair nerve cells damaged in
glaucoma, which, in trials, has partially
restored vision in rats.
If the success can be replicated
in humans it may eventually lead
to new treatments for glaucoma
– the leading cause of irreversible
blindness in the world – and other
degenerative eye conditions by
slowing sight deterioration, or
reversing it altogether.
The development has been led by
Professor Robert Brown at UCL’s
Tissue Repair and Engineering Centre
(TREC) and Professor Julie Daniels at
the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology,
in collaboration with TAP Biosystems
and funding from the Technology
Strategy Board.
VISION
36
stem CELL
TRANSLATION
MEDICINE
RAFT™ is an innovative method of
synthetic tissue production that uses
collagen to create corneal tissue,
closely mimicking that of actual
human cornea. It has the potential to
improve the success rates of cornea
repair surgery significantly and will
allow people with corneal surface
disease to have replacements without
waiting for eye donors.
“This project is
an exciting combination
of disciplines bringing
together regenerative
medicine and tissue
engineering with the
aim of meeting
a key medical need
of restoring sight
to patients.”
Dr Rachel Hemsley, Senior Business
Manager, UCLB
EYE
The second technology – a significant
advance towards developing
a treatment for Corneal Surface
Disease – includes the use of RAFT™,
patented by UCLB and licensed for
development to Tap Biosystems Ltd.
Supporting
entrepreneurs
UCL STUDENTS
EXCEL IN NATIONAL
ENTERPRISE AWARDS
UCL students have excelled in a series of “The Monster Card
national enterprise competitions this year founders work well
as a team, and have
impressed me with their
creativity, energy and
boundless enthusiasm.
Undaunted by entering
a competitive market,
they have proved that
a lot can be achieved
through planning and
In May 2011, the UCL Enterprise
The team, led by Alex Emms (UCL
hard work, combined
Society won the Enterprise Society
Computer Science), set up Thirstpass
of the Year Award at the National
(now Monster Card), a student
with the vision to spot
Association of College and University
discount card offering discounts at
and successfully exploit
Entrepreneurs (NACUE) at their
food and drink outlets, last year.
training conference in London.
a sizeable niche market”.
Following the popularity of the
The judge’s decision was based on
the outstanding work that the UCL
Enterprise Society did in the past year
to deliver top-quality events, achieve
diverse funding, partnerships and
memberships, strong engagement
with the wider community of student
entrepreneurs and working with other
enterprise societies.
Likewise, a team from UCL
reached the final of the Santander
Universities Entrepreneurship
awards, which aim to support and
encourage university students
to pursue their business ideas.
cards among students, Alex met
with Lillian Shapiro, one of two
Student Business Advisors at UCL
Advances, for advice on how to
capitalise on Thirstpass’ initial
success. She suggested applying
for a UCL Bright Ideas Award, which
the team won – securing £12,000 in
a loan from the university to take the
business to the next level.
Lillian Shapiro, Student Business
Advisor, UCL Advances
“It is a tremendous
honour to have won
the Society of the
Year Award. All our
committee members
have done incredible
things both individually
and collaboratively…”
Ahmad Bakhiet, President, UCL
Enterprise Society
37
Supporting
entrepreneurs
NEW APP ‘CHIRP’
ENABLES DATA SHARING WITH SOUND
The idea of using short, cute
snippets of sound to enable data
transfer between mobile devices
was conceived by Professor Anthony
Steed and Patrick Bergel at UCL
Computer Science when investigating
ways of addressing the challenge of
sharing information between
co-located users independently
of a network connection.
They recognised that the opportunity
to use sound as the transfer
mechanism held immense potential
for global adoption, given that even
the cheapest mobile phones include
both speaker and microphone,
enabling any appropriately encoded
data to be sent simply over the air.
A proof of concept award from UCL
Business (UCLB) in 2010 enabled the
team to design and patent the system
and protocol, and to implement it
onto a pair of iPhones. The sound
of the short, two-second audio tag
was based loosely on birdsong, and
hence the Chirp brand was born.
use case application was designed
to show off the capability of the
technology platform.
The Chirp App for iPhone and iPad
was launched in July 2012, enabling
users to chirp photos, messages and
weblinks to each other. Within
one week of launch, Chirp made
headline webpage news on the
BBC’s Technology page. As a result
of this and other promotional activity,
Chirp had already exceeded its
month six target download figures in
its first four weeks on the App Store.
The company is currently in licensing
discussions with a number of
mobile hardware and component
manufacturers, keen to embed the
technology in their chipsets. It has
also been approached by high-profile
digital technology companies looking
to promote sharing features on their
mobile apps by incorporating Chirp.
“Chirping could
well become the
new tweeting”.
As declared succinctly by
the Independent
38
MOBILE
INFORMATION
DATA
With support from Senior Business
Manager Marina Santilli at UCLB, the
company, Asio Ltd (trading as Animal
Systems), was spun out in December
2011, with seed funding from UCLB
and Imperial Innovations. The focus
of the start-up was to engineer
the system to work as reliably as
possible in a wide range of audio
environments. In parallel, a basic
SOUND
NETWORK
BIRDSONG
CHIRP
Supporting
entrepreneurs
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
LEARNING
The app was developed in response
to students and teachers who said
that many existing learning tools,
whether paper-based or interactive,
often fail to meet their English
language learning needs. Teachers
and students are given advice
about grammar that is often dated,
confusing and, in some cases,
highly misleading.
The app offers students the
opportunity to practise their language
skills and study English whenever
they want and wherever they are,
with further apps for punctuation and
spelling planned for the near future.
The app distinguished itself from
other English grammar learning
materials in that the exercises within
With the market for English language
learning tools being worth hundreds
of millions of pounds per annum –
with significant growth in overseas
markets such as south-east Asia,
driven by mobility and employment
trends – UCLB expects the app to be
a valuable resource for both students
and teachers across the world.
“The release of the
app demonstrates
UCLB’s commitment
to knowledge transfer
in UCL departments
such as English
and will provide
a bridgehead for
further developments
across the arts and
humanities.”
develop
It provides a complete interactive
course in English grammar, enabling
English language students to
develop their knowledge and skills
more effectively, and was targeted
at students studying the English
language at secondary school, high
school or university, as well as those
who are studying English as a second
or foreign language.
the app arise from excerpts of actual
spoken and written English and are
presented in a manner that provides
users with a dynamic and exciting
learning environment in comparison
to student textbooks, which typically
use fixed (i.e. ‘hard-wired’) and
artificial examples.
ENGLISH
INTERACTIVE
During the summer of 2011,
Dr Steven Schooling, Director of
Physical Sciences, Engineering, Built
Environment and Social Sciences
at UCL Business (UCLB), working
in conjunction with Professor Bas
Aarts and Mr Sean Wallis from UCL’s
Survey of English Usage, launched an
innovative iPhone app: the interactive
Grammar of English (iGE).
APP
A BREAKTHROUGH IN ENGLISH
GRAMMAR LEARNING
Dr Steven Schooling, Director of Physical
Sciences, Engineering, Built Environment
and Social Sciences, UCLB
39
Supporting
entrepreneurs
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
IT’S CALIFORNIA DREAMING FOR THE
PRESIDENT OF UCL ENTERPRISE SOCIETY
Ahmad Bakhiet knew he was in
Silicon Valley when the driver of the
cab he was taking to his hotel asked:
“What start-up are you working on
now?” Ahmad says: “That would
never happen in London.”
Ahmad Bakhiet (pictured left),
President, UCL Enterprise Society, MSc
in Technology Entrepreneurship
40
EVENT
TECHNOLOGIES
Jump off a cliff
and assemble
a plane on the
way down
emerging
Last November, UCL Enterprise
Society won the SVc2UK best
university event competition with
an aviation-themed evening alluding
to Reid Hoffman’s quotation, “Jump
off a cliff and assemble a plane
on the way down”. The prize was
five days in San Francisco meeting
the world’s leading entrepreneurs,
followed by three days in Austin,
Texas, attending the legendary
South By Southwest (SXSW)
conference, which showcases the
best emerging technologies.
“The first thing that I
noticed is that there is
innovation everywhere,
not just in board rooms
or in staff canteens
or around the water
cooler. On the street,
we saw Google’s
self-driving car. There
were signs everywhere
for Apple’s conference
to launch iPad 3.
We were held up
by the Israeli Prime
Minister’s motor
cavalcade. When we
were invited to one
of San Francisco’s
famous pancake
houses, there were
investors closing deals
over their short stacks
with maple syrup!”
INNOVATION
Ahmad, President of the UCL
Enterprise Society – one of the
university’s largest free societies,
with 2,000 members – is referring
to a recent trip stateside, courtesy
of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK
(SVc2UK), a key annual event
organised by angel investor Sherry
Coutu and LinkedIn co-founder Reid
Hoffman in an effort to bring US-style
innovation to this side of the pond.
Supporting
entrepreneurs
UCL TEAM WINS
£65,000 FUNDING
UCL TEAM WINS £65,000 FUNDING FOR SOCIAL
ENTERPRISE SUPPORT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
A team led by UCL has won £65,000
in funding for an innovative new
project to support staff and students
in higher education who want to start
social enterprises.
“Bridging the gap
between innovation
and industry is key,
and is vital for the
UK’s continued
growth, and these
projects do just that. I
look forward to seeing
the real difference that
this year’s winners will
bring to university and
industry relationships.”
The team, led by Professor Muki
Haklay (UCL Civil, Environmental and
Geomatic Engineering) in partnership
with UnLtd, the foundation for social
entrepreneurs, and the University of
Manchester, has been awarded the
funding by the Intellectual Property
Office. The award forms part of
their Fast Forward Competition
which supports projects which will
boost growth in the UK through the
utilisation of intellectual property,
as well as innovation in Higher
Education more broadly.
The UCL team was one of only 13
applications to achieve funding
out of a pool of 53 entries. Over
the next year, it will bring together
social entrepreneurs and staff from
technology transfer offices – such as
UCL Business (UCLB) – to develop
an online toolkit to better support
people in higher education who are
keen to establish social enterprises.
In tandem with the award, Ana
Lemmo Charnalia joined UCL
Business in March 2012 as Social
Enterprise Business Manager
to promote, identify and support the
development of social enterprises
by UCL academic staff, with the
objective of establishing UCL as
a leader in the development of
knowledge-based social ventures.
Ana is working closely with UCL
academic staff who are considering
starting up a social enterprise,
providing access to resources
including business and market
assessment support, legal and
intellectual property advice and proof
of concept funding.
SOCIAL
Baroness Wilcox, Minister for
Intellectual Property
FOUNDATION
ONE OF
13GROWTH
PARTNERSHIP FUNDING
41
This illustration was used as
part of the branding for the
Goldman Sachs 10,000 small
businesses programme.
42
Embedding enterprise
In recognition of the
importance of the enterprise
agenda, the UCL excellence
document has been
modified, demonstrating the
institutional commitment to
enterprise as a core part of
the UCL mission.
In order to support the diversity of
enterprise activities within UCL,
we continue to work hard with
heads of department to identify
exciting new activities that we can
support and pilot.
A key part of this work is delivered
by the Vice-Deans (Enterprise)
who have been embedded in
faculties throughout UCL and are
supported by their school boards and
centrally by the Enterprise Steering
Committee. The latter body now
oversees the allocation of UCL’s
knowledge exchange funding to
support a wide variety of initiatives
including user-generated projects
and institutional priorities.
EXCELLENCE
COMMITMENT
ENTERPRISE
One such mechanism is the highly
successful Knowledge Transfer
Champions scheme which expanded
for 2012 with 17 appointments: four
in the School of Laws, Arts and
Humanities, Social and Historical
Sciences and Slavonic and Eastern
European Studies (SLASH); six in the
School of the Bartlett, Engineering
Sciences and Mathematical and
Physical Sciences (BEAMS) and
seven in the School of Life and
Medical Sciences (SLMS).
As a result of this initiative, a wide
range of exciting projects are being
supported, including consultancy
on China’s heritage, knowledge
transfer and digital media in the
humanities, developing open
educational resources, CPD in the
Bartlett and personalising medicine
in child health.
During summer 2012, UCL learnt it
is to receive £4,474,666 through an
EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account
over the next 3 years, in recognition
of UCL being the second largest
recipient of EPSRC grant funding.
These funds will be used to support
a variety of knowledge exchange
and impact-generating projects
across the engineering and physical
sciences community at UCL.
Each champion is there to act as
a catalyst for enterprise and is
supported with a budget to provide
resources necessary for development
of projects within their academic
department that will further this goal.
43
UCL Portico, Gower Street
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
CHAMPIONS
PROMOTING ENTERPRISE AND EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT
In 2011, UCL appointed its first cohort
of Knowledge Transfer Champions.
Seven academic staff took on the
challenge of promoting enterprise
and external engagement within their
departments and specialist areas,
and these endeavours are now truly
bearing fruit.
Dr Claire Thomson,
(UCL Scandinavian Studies)
has developed a model for the
incorporation of transferable skills
in desktop publishing into the
undergraduate curriculum; the
resulting book Framed Horizons, was
launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Professors Brian Davidson and
Barry Fuller (Division of Surgery),
have established their knowledge
transfer hub – Tissue Access for
Patient Benefit – and secured longerterm funding to deliver a two-year
feasibility study to develop the
potential commercial and academic
partners alongside the UCL Biobank,
aiming to make UCL a leader in
this field.
Professor Jawwad Darr (Chemistry)
has been successful in raising the
profile of UCL nanomaterials through
publicity, conferences and targeted
industry engagement.
In 2012, 17 champions were
appointed from across UCL
faculties, with interests as diverse
as developing heritage services
through consultancy; open
access educational resources;
building partnerships with
international humanitarian and
development agencies; and
developing collaborations with the
pharmaceutical industry to investigate
the causes of rare diseases.
SLASH
SLMS
School of Laws, Arts and
Humanities, Social and
Historical Sciences and
Slavonic and Eastern
European Studies
School of Life and Medical
Sciences
Dr Michael Stewart – UCL
Anthropology and Open City Docs
Ulrich Tiedau – UCL Dutch and Centre
for Digital Humanities
Dr Melissa Terras – UCL Information
Studies and Centre for Digital
Humanities
Dr Dominic Perring – UCL Institute of
Archaeology
BEAMS
School of The Bartlett,
Engineering Sciences and
Mathematical and Physical
Sciences
Professor Vincent Walsh – UCL
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Professor Steve Humphries – UCL
Medical School
Professor Julie Daniels – UCL Institute
of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye
Hospital
Dr Jim Roberts – Royal National
Throat, Nose and Ear Hosptial and
UCLH
Professor Philip Beales – UCL
Institute of Child Health and Great
Ormond Street Hospital
Dr Andrea Townsend–Nicholson –
UCL Structural and Molecular Biology
Professor David Abraham – UCL
Centre for Rheumatology and
Connective Tissue Diseases and
Division of Medicine
Dr David Chapman – UCL
Management Science and Innovation
Professor Jawwad Darr – UCL
Chemistry
Dr Andrew Edkins – UCL Bartlett
School of Construction and Project
Management
Dr David Shipworth – UCL Energy
Institute
Dr Tristan Smith – UCL Energy Institute
Dr Stephen Edwards – Aon Benfield
UCL Hazard Research Centre
Dr Joana Geraldi – UCL Bartlett
School of Construction and Project
Management
Professor Peter Morris – UCL Bartlett
School of Construction and Project
Management
45
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
CHAMPIONS
PROGRESS 2011/2012
heritage
consultancy
educational
humanitarian
development
pharmaceutical
46
46
To do this, Tristan has led on bringing
together staff from both the academic
and PhD student community
to explore how to integrate
knowledge transfer into the workings
of the Energy Institute and the
benefits that working with outside
partners could bring in boosting
research quality.
This has led to the implementation of
a number of successful Knowledge
Transfer initiatives, including
attendance by a delegation from UCL
Energy at the Wilderness festival to
setting up a working group within the
Institute to progress the development
and commercialisation of its data
and models.
In addition, as well as hosting
meetings with industry and
government stakeholders, through
discussions with key private sector
contacts, a number of enterprise
opportunities are now in early
stage discussion with UCL
Business (UCLB).
Dr Stephen Edwards is an Earth
Scientist who is nationally recognised
for his innovation in promoting
knowledge exchange and
research partnerships with
international humanitarian and
development agencies.
As a Knowledge Transfer Champion
for 2012, he continues this work by
bringing UCL and other scientists
together to help these agencies
improve their work on assessing and
managing natural resources and
risks from natural hazards.
Stephen has publicised his work
through the Enhancing Learning and
Research for Humanitarian Assistance
Guide to Effective Partnerships
and the UK Government Office
for Science report on The Use of
Science in Humanitarian Emergencies
and Disasters.
LEARNING
RESEARCH
PARTNERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
INNOVATION
PROMOTING
CHAMPIONS
17
Dr Tristan Smith is a lecturer in
Energy and Transport at the rapidlygrowing UCL Energy Institute. His
appointment as the Knowledge
Transfer Champion has done much
to embed a culture of enterprise at an
early stage in what is a comparatively
new institute within UCL.
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
Dr Melissa Terras
There is a common assumption that
knowledge transfer and exchange isn’t
embedded within humanities subjects.
This resulted in the UCL Information
Studies Outreach to Industry Map.
In the 2011/12 academic year, she
identified a total of 127 hosts and
88 external speakers from 198
institutions, demonstrating our
connections around Bloomsbury
and beyond. All external partners
were invited to what is hoped the first
annual drinks reception for industry
partners, and Information Studies
is now working on how to embed
research activity with their
external partners.
MAPPING
INFORMATION
CONNECTIONS
INVESTIGATION
Dr Melissa Terras, Reader in
Electronic Communication in UCL
Information Studies and one of the
Knowledge Transfer Champions for
the Arts and Humanities, set out to
investigate and build on Information
Studies’ relationships with industry
by gathering information about
external parties who teach on the
54 postgraduate modules offered at
Information Studies, and the external
parties that host graduate work
placements every year.
This relatively simple mapping
exercise has revealed the extent
to which those operating in an
information studies department
engage with current practice in
industry. It has revealed that our
partners are as diverse as the BBC,
Christie’s, the Imperial War Museums,
the National Theatre, Puffin Books,
the Rambert Dance Company,
the Scouts Association and
Thomson Reuters.
Dr Claire Thomson is a Lecturer
in Scandinavian Film, and Head
of UCL Scandinavian Studies.
As a Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Champion in 2011,
Claire developed a model for the
incorporation of transferable skills
in desktop publishing into the
undergraduate curriculum.
The pilot project took place
June–September 2012 in
collaboration with the non-profit
company SourceFabric, with three
UCL students editing an anthology
of their counterparts’ essays and
learning DTP skills and the publishing
cycle. The resulting book, Framed
Horizons, was launched at the
Frankfurt Book Fair.
Other activities held include
a BookCamp (a two-day workshop
in November 2011) that brought
together small publishers within
UCL to discuss the past, present
and future of publishing. It provided
training for staff and students on
the publishing cycle and associated
technologies, co-sponsorship of a
translation mentorship programme
pairing practising and aspiring/
student translators.
MENTORSHIP
COLLABORATION
LEARNING
SPONSORSHIP
47
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
SECONDMENT SCHEME
THE FINAL YEAR OF THE SCHEME
2011/2012 was the final year of the
highly successful Knowledge Transfer
Secondment scheme funded by
EPSRC at UCL since 2009.
The aim of these secondments
was to support the flow of skilled
people into and out of UCL and to
help companies to exploit research
previously funded by EPSRC. In
total,19 secondments lasting 6–12
months were funded, of which two
secondments were staff from industry
bringing their expertise to UCL; the
other 17 saw UCL-trained researchers
(as doctoral students or postdoctoral
researchers) take up places outside.
A wide range of knowledge
exchange impacts resulted,
including upskilling of people and
organisations, progress of scientific
discoveries towards use including
patent applications and eventual
employment of the secondee by
the company.
Secondment
UPSKILLING
£750K
REAL-LIFE
The secondments covered a wide
range of large companies from
chemical and pharmaceutical sectors
to IT, engineering and financial
services, but secondments also took
place with SMEs and charity and
governmental organisations.
SCHEME
FUNDED
More than £750k of funding was
distributed, and partner organisations
contributed significantly in cash
funding or in kind through access to
equipment and personnel.
RESEARCH
“UCL have a long
experience in
superconductive
quantum effects and
can fabricate these
structures, while NPL
possesses the knowhow and infrastructure
to make precision
measurements under
the right conditions. In
that sense, it was
an ideal collaboration,
in which both partners
could achieve results
not possible on
their own.”
JT Janssen, Researcher, NPL
48
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
NEW INTERNSHIP
SCHEME
BENEFITING SMALL BUSINESSES IN LONDON
UCL Advances has established
a scheme to provide small,
high-growth businesses in the capital
with support from high-flying
UCL students.
UCL’s scheme is designed to enable
these enterprises to benefit from
an internship by a UCL graduate.
Businesses across London have
had to bid for students following a
selection process by UCL Advances.
The potential of the scheme was
recognised immediately – so much
so, that places were oversubscribed.
HIGHFLYING
SCHEME
INTERNSHIP
This year, UCL Advances has placed
50 students in internships of eight
weeks, during which time they
have been plunged into providing
hands-on business support for the
companies that they are placed
with, including marketing, project
management, fund-bid writing and
even business reorganisation.
ESTABLISHED
“These enterprises are
at a stage where they
are ready to grow, but
often lack sufficient
resources to make that
happen. Through the
help of a motivated,
engaged student with
a fresh perspective,
they will have a proper
shot to take their
businesses to the
next level.”
Timothy Barnes, Director,
UCL Advances
49
EMBEDDING
ENTERPRISE
LAUNCH OF SPORTS
STARs BURSARY
SUPPORTING BUDDING SPORTSMEN AND
WOMEN STUDYING AT UCL
The UCL Awards for Enterprise
2012 marked the announcement
of new UCL Sports Stars Bursaries
for budding sportsmen and women
who are studying at UCL and also
compete at an international level in
their chosen sport. The bursaries
will enable 75 athletes over the next
three years to reach their worldclass potential, and aim to highlight
the similarities between those that
excel in sport and those that excel
as entrepreneurs: dedication,
commitment, perseverance and
the benefits of high-quality training
and support.
BUSINESS
BURSARY &
“UCL and UCL Union
have set up this new
initiative to financially
support students
studying at UCL while
competing at national
and international level in
their chosen sport. One
of UCL’s key objectives
is for students who leave
UCL to be different than
students from other
universities. They want
us to be leaders and
inevitable thinkers,
to be hugely dedicated
and passionate about
what we do and that’s
what we’re really
seeing through these
athletes who are so
committed about what
they are doing.”
Amy Evans,
Student Activities Office, UCLU.
Sports Stars
50
ENTERPRISE
INNOVATION
LIFEBLOOD
of
51
Collaboration
ACADEMIA
INDUSTRY
GOVERNMENT
UCL has a very broad range
of collaborative activities with
business and industry, with more
than £300m of our current RCUK
and NIHR research portfolio
involving collaboration with
business and industry.
Our current portfolio of more than 580
research contracts with industry and
commerce is now valued at £73m,
of which 240 provide support for
doctoral studentships across UCL.
In addition to the bilateral
collaborations for specific research
projects, we seek to develop
larger high-value, multi-component
collaborative partnerships.
A key highlight this year was
the renewal of the established
partnership with Arup in areas
such as sustainable engineering
through engineering and behavioural
science. The partnership will also
facilitate personnel exchange and
jointly supervised doctoral training
programmes.
UCL has also announced the launch
of the Intel Collaborative Research
Institute for Sustainable Connected
Cities, which represents a major
financial investment by Intel in UCL
and Imperial College London. The
new London-based institute will be
Intel’s first research centre and global
hub dedicated to exploring how
technology can support and sustain
the social and economic development
of cities worldwide. The launch of the
centre was unveiled at an event in
10 Downing Street, bringing together
key decision makers and influencers
from academia, industry and
government.
It has also been an excellent year for
UCL Consultants, with a significant
increase in the number of academic
consultants now engaged with
UCL Consultants.
A particular highlight was the
successful bid from UCL Arts and
Humanities and UCL Consultants
to provide expertise to enable the
creation of new top level domain
names using Latin and non-Latin
scripts. UCL is working with the
Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN),
which coordinates the internet’s
addressing system to evaluate
applications for new generic top
level domain addresses.
UCL also has an outstanding
reputation in collaboration in support
of London’s SME communities with
more than 300 small businesses
supported this year. UCL joined forces
with Goldman Sachs Foundation to
lead the extension of the 10,000 small
businesses programme into London.
CONTRACTS
RESEARCH
PARTNERSHIPS
TECHNOLOGY
53
COLLABORATION
NEW EPILEPSY TREATMENT
COMMERCIALISED
UCL BUSINESS COMMERCIALISES EPISTATUS
AS A LICENSED MEDICINE
Intellectual
Property
10
“We are pleased
to have completed
this agreement with
Special Products, and
look forward to seeing
Epistatus® become
widely available for
patients as a
licensed medicine.”
Dr Chris Williams, Senior Business
Manager, UCLB
54
UCL Business (UCLB) and the
National Centre for Young People
with Epilepsy (NCYPE), a specialist
epilepsy charity, have signed
a commercialisation agreement with
Special Products Limited, a specialist
pharmaceutical company focused on
niche therapeutic areas. This is
in preparation for the marketing of
the Special Product’s proprietary
epilepsy treatment Epistatus® as
a licensed medicine.
Professor Brian Neville and Dr Rod
Scott from UCL’s Institute of Child
Health (ICH) and NCYPE have been
closely involved in the development
of Epistatus® since the inception of
the product 10 years ago.
Special Products is currently
seeking UK marketing authorisation
for Epistatus®, which has been
distributed internationally as
an unlicensed medicine for more
than 10 years on a compassionate
use basis.
Epistatus®, a proprietary buccal
formulation of midazolam maleate, is
used to stop an epileptic seizure from
developing into status epilepticus, a
life-threatening condition.
Special Products filed for marketing
approval from the UK Medicines
and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Agency (MHRA) earlier this year.
Once the product is approved in the
UK, it is intended that the marketing
authorisation will be extended to
other European countries and
selected world markets.
The negotiation of this agreement
was supported by Dr Chris Williams,
Senior Business Manager at
UCLB, who is responsible for ICH’s
intellectual property.
COLLABORATION
Vodafone
Booster Brolly
UCL Consultants supports Dr Kenneth Tong in
developing innovative Vodafone Booster Brolly
A UCL academic has designed and
built an innovative prototype of
a revolutionary umbrella incorporating
solar panels and signal boosting
technology for mobile phones.
The brolly – designed by Dr Kenneth
Tong (UCL Electronic and Electrical
Engineering) – was commissioned by
Vodafone, after they approached him
to develop a device that would act
as a signal booster and charger for
mobile phone users during outdoor
events and festivals this summer.
SIGNAL
The innovative design – now officially
known as the Vodafone Booster Brolly
– incorporates a high-gain antenna
together with a low power signal
repeater to boost the mobile signal of
anyone immediately under or around
the umbrella. It also incorporates
flexible solar panels, hand-stitched
onto the canopy, to power the device.
FULLY
INTEGRATED
SOLAR PANELS
UCL Consultants’ Mark Sedgwick
worked with Kenneth to advise
on the financial side of the
collaboration, negotiate the
commercial terms of the device
development and provide legal
advice on the potential ownership of
the prototype’s intellectual property.
He also advised on possible future
commercialisation opportunities.
Dr Tong has plans to continue
to develop the Brolly: he already
has plans to refine it, including a
canopy with fully-integrated solar
panels and to lighten it by using
aluminium in place of components
currently made of brass – and UCL
Consultants will be available to
support him as he does so.
“We’ve put in all of this
technology and it looks
good. In fact, it’s a
bit of a James Bond
umbrella – you can’t
tell what it does from
“The Vodafone Booster
the outside.”
Brolly is one of the
Dr Tong, in an interview for Vodafone
most exciting projects
VIP, who commissioned the device.
that I have worked on
at UCL Consultants.
It was why it was so
important to ensure
that all of the key
commercial conditions
were clearly negotiated
and agreed in advance”
BOOST
INNOVATIVE
REVOLUTIONARY
Mark Sedgwick, Contracts Manager,
UCL Consultants Ltd
55
COLLABORATION
JOINT UCL HEALTH
RESEARCH CENTRES
JOINT UCL HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRES
RECEIVE £165m
Medical research centres run by
UCL in partnership with three NHS
trusts have received preliminary
government funding worth a total of
approximately £165m.
This forms part of a national award
of £800m from the National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR). The
funding will be spread over five years,
meaning UCL can continue turning
innovations in basic science into
treatments and therapies that have
a direct effect on patients.
Three centres with UCL as academic
partner included the UCLH/UCL
Comprehensive Biomedical Research
Centre and two Specialist Biomedical
Research Centres (BRC).
A further £4.5m has now been
awarded allowing UCLH and UCL
56
to set up a biomedical research unit
specialising in dementia.
The centres invest in staff posts,
equipment, facilities and training,
enabling fundamental research that
benefits patients. Example research
projects include research into gene
therapy, genetic causes of cancer
and prevention of MRSA.
UCL Business (UCLB) has
contributed to, supported, and will
continue to support, these centres
in their translational strategy to turn
basic science into market ready
therapies, diagnostics and medical
devices. UCLB was instrumental in
putting the commercial case together
of each of the applications in their
renewal bids to the NIHR.
“I can’t express how
pleased we are here at
the BRC. It means we
can continue our plans
to develop some of
the most cutting-edge
experimental medicine.
The BRC is a powerful
partnership between
leading clinicians and
scientists, and we
want to build on our
partnership. This will
bring optimal, cuttingedge, research-led
care to patients.”
Professor Deenan Pillay, Director of
the NIHR UCLH/UCL Comprehensive
Biomedical Research Centre
£165
MILLION
COLLABORATION
CELLA ENERGY OPENS
NEW FACILITY
CELLA ENERGY OPENS NEW FACILITY AT NASA’S
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
Cella Energy Ltd is to set up a new
facility at NASA’s iconic Kennedy
Space Center (NASA KSC) as
a result of a $2.5m investment led
by Space Florida. The investment in
Cella’s new safe, low-cost hydrogen
storage technologies will also enable
Cella Energy to set up a facility at
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)
in the UK.
Cella Energy’s technology was
developed by researchers at UCL in
collaboration with scientists from the
RAL and the University of Oxford. It
provides a cheap, safe and practical
way of storing hydrogen, meaning
that it is no longer necessary to use
high-pressure tanks.
Hydrogen, which produces only water
when burned, is considered an ideal
solution to cutting carbon emissions
from road vehicles – the source of
25 per cent of the carbon released
in countries such as the USA and
the UK.
INVESTMENT
Research
Collaboration
USA
&UK
$2.5
“As a shareholder, UCL
Business (UCLB) is
delighted that Cella
Energy has secured
this next round of
investment from Space
Florida in what is clearly
a very challenging
economic climate.”
Dr Tim Fishlock,
Business Manager, UCLB
MILLION
57
COLLABORATION
UCL AND ARUP RENEW
PARTNERSHIP
In 2012, UCL and Arup reviewed
and renewed their established
partnership. By doing so, the global
consultancy firm hopes to boost its
collaboration and training activities
with the university in fields that
range from sustainable
development to engineering
and behavioural sciences.
This agreement builds on an initial
partnership signed in 2009 that
facilitated a range of activities
including personnel exchanges,
jointly supervised doctoral training
programmes and shared thinking on
innovation. The renewed partnership
will see the partners work together on
both short and long-term projects;
the Thames Gateway Institute for
Sustainability being an example
of the latter.
In the next phase of collaboration,
the university and Arup will research
areas including eco-city planning and
infrastructure, urban sustainability
and resilience and virtual
environments. They will also explore
joint interests in policy options.
collaboration
training activities
sustainable
development
engineering
behavioural sciences
BOOSTING COLLABORATION AND
TRAINING ACTIVITIES
“This partnership will
be vital in continuing
to expand our efforts
to take research out of
the university and out
into the wider world.
Collaborating on
a whole host of
different areas,
including pressing
problems such as
how to make our cities
greener and increasing
our understanding of
the digital world, is vital
to ensuring that our
research is relevant
and benefits society
at large.”
Professor Stephen Caddick,
Vice-Provost (Enterprise), UCL
58
Professor Jeremy Watson, Director of
Global Research at Arup, and Professor
Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost
(Enterprise) at UCL
“ Arup strives for
technical excellence
through research and
sees the development
of partnerships with key
academic institutions
as essential to achieve
this. The firm has
a long established
relationship with
UCL and is excited
about growing this
partnership still further,
giving our staff the
opportunity to work
with a truly multidisciplinary global
academic leader.”
Professor Jeremy Watson, Director of
Global Research, Arup
COLLABORATION
NEW HOME
FOR KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFER PARTNERSHIPS
UCL ADVANCES – THE NEW HOME
Claire Arbon, UCL Knowledge
Transfer Partnership Manager
ENERGY
RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT
This year saw UCL Advances become
the new home of Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships (KTPs). This included the
appointment of Claire Arbon as the
UCL KTP Manager. Her role is to offer
university-wide support to academics
and companies to access and
manage the KTP funding available
from the Technology Strategy Board,
research councils and other
external funders.
KTPs continue to enable academics
to participate in rewarding and
ongoing collaborations with
innovative businesses that require
up-to-date research-based expertise
to succeed. So far, we have had
70 KTPs at UCL across 15
departments, which have generated
a total income of £9m.
Funding for two KTPs was secured
in recent months for PassivSystems
Ltd in partnership with UCL Computer
Science and UCL Interaction
Centre; and for Spacelab Ltd in
partnership with the UCL Bartlett
School of Graduate Studies and
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.
Both KTPs have appointed recent
graduates from UCL to implement
business critical R&D projects within
the respective organisations.
“The KTP has been
a great success for
all involved.”
Andrew Budgen, Partner, Spacelab
59
COLLABORATION
VIABLE HOPE FOR
TINNITUS SUFFERERS
UCL BUSINESS SUPPORTS THE UCL EAR
INSTITUTE’S WORK WITH GSK SPIN-OUT
COMPANY AUTIFONY
noise-induced
tinnitus
60
60
COMMERCIALLY
Autifony – of which UCL is
a founding shareholder, alongside
GlaxoSmithKline, Imperial Innovations
and SV Life Sciences – will further
develop preclinical assets targeting
voltage-gated ion channels. The
modulation of these is thought
to have potential in the treatment of
hearing disorders, including noiseinduced hearing loss and tinnitus.
VIABLE
Treatment
UCL Business (UCLB) has supported
the UCL Ear Institute, in partnership
with GlaxoSmithKline spin-out
company Autifony Therapeutics
Limited, to develop effective and
commercially viable treatments for
tinnitus and other hearing disorders.
COLLABORATION
TREATMENT FOR
HAEMOPHILIA
GENE THERAPY ACHIEVES EARLY SUCCESS AGAINST HEREDITARY
BLEEDING DISORDER
Researchers at UCL and St. Jude
“This is a potentially
Children’s Research Hospital in
life-changing treatment
the US have shown adults with
haemophilia B can benefit from
for patients with
revolutionary new gene therapy,
this disease and an
reducing need for injections with
clotting factor to prevent bleeding
important milestone
from the disease.
for the field of gene
Symptoms improved significantly
therapy. It could
in adults with haemophilia B
following a single treatment with
have ramifications
gene therapy developed by the
for the treatment of
researchers at St. Jude’s, and were
demonstrated to be safe in a clinical
haemophilia A, other
trial conducted by UCL. Previous
protein and liver
efforts to ease haemophilia B
symptoms by introducing a correct
disorders and chronic
copy of the defective gene have been
diseases such as
unsuccessful.
cystic fibrosis.”
Following the successful clinical trial,
UCL Business (UCLB) is working
with Professor Nathwani and his
team to explore the potential of the
gene treatment for haemophilia A, a
different subtype of the disease which
is treated with hormone injections to
stimulate the production of clotting
agent Factor VIII.
Dr Amit Nathwani, UCL Cancer
Institute, Royal Free Hospital, University
College Hospital (UCH) and NHS
Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)
B
TOXICITY
H AEMOP H ILIA
PROTEIN
Therapeutic
61
COLLABORATION
Developing a framework
to improve children’s
lives in the UK
UCL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH EQUITY AND 4Children WORKING TOGETHER
Dr Jessica Allen and Dr Angela
Donkin of UCL’s Institute of Health
Equity are currently working with
4Children to develop an evidencebased and user-friendly outcomes
framework, for assessing the impact
of children’s centres on young
children and their families. The
framework looks at which outcomes
are particularly important in the early
years for children’s development
and what types of activities enable
successful development.
The framework will be a tool
to support practitioners,
commissioners, parents and others
to develop pathways for different
groups of children and families, and
tackle inequalities in early childhood
development, which
often set patterns for later
life. Children’s centre
managers and staff will
be provided with data that
will allow them to make
decisions about their
programmes and services,
including who they are
reaching and who they are not.
EARLY YEARS
The framework will also assist local
leaders and practitioners to articulate
their local priorities and then design
programmes to achieve them. As
children’s centres move into
a new phase, this tool can help them
maximise their value and focus efforts
on ways to improve children’s lives.
62
MAXIMISE
PR IORITIES
FRAMEWORK
COLLABORATION
Tracking Study
of Gender-Based
Violence Cases in Nepal
Dr Sarah Hawkes, with support from
Dr Mahesh Puri of the Centre for
Research on Environmental Health
and Population Activities (CREHPA),
is conducting a qualitative tracking
study for United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, and
ESP/DFID on gender-based violence
(GBV) in Nepal.
The purpose of the study is to
understand how women who have
experienced GBV navigate informal
and formal (governmental and
non-governmental) institutions in an
attempt to receive support, services
and justice. It also aims to understand
how institutions and mechanisms
function, both independently and
together, to support, or undermine,
women seeking these services
and what opportunities there are to
improve policy and programming.
More importantly, the study will
produce a set of concrete policy and
programmatic recommendations
for the government of Nepal and
development partners based on the
findings above.
Dr Hawkes and her team are tracking
the development of six emblematic
GBV cases in Nepal that occurred in
the previous two years (2010–2012) in
an attempt to better understand how
and why women make choices
to seek support and the role of
key members in the community
in assisting them. They are also
seeking to understand how formal
institutions and informal social,
political and cultural norms and values
work together, and independently,
to support or prevent women from
claiming their rights to protection.
Dr Hawkes and her team will also
examine the effectiveness of the
police, the legal system, the medical
sector, the psycho-social sector,
and social welfare services in the
cases studied.
The study is steered and supported
by an advisory steering committee,
with the involvement of government
stakeholders, CSO representatives
and development organisations,
and provides advisory support
when needed.
HIV
GENDER
political
Dr Sarah Hawkes is Reader in
Global Health at the UCL Institute of
Global Health. She has spent much
of the past 20 years working and
living in south Asia, generating and
disseminating evidence relating to the
burden of sexual ill-health (including
HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections) among men and women
in this region.
VIOLENCE
CONDUCTING A QUALITATIVE TRACKING STUDY
INFECTIONS
63
COLLABORATION
ANTIBODIES TO
TREAT CANCER
NEW HUMANISED ANTIBODIES TO TREAT CANCER
UCL Business (UCLB) has been
working closely with Professor Kerry
Chester and her colleagues from
the UCL Cancer Institute to support
the development of new humanised
antibodies with potential
to treat cancer.
In a collaboration enabled by UCLB,
Professor Chester will work with
scientists from the Therapeutic
Antibody Group at MRC Technology
(MRCT) to develop humanised
forms of antibodies against
the promising cancer targets
carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)
and the alpha-v-beta-6 integrin.
CEA is present on a high proportion
of colorectal cancers and other
cancers of the gastrointestinal tract,
while alpha-v-beta-6 is present on
various cancers, including pancreatic,
oral, cervical and ovarian, where it
appears to have a role in the growth
of malignant tumours.
ANTIBODIES
CANCER
64
64
MALIGNANT
humanised
infused
These antibodies are being
commercialised in collaboration with
Cancer Research Technology, the
technology transfer organisation of
Cancer Research UK.
“We are absolutely
delighted with the
progress of this project.
This generation of
humanised antibodies
in collaboration with
MRCT brings us
a significant step
closer to a new
treatment for patients
with cervical cancers.”
Professor Kerry Chester, Project Lead,
UCL Cancer Institute
COLLABORATION
LOW-COST FUEL
CELL ARCHITECTURE
THE CARBON TRUST INVESTS IN NOVEL
LOW-COST FUEL CELL ARCHITECTURE
Fuel cells efficiently convert the
chemical energy contained in a fuel
directly into electricity – they produce
electricity like a battery but are fuelled
like an engine or a boiler.
Although fuel cells are already
emerging in specific markets,
they are currently too expensive
for widespread commercial
applications, such as road vehicles
and co-generating heat and power.
A reduction of a third in the cost of
mass-producing a fuel cell system
could unlock a global fuel cell market
worth billions of pounds annually.
The Carbon Trust’s Polymer Fuel Cell
Challenge (PFCC) sought to develop,
prove and commercialise novel
fuel cell technologies that have the
potential to deliver a step-change in
overall system cost.
A collaboration between UCL
and Imperial College London led
by Dr Dan Brett (UCL Chemical
Engineering) and Professor
Anthony Kucernak (Imperial College
Department of Chemistry) secured
£0.5m of funding in February 2012 to
develop a fuel cell stack that could
offer significant cost savings by using
existing, high-volume manufacturing
techniques employed in the
production of circuit boards.
“This novel fuel
cell stack has huge
commercial
potential and the
funding from the
Carbon Trust comes
at a critical point in its
development.”
Dr Tim Fishlock, Senior Business
Manager, UCLB
.5
£
MILLION
MassProducing
FUELLED
STACK
CELL
high
EFFICIENT
65
COLLABORATION
Delivering a Crime
Science Masterclass
EFFECTIVELY IMPROVING COMMUNITY SAFETY
They cover the role that analysis
should play in informing decisionmaking, placing particular emphasis
on the need to ensure that the
commissioning of analysis is clear.
A key aim of the collaboration is to
help meet the challenge of effectively
improving community safety by
ensuring that resources are targeted
66
Spencer’s learning events are a
combination of lectures and group
workshops, including discussion on
the evidence from hotspot policing
research and tactics, review of the
key problem-solving principles
and ingredients that determine
an effective intelligence-led and
evidence-based approach to policing
and community safety.
CRIME
SAFETY
An example of this is his work with
North Wales Police in developing
understanding on solving a problem.
To achieve this, initial emphasis is
placed on ensuring that analysis
outputs provide a rich explanation of
the problem, rather than just offering
descriptive statistical content. This
will involve illustrating the benefits of
a clearer and slightly more involved
commissioning process for analysis
products and frontline officer inputs to
assist analysis interpretation. This is
with the aim of helping to ensure that
analysis outputs are fit for purpose
to support decisions on how to
tackle issues.
ANALYSIS
His work has influenced national
(UK) policy, and has contributed
to policing and crime reduction
developments in the USA, Canada,
Brazil, China, Germany, Australia,
New Zealand and South Africa.
to specific areas of need, with the
confidence that they are likely to
impact upon the problem.
STRATEGIC
Spencer Chainey’s (Director of
Geographical Information Science,
UCL Security and Crime Science)
interests are in developing
geographical crime analysis and
crime mapping. However, his
day-to-day work involves developing
the use of data, information sharing
and analysis to aid intelligence
development and decision-making
by police forces, community safety
partnerships, and national crime
reduction and policing agencies.
Teams discuss the findings from
the problem profile and then
explore the principles that make any
response (tactical, investigative or
strategic enforcement, detective,
preventative or reassurance) effective
– understanding what works and
why. From this, a plan of response
implementation is developed
that could offer immediate and
sustainable solutions, and which
seeks to utilise resources, where
applicable, from a range of partners.
COLLABORATION
PERIOWAVE DENTAL
TECHNOLOGIES
UCL BUSINESS HAS AGREED EXCLUSIVE
LICENCE WITH PERIOWAVE DENTAL
TECHNOLOGIES
UCL Business (UCLB) has agreed
an exclusive licence for the
disinfection and sterilisation of
tissues, wounds and lesions in
the oral cavity with Periowave
Dental Technologies Inc (PDT Inc).
The new licence agreement will
allow PDT Inc to expand the
indications for its photodisinfection
technology based on UCLB’s
intellectual property.
Professor Mike Wilson, UCL Eastman
Dental Institute
LICENCE
Photodisinfection was pioneered
by Professor Mike Wilson and
colleagues at the UCL Eastman
Dental Institute.
“The Periowave
Photodisinfection
System is a simple,
pain-free, non-surgical
and non-antibiotic
approach for the
treatment of gum
disease (periodontitis,
endodontics, periimplant disease) and
other oral infections.”
TECHNOLOGY
PDT Inc develops and
commercialises antimicrobial
photodynamic therapies for the
treatment of a broad spectrum of
bacterial, fungal and viral infections
in the oral cavity. This therapy does
not promote the formation and
spread of antibiotic resistance and
is, therefore, gaining interest as an
alternative to antibiotics.
67
COLLABORATION
Trains and the Deep
Tube Programme
infrastructure
How UCL is helping to shape the
evolution of the London Underground
accessible
PEDESTRIAN
ENVIRONMENTS
Pedestrian
&
Professor Nick Tyler is Chadwick
Professor of UCL Civil Engineering,
and his work covers investigation of
the ways in which people interact with
their immediate environments. Nick’s
work includes utilising the Pedestrian
Accessibility and Movement
Environment Laboratory (PAMELA)
for the assessment of pedestrian
movement. In particular, he looks at:
• how people react in pedestrian
environments under well-controlled
laboratory conditions
• developing models for accessible
pedestrian infrastructure
Nick is working with London
Underground to carry out
experimentation with regard to how
68
the design of aspects of the new
generation of Tube trains, such as
door widths and layout, will affect
passenger boarding and alighting
times, and how this will affect system
performance.
Discussions have led to engagement
with UCL to utilise PAMELA to inform
decisions to improve capacity
and reliability across the
Underground network.
DEEP
tube
Accessibility
MOVEMENT
ENVIROMENT
LABORATORY
COLLABORATION
Changing national
perceptions of climate
change in Latin America
UCL WORKING WITH THE Foreign
Commonwealth Office
Professor Nick Tyler, Chadwick
Professor of Civil Engineering,
is working with the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (F&CO)
to create a paradigm shift in national
policy and political will towards
tackling the climate change effects
caused by the transport sector
in Peru.
OF NATIONAL
EMISSIONS
The Transport NAMA will feed into
Peru’s existing long-term mitigation
action project. As the NAMA will
consider specific measures for land
use planning aimed at sustainable
transport, it is envisaged that special
environmental and economic zones
might be identified across the country.
700%
GROWTH
8%
After deforestation, the second
largest source of emissions is energy,
of which the main contributing sector
is transportation with eight percent
of national emissions. Under a
business-as-usual scenario, transport
sector emissions are estimated to
grow 700% by 2040, related to 2000
levels. The project will lead to the
development of a Transport NAMA
(Nationally Appropriate Mitigation
Actions) – a set of policies and
actions to be implemented by the
Ministry of Transport in Peru in relation
to a low carbon transport strategy. It
will build on the initial measures that
the previous Peruvian government
developed and ensure that the new
administration has the necessary
skills to implement it.
69
COLLABORATION
GOLDMAN SACHS 10,000
SMALL BUSINESSES
NEW PROGRAMME DELIVERED BY UCL ADVANCES
10,000 Small Businesses helps
existing small businesses accelerate
their growth by combining
workshops, mentoring and oneto-one coaching. It is a unique
programme among those looking to
support and accelerate the growth of
small businesses.
“10,000 Small
Businesses introduced
us to entrepreneurs
and academics who’ve
faced the same
trials and tribulations.
Together, we’re helping
each other plan
a profitable journey of
future growth for our
businesses. It’s hard
work and exciting.”
Daniel Fagerson, Managing Director,
Salt TV and 10,000 Small Businesses
participant
70
The programme looks to unlock
growth and job creation potential.
Small business leaders are put
through an extensive selection
process to gain access to the
programme and must be able to
demonstrate real commitment and
ambition to be accepted.
Its approach includes detailed
content delivered by leading
academics and a focus on high
impact, rather than the volume
of participants. The style is peerassisted learning with support from
a large number of external speakers
and leading entrepreneurs, such
as Lord Bilimoria (founder of Cobra
Beer) and Dale Murray (Angel
Investor of the Year 2011).
10,000 Small Businesses is free
to participants and is funded by
the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
In London it is delivered by UCL
Advances and there are additional
programmes in Leeds, Manchester
and Birmingham.
The first 25 London participants
completed the pilot in summer 2012
with a further cohort of 30 already
under way. Participants included an
architects practice, a robot-building
company, an online music channel
and a cleaning business.
The programme is looking to have
supported nearly 100 participants by
the end of 2013 and the interactions
between those on the programme
and other UCL activities continues
to grow.
“UCL Advances has
provided the kind of
high-quality delivery
that we needed in
London to make the
programme work and
build a community
of networked small
firms. We are
seeing participating
businesses
transformed, creating
the jobs and real
economic value that
the UK economy
desperately needs.
We could not have
found a better partner
to do that with.”
Deepak Jayaraman, Executive Director,
Head of Corporate Engagement,
Goldman Sachs.
Of 25 participants in
the first cohort of the
London Goldman
Sachs 10,000
Small Businesses
programme, three
offered internships to
UCL students, one
has applied for a
Knowledge Transfer
Partnership (KTP) with
UCL and 14 have
taken mentors from
the SMILE (Selected
Mentors and Interims
for London Enterprises)
programme.
71
MEDIA
OUR
IN THE
YEAR
2011/
2012
IMPACT
THROUGH
PUBLICITY
73
Citrus Saturday
participant, London
74
Impact through publicity
UCL is committed
to ensuring effective
communication of
enterprise activities.
“Building relationships between
China and the UK is becoming ever
more important as the economic
relationship between the two
countries shifts,” he wrote. “It also
reflects the growing proportion of
students who are travelling to UCL,
not just from China, but right across
Asia, to benefit from an education in
the heart of one of the most exciting
cities in the world – at a university that
takes access to the best business
advice and support seriously.”
Professor Stephen Caddick has
been established as a prominent
commentator on universities and
enterprise across the national media
as part of our strategy to ensure
UCL’s thought leadership in this
important space.
UCL benefited from several articles
this year highlighting the strength
of the university in supporting
entrepreneurs. It was highlighted as
the university that produces the UK’s
most self-employed graduates in the
Daily Telegraph in March and as
a centre for innovative
entrepreneurship education in a
Guardian article in the same month.
The Sunday Times also featured UCL
and businesses emanating from the
university twice this year.
He has had articles published in
outlets including the Daily Telegraph,
the Guardian, City AM and the
Huffington Post, on issues ranging
from the floatation of Facebook to
why universities and businesses
must work closer together to boost
the economy.
Individual entrepreneurs who have
benefited from the support that UCL
Advances offers include Natalie
Blakeley with the Light Touch Clinic,
(featured on Prowess Women in
Business in May) and one of the
participants on the Goldman Sachs
10,000 Small Businesses Programme
As well as increasing media
coverage, the UCL Business website
was overhauled in May 2012, with
a new design and layout
implemented along with a refresh
of the content on the site to
make it more user-friendly and
accurately reflect the tech transfer
company’s work.
Regular stories included news of
innovative work on a new generation
of hydrogen fuel cells, a new Wi-Fi
innovation that can ‘see through
walls’ and a novel method that could
lead to the mass-production
of graphene.
PRESS
January 2012 saw the recruitment of
a new Media Relations Manager for
Enterprise, responsible for raising
the profile of the full spectrum of
UCL’s enterprise activities. This has
prompted a strong increase in the
profile of UCL Enterprise in external
media and we will continue to invest
in this area.
Internationally, Director of UCL
Enterprise Operations Timothy
Barnes made the case for students
from Asia to study in London through
contributing to a blog for the Asian
Correspondent.
and UCL student, Zain Jaffer, who
featured in various different outlets
with the announcement of a $2m
investment in his business, Vungle.
coverage
UCL Enterprise has increased impact
over the past year through publicity
work, including national media
coverage, digital communications
and a comprehensive use of social
media. Enterprise features regularly
in a variety of channels that the
university uses to communicate with
stakeholders, including newsletters,
podcasts, videos and brochures.
Professor Caddick has also been
interviewed for comment in articles
that have appeared in outlets
including the International Herald
Tribune, the Times Higher Education
and Chinese state media.
75
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
PRESERVING THE PAST
PRESERVING THE PAST IN THE FACE OF
A WAR-TORN PRESENT
Likewise, the team has also
completed a project in Sarajevo,
organising an intensive one-week
training course for local Bosnian
museum staff in how to conserve
some of the Balkans’ most
precious history.
INTENSIVE
The organisation’s work
is transforming the role of
archaeological conservation training
in developing countries; most
recently in Bosnia and Turkmenistan.
In the latter, Heritage Without Borders
personnel assisted a field team in
conserving ceramics, stone and
copper alloy.
PRESERVING
Founded by the Director of UCL
Museums Sally MacDonald and
archaeological conservator Dominica
D’Arcangelo at the UCL Institute of
Archaeology, the social enterprise
was also shortlisted for this year’s
Museum and Heritage Awards.
HISTORY
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Social enterprise Heritage Without
Borders featured in BBC History
Magazine this July after winning the
Social Enterprise Project of the Year
2012 at the UCL Awards
for Enterprise.
CONSERVATION
76
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
ENDOMAGNETICS WINS
A LIFE SCIENCES AWARD
ONE OF THE MOST PROMISING EUROPEAN LIFE
SCIENCES SPIN-OUT COMPANIES
“We are naturally thrilled
at being selected for
this award. We are
especially delighted
at recognition of
the huge potential
for magnetic
nanotechnology
to improve procedures
and outcomes for
clinicians and
patients alike.”
The company uses technology
developed jointly by UCL and the
University of Houston, and funded
by an investment syndicate led
by UCLB; to develop advanced
magnetic sensing technology for
use in breast cancer screening. This
technology can significantly extend
the availability of sentinel lymph
node biopsy (SLNB), currently the
standard of care in tracking the
spread of breast cancer.
BREAST ANCER
SUCCESS
Professor Quentin Pankhurst,
Co-Founder and Chief Technology
Officer, Endomagnetics Ltd
The awards announced at the
European Entrepreneurship Summit
in Brussels highlighted the novelty
of the company’s research, its clear
evidence of commercial success
and the potential impact that its
products would have on society.
C OMM ER C IAL
UCL Business (UCLB) spin-out
company Endomagnetics Ltd
won a prestigious Life Sciences
Award from the Science Business
Innovation Board, which recognised
the company as one of the most
promising European university life
sciences spin-out companies.
INVESTMENT
77
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
smile mentor enables
award win
JOHN SPRANGE AND MIND DICE WINS CARE
INNOVATOR AWARD
The mentor that UCL matched
him with assisted him in realising
his potential. The result is this
groundbreaking memory aid, which
helps people with dementia engage
with family, friends and carers.
“ John, through his
personal experience
with his father, has
developed an exciting,
innovative tool, which
he delivers with true
enthusiasm. Mind
Dice is an excellent
communications
stimulant, helping to
keep memories alive.”
Citation at the Great London
Care Awards
78
John won his award at the Great
London Care Awards held in London
on 22 October. The GLCA is one of
nine regional care awards across
the country.
SMILE helps London-based
businesses grow and develop by
analysing business needs and
connecting them to industry mentors.
GROUND
BREAKING
C•O•N•N•E•C•T•I•N•G
EXAMINATION
DEVELOP
POTENTIAL
UCL’s business mentoring
programme SMILE (Selected Mentors
and Interims for London Enterprises)
was proud to announce that John
Sprange won a Care Innovator award
for his work in developing Mind Dice.
John came on board with SMILE in
July 2011 and has since worked hard
to bring his product to market.
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
UCL ADVANCES
REACHES EAST
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CHINA
AND THE UK
Director of UCL Advances Timothy
Barnes made the case for students
from Asia to study in London through
contributing two posts to a blog for
the Asian Correspondent, in July and
August 2012.
RELATIONSHIPS
“Building relationships between
China and the UK is becoming ever
more important as the economic
relationship between the two
countries shifts,” he wrote in a post
about how UCL Advances is working
to build stronger international links
with business.
CHINA
EDUCATION
ACCESS UK
“Despite the global
recession, London
has become a prime
centre for investment in
promising start-ups…
Thanks to the success
of the Olympics, the
eyes of the world are
on London this year –
not just as a sporting
venue, but as a cultural
hub, a financial centre
and as the nexus
for one of the most
exciting habitats for
entrepreneurs in
the world.”
Timothy Barnes, Director,
UCL Advances
“It also reflects the growing
proportion of students who are
travelling to UCL, not just from China
but right across Asia, to benefit from
an education in the heart of one of the
most exciting cities in the world – at
a university which takes access to
the best business advice and
support seriously.”
ECONOMIC
79
London’s Olympic Orbit
80
olympic effort
CREATES ICONIC
MAP OF LONDON
UCL SPIN-OUT CREATES ICONIC MAP
OF LONDON USED IN OLYMPIC
OPENING CEREMONY
OLYMPIC
MAP
© Copyright Space Syntax Ltd
UCL spin-out company Space
Syntax Ltd created the giant map
of London’s street network that
formed an iconic part of the Opening
Ceremony for the 2012 London
Olympic Games.
The map, produced by Space Syntax
to advise on plans for new streets
and public spaces in London, was
spotted by the Games’ organisers in
a book about the history of mapping
in London.
It was used to develop the masterplan
for the Olympic site at Stratford
City, where Space Syntax worked
to connect the new streets and
spaces into the existing communities
surrounding the Olympic Park.
The map was seen by millions
watching the ceremony and featured
in an article on the Daily Mail website
looking at how the map came to be
used as part of the glittering opening
of the Olympics.
“ A city, after all, is
a living entity, with life
given by the millions
of people who both
shape and live in it.”
Tim Stonor, Managing Director,
Space Syntax and Visiting Professor
at UCL Bartlett School
of Architecture
81
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
TEACHING THE NEXT
GENERATION
UCL STUDENT CONSULTANCY FEATURES IN
INNOVATIVE COURSE
“Access to three super
UCL students by a
young business under
the HELO programme
has been hugely
important in answering
questions critical to the
development of
a technology, with the
potential to fulfil a vital
waste industry need.”
It highlighted the example of
entrepreneur Richard Rand’s idea
for aerobic bins, which received
help from UCL Advances’ HELO
(Higher Education London Outreach)
project, which aims to help small
and medium-sized enterprises by
matching them with specialised
support drawn from the UCL
student body.
82
Using data loggers to assess
weather conditions, an anemometer
to measure wind velocity and a
digital weighing machine, the team
demonstrated that the bins can
reduce the waste matter’s weight by
up to 45% in certain conditions.
45%
ENTERPRISE
The article looked at ways that various
higher education institutions across
the UK are supporting enterprise
through academic programmes, as
well as specific institutional initiatives
such as UCL Advances, which have
supported students and external
businesses alike.
The HELO team set up, devised and
conducted an experiment in UCL
that sought to prove how Rand’s new
base for biodegradable household
waste bins can eliminate more
moisture from waste than normal
bins, and at a lower cost than
comparable alternatives.
DEVELOPMENT
UCL Management Science and
Innovation’s MSc in Technology
Entrepreneurship featured in a special
postgraduate courses supplement in
the Guardian in March this year.
ACADEMIC
BIODEGRADABLE
Richard Rand, Aerobic Bins
INITIATIVES
IMPACT THROUGH
PUBLICITY
STUDENTS LAUNCH INTO
WORLD OF BUSINESS
UCL LEADS THE WAY IN SELFEMPLOYED GRADUATES
“There is a strong push
from governments
to encourage start-up
companies as a way
of kick-starting the
economy. We help
students to evaluate
their ideas so that
when they finish their
degrees they know
whether it is worth
trying them. We don’t
have all the answers,
but we are very serious
about this.”
The dynamism of UCL entrepreneurs
was highlighted in three articles
this year in the Daily Telegraph and
Sunday Times.
UCL was highlighted as the university
producing the most self-employed
graduates in March this year on
the Telegraph website, while in the
Sunday Times, Ahmad Bakhiet,
president of UCL Enterprise Society,
said of his fellow high-flyers, “Once
these people would have gone into
investment banking; now they want to
start their own businesses. Enterprise
is seen as a viable career choice.”
“The scene has grown a lot in the
past couple of years,” he added
in the Sunday broadsheet, also
highlighting that up to 200 budding
entrepreneurs attend the society’s
talks and events. UCL was also
showcased as the host for Launch
48 business boot camp, which saw
students competing to start an online
business over the space of just
a weekend.
It is such seriousness that led him
to form Satalia with co-founder
Alastair Moore. Their company aims
to reduce the time needed to route
deliveries between destinations by
using specialised software to map
the most efficient paths. A silmilar
degree of seriousness led UCL to
create UCL Advances, its centre for
entrepreneurship.
investment
START-UP
DYNAMISM
BOOT CAMP
SELF-EMPLOYED
It echoed many of the sentiments
of Daniel Hulme, 31, expressed in
the Sunday Times News Review in
September 2011. “I really, seriously
expect to be a multi-millionaire before
I reach my 40th birthday,” he said.
Timothy Barnes, Director,
UCL Advances
83
2012
84
UCL Business Award
UCL Business One-to-Watch Award
UCL Consultants Award
UCL Social Enterprise Project of the Year Award
UCL Provost’s Spirit of Enterprise Award
UCL Lifetime Achievement Award
UCL Enterprise Partner (Corporate and Small/Medium) of the Year Award
London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge Award
UCL Bright Ideas Awards
UCL SMILE Best Mentor Award
CATEGORIES
YEAR
IN
CATEGORIES
INNOVATION
WEALTH
IMPACT
GROWTH
PARTNERSHIPS
BUILDING
DEVELOPING
Embedding
Collaboration
EXCELLENCE
TEN
OUR
&
23
AWARDS
85
BUILDING
ON FIRM FOUNDATIONS
Supporting entrepreneurs
Embedding enterprise
BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE
GROWTH
Collaboration
Abigail Irozuru, UCL LLB
Law Student and athelete
(long jump)
2012
UCL AWARDS FOR ENTERPRISE
“These awards are one of
a kind – UCL is the only
university in the UK to celebrate
enterprise on campus and the
entrepreneurialism of our staff,
students and graduates in such
a high-profile manner.”
Timothy Barnes, Director,
UCL Enterprise Operations
Y EAR
5
TH
The UCL Awards for Enterprise 2012 took place
on Thursday 17 May at the Bloomsbury Theatre.
It was a great event and a wonderful showcase
for innovative and inspirational entrepreneurship
across all sectors from students, academics and
corporate partners.
At this year’s event, we celebrated
UCL and the Olympics in London and
the legacy and impact of both.
In attempting to build new businesses
and enterprises in London, UCL
shares the same goals as the
Olympics in London: legacy, social
and economic impact and success.
To achieve this, we share the
same principles of private and
public collaboration and both our
entrepreneurs and our athletes show
inspiring determination in their pursuit
of excellence, and will be honoured
and rewarded for their endeavours.
In their fifth year, the awards
recognised the exciting new
business ideas of student and
graduate entrepreneurs. One winner
was Old Bond, offering the world’s
first spinning animated ads on
bicycle wheels.
Director of UCL Enterprise
Operations Timothy Barnes said:
“Supporting students and graduates
setting up their own businesses
is central to UCL’s aim to make
entrepreneurship a core part of the
university experience for students. We
offer funding, business boot camps
and free office space to give them
the best chance of their businesses
blossoming and becoming the stand
out successes of tomorrow.”
The awards also saw the successes
of UCL’s academic staff recognised.
Two awards sponsored by UCL
Business PLC (UCLB) were
presented to Professor David
Selwood, for his contribution to the
commercialisation of pharmaceutical
research, and to Professor Neal
Skipper and Dr Chris Howard for
their research into developing
commercially-viable methods
to produce carbon nanotubes.
The importance of corporate partners
in supporting the work of UCL
and in commercialising research
produced by the university was also
acknowledged. Corporate Partner
of the Year Award went to mining
conglomerate BHP Billiton and Small
to Medium Enterprise Partner of the
Year Award went to TAP Biosystems
for their work in commercialising
research from the UCL Institute
of Ophthalmology.
87
GROWTH
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
INNOVATION
UCL Business Award
Professor David Selwood
David has been very engaged with
UCL Business (UCLB) throughout
many years at UCL. He spent several
years at Wellcome Research labs,
now part of GlaxoSmithKline, and
when he came to UCL, he continued
in his drug discovery work.
David’s commercial experience has
been telling. This is most clearly
evident by the number of projects that
he has worked on which have had, or
do have, a commercial output.
Notably, he has been involved in
three start-up companies: ProAxon,
NCE Discovery and Canbex. NCE
Discovery merged with another drug
discovery company Domainex that
has full pre-clinical drug discovery
capabilities. Canbex has a clinical
candidate for the treatment of
multiple sclerosis associated
spasticity and has recently received
more than £2m in funding from
the MS Association and the
Wellcome Trust.
Professor Malcom Grant, UCL’s
President & Provost, and Professor
David Selwood
UCL Business One to Watch AWARD
Separation and Purification of
Carbon Nanotubes
Based in the London Centre for
Nanotechnology (LCN), our One
to Watch winners have worked
closely with UCLB over the past
few years to help commercialise
their novel process to separate
and purify carbon nanotubes. Their
process could help unlock the huge
commercial potential of carbon
nanotubes by providing a means
to separate semiconducting tubes
from metallic.
Building upon fundamental research
funded by the EPSRC, the team was
successful in securing follow-on-
88
funding that brought the technology
to a readiness level that interested
a commercial partner.
The partner was Linde Group, a
world-leading gases and engineering
company. Linde funded further
process development in the LCN to
investigate scale-up potential and
eventually entered into an exclusive
licence agreement with UCLB to
commercialise the technology.
Professor Neal Skipper and
Dr Chris Howard
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
2012
PARTNERSHIPS
EXCELLENCE
Collaboration
UCL Enterprise Partner
of the Year AWARD
CORPORATE
BHP Billiton
UCL’s partnership with BHP Billiton,
driven by three Vice-Provosts
from Research, Enterprise and
International, is, arguably, our most
significant corporate partnership
to date. BHP Billiton is the world’s
largest mining and resources
company, with more than 100
operations in more than 25 countries.
This dual-hemisphere $10m
partnership, signed in June 2011,
has established UCL’s Institute for
Sustainable Resources in London
and our International Energy Policy
Institute in Adelaide, Australia. The
two new institutes will drive research
into the complex economic, legal,
environmental, technological and
cultural issues faced by the resources
sector and provide a framework
within which expertise from the
northern and southern hemispheres
can be shared and innovative
responses developed.
Professor Malcom Grant, Angelo
Zavattieri, Vice President
of Acquisitions and Divestments,
BHP Billiton
Small to Medium
Rosemary Drake, TAP Biosystems
TAP Biosystems is working with UCL
to jointly develop a product called
Real Architecture for 3D Tissues or
RAFT™. This is a genuine partnership
where joint IP has been generated
from four successful TSB awards
totaling £3.5m.
Know-how has been generated and
disseminated both nationally and
internationally, promoting the
value of UCL research, and the close
collaboration has earned innovation
awards and promoted
new collaborations with other
UCL researchers. TAP Biosystems’
supportive, knowledgeable and
collaborative approach represents
industry-academic partnering at
its best.
Rosemary Drake, TAP Biosystems, and
Professor Malcom Grant
89
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
IMPACT
Health
CONSULTING
UCL Consultants Award
Dr Vanessa Diaz
Vanessa is leading a project that
aims to produce a roadmap for the
realisation of the ‘Digital VPH Patient’.
The Digital Patient is a method of
integrating diverse computational
models and individual data
to produce a computational
patient avatar.
Dr Vanessa Diaz and Professor David
Price, Vice-Provost (Research)
This would allow revolutionary health
prediction and disease treatment
when the ‘Digital Me’ of a citizen
needs to avail itself of health services.
The project is worth a total of €1.3m.
UCL Social Enterprise Project
of the Year AWARD
Heritage Without Borders
This social enterprise project
is transforming the role of
archaeological conservation training
in developing countries. Its proactive
approach to capacity building, with
strong ethical concerns, has provided
a platform for exciting collaborations;
most recently in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Turkmenistan.
It has harnessed the enthusiasm of
professional conservators across
the UK and channelled this into
programmes to build the intellectual
and technical skills needed in the
protection and utilisation of cultural
resources. This initiative has given
UCL a leading role in the field and
has already attracted significant
90
financial support from a wide range
of donors. Heritage Without Borders
has started to work in earnest this
year, delivering its first project and
demonstrating its services.
Dominica D’Arcangelo and
Sally MacDonald
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
2012
UCL SMILE Best
Mentor Award
Nasir Zubairi
Nasir has great passion and appetite
to help entrepreneurs, start-ups and
SMEs above and beyond the normal
hours and efforts required
of a mentor.
PASSION
ENTREPRENEURS
Lori Manders, UCL’s Director of
Development and Alumni Relations,
and Nasir Zubairi, Director of
Marketing, Currency Cloud
23
KNOWLEDGE
SUPPORT
ADVICE
EXCHANGE
AWARDS
91
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
2012
UCL Bright Ideas Awards
Professor David Price, Vice-Provost
(Research) and UCL Bright Idea winners
Undergraduate category
Postgraduate category
HelpYouApply
Old Bond Ltd
SnapScope
Anish Vinayak, History, Philosophy
and Social Studies of Science BSc
(second year) – £5,000.
Artsiom Stavenka and Kiryl Chykeyuk,
PhD Politics – £7,500.
Simon Gane, Nanotechnology
in Medicine PhD and Lee
Wemyss – £10,000.
A website that helps students fill in
the applications for internships, year
placements and graduate schemes.
Old Bond offers the world’s first
spinning animated ads on
bicycle wheels.
THIRSTPASS
(now Monster Card)
One Minute Manuscript
(now MiniManuscript)
Alex Emms and Jonny Manfield,
both Civil Engineering BEng (first
year), Gameli Ladzekpo, Mechanical
Engineering BEng (first year), and
Finnegan Harries – £12,000.
Jake Fairnie, PhD Cognitive
Neuroscience (third year) and Anna
Remington, Postdoctoral Research
Fellow, UCL Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience – £7,500.
A new student discount network
that provides students with a
THIRSTPASS card, which entitles
them to a discount a variety of
beverage outlets.
MiniManuscript.com is a website
where users can create, read and
discuss summarised academic
literature – freeing up valuable
time to increase the pace of
scientific discovery.
92
SnapScope is a revolutionary device
that makes medical instruments, such
as an optical endoscope, compatible
with gadgets such as the iPhone
so that doctors can share data with
medical professionals and patients.
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
Alumni category
MSc in Technology Entrepreneurship category
Shufflehub
faceEnergy
Joshua Eichler-Summers, (UCL
Economics 2011) and Ariella Wolens
(UCL History of Art 2011) – £5,000.
Nicolás Rebolledo and Felipe
Escandon (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011)
– £5,000.
Shufflehub is an e-commerce site
that randomly selects 12 new items
from a number of online retailers on
its database, each time it is shuffled.
Users can filter the categories, which
range from fashion accessories to
toys to magazine articles, to focus
their shuffling.
faceEnergy is a user-centred
energy management platform and
marketplace that has grown out of
its founders’ interest in “all things
internet” and energy issues.
Poq Studio
Sycle (now Jive)
WindowsPhoneGeek
Michael Langguth and Øyvind
Henriksen (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011) –
£12,000.
Marcin Piatkowski (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011)
– £15,000.
Yordan Pavlov and Boryana
Miloshevska (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011)
– £5,000.
Poq Studio is a mobile e-commerce
platform that allows fashion retailers
to build their own app easily and
cost-effectively.
The ‘Jive’ bike is a light, stylish
carbon-fibre, folding electric bike
that comes with a small portable
device and a mobile application
for smartphones, both of which are
designed to run, control and
navigate the bike.
WindowsPhoneGeek is
a marketplace for Windows Phone
app development components (and
later Android) where developers can
buy and sell components.
2007–2012...
INNOVATION
IDEAS
Entrepreneurship
GROWTH
SUCCESS
The first five years... where next?
93
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
2012
LONDON Entrepreneurs’
Challenge AWARDS
London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge 2012 Winner
London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge 2012 winners and
Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Enterprise)
Sycle (now Jive)
Sycle has developed a green and
stylish carbon-fibre, compact, folding
electric bike that comes with the
eSycle, a small portable device, and
the appSycle, a mobile application
for smartphones, both of which are
designed to run, control and navigate
the bike. The market for e-bikes
doubles in size every two years in the
EU, and early indications are that the
start-up will break even and perhaps
generate a profit within the first year
of operation.
Runner-Up (Undergraduate)
SmartSearch
SmartSearch is a novel search
interface, intended to change the way
that academics and students use
the internet for research. It is more
intuitive than other search engines,
creating a visual mind map of the
user query and allowing users to
94
refine their search by selecting
suggested sub-searches.
CEO William Jones (Mathematics
BSc), one of a team of students
from UCL Maths, School of Slavonic
and East European Studies and
Computer Science, says: “We’re
looking to use the prize money
of £3,000 to obtain a patent and
develop a proof of concept prototype
for the UCL Electronic Library
services. We hope that neighbouring
London universities will be quick
to adopt the idea and it will spread
throughout the UK.”
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
AWARDS
INNOVATION
Runner-Up (Postgraduate/Staff/Alumni)
Ju$txt
Ju$txt is a social enterprise that has
created the first SMS-enabled bribe
reporting platform, designed to aid
organisations and governments in
the fight against corruption. Citizens
can securely and anonymously report
their experiences online, via Twitter,
smartphone application, or by free
SMS to a dedicated shortcode.
The information feeds into a central
database to avoid duplication of effort
and allow sharing of work among
anti-corruption organisations.
Operations Director Sian Lea
(alumna, UCL Political Science)
says: “We have already started
a partnership with a local not-forprofit in Nigeria and have begun
discussions with Transparency
International. The prize money of
£3,000 gives us recognition and
the motivation to continue with our
business, and provides us with the
means to begin to turn our business
plan into a reality.”
Provost’s Prize
Neighbourfood
Neighbourfood is an online platform
that connects home chefs in the local
community with consumers in search
of delicious and reasonably priced
dinner options. It is inspired by the
dabbawalla practice in India, whereby
home-cooked meals are delivered in
reusable containers to office workers
and sometimes schoolchildren.
Chief Strategy Officer James Lu
(Honorary Research Fellow, Wellcome
Trust Centre for Neuroimaging
at UCL) says: “The market for a
community of consumers and
chefs is currently negligible and
Neighbourfood has the rare
opportunity to make a market.”
95
UCL AWARDS
FOR ENTERPRISE
2012
UCL Provost’s Spirit of
Enterprise Award
Professor Philip Treleaven
Philip has always been actively
involved in entrepreneurial activities
in UCL Engineering. He set up the
first undergraduate course and was
instrumental in setting up the first
related MSc in the faculty.
Philip has consistently created
companies, encouraged
entrepreneurs, taught
entrepreneurship, practised
entrepreneurship, in short, he has
been one of the key drivers in making
UCL an entrepreneurial place.
Philip is a director of three companies
and serves on the advisory board
of a venture capital company. He is
director of the Financial Computing
Centre at UCL and is responsible
for the UK PhD Centre for Financial
Computing, a joint doctoral training
centre involving UCL, LBS, LSE and
15 major financial institutions. Philip
also carries out a lot of consultancy
work with UCL Consultants.
Previously Philip was Pro-Provost for
UCL’s internal relations with Asia,
specifically south-east and east Asia.
Professor Philip Treleaven and Prof
Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost
(Enterprise), UCL
UCL Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Roger Ekins
UCL Enterprise does not present
a lifetime achievement award every
year, but when there is a deserving
candidate, we reserve the right to
recognise them in a special way.
Professor Roger Ekins was
nominated in recognition of his role
in pioneering, paradigm-shifting,
analytical technologies that have
revolutionised medical research
and diagnostics and had enormous
commercial impact.
96
Professor Roger Ekins
UCL
ENTERPRISE
AWARDS
2007–2012...
98
CHIRP app, one of the
many apps developed
by UCL
YEAR
OUR
IN
Chirp
LUCZA
BlueBadgeStyle
Black Box
Number Circus
Tales of Things
Tatty Devine
iGE
Brains!
Popset
UCL Enterprise
HiMom
APPS
DOWNLOADABLE
APPS
99
DOWNLOADABLE APPS
Downloadable Apps
UCL Enterprise, through Advances, Business and Consultants, have helped launch a wide range of apps
based on the work of staff, students and alumni. These are just a selection, highlighting the diversity of
what can be achieved through this interactive route. New apps are coming forward at an increasing rate as
an ideal way to see impact from research and generate income for new ideas.
Scan the QR codes to download them!
Chirp
Chirp is a magical new way to share
your stuff – using sound. Chirp
‘sings’ information from one iPhone
to another. Share photos, links,
notes and more: all from your built-in
iPhone speaker. What will you chirp?
Developed by: Professor Anthony
Steed, Deputy Head of UCL
Computer Science and Patrick
Bergel, Honorary Research
Associate, UCL, with support from
UCL Business PLC (UCLB).
LUCZA
The LUCZA shopping app lets
you browse and shop for the
LUCZA luxury lifestyle brand, which
specialises in timeless, elegant and
truly effortless wardrobe essentials
made with the finest fabrics and the
highest-quality finish.
Developed by: POQ Studio–
Micheal Amade Langguth and
Oyvind Henriksen (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011).
BlueBadgeStyle
Want to find and book the best, most
fashionable, trendy and more easily
accessible hotspots? No need to
worry about unexpected steps and
inaccessible facilities – check out
what’s there for the ‘less able’, but
nonetheless stylish, with the Blue
Badge Style App – a guide for a less
able lifestyle.
100
Developed by: UCL student Fiona
Jarvis, the UCL Mobile Academy
in conjunction with UCL Student
Company Stuxbot (Kishan Gupta,
UCL Computer Science).
DOWNLOADABLE APPS
Black Box
This app is a true representation of
a board game in the 1970’s of the
same name.
It is a game of hide and seek where
the player must locate the hidden
atoms by sending rays into the the
Black Box Grid.
Developed by: UCL alumnus Trevor
Loveland, the UCL Mobile Academy
in conjunction with Minds Eye
Interactive.
Number Circus
Interactive circus designed for 1–3
year-old children makes maths fun!
Development of basic mathematics
skills is critical at this early stage.
For toddlers, this includes “number
sense” and an introduction to what
numbers 1, 2, and 3 really mean.
Usage of the iPad’s tilting, blowing
and swiping engage the brain’s
neural development.
Developed by: UCL alumnus Richard
Groves (MSc Computer Science
1992) and UCL students, the Mobile
Academy in conjunction with Number
Churns LLC.
Tales of Things
Through partnerships with the Mayor
of London and Oxfam, you can now
interact with objects as diverse as
trees in public parks and secondhand teddy bears in high street
shops. The Tales of Things app is the
public face of a system that allows
users to use QR codes to access
stories about the objects they are
looking at and has potential uses in
shops, museums and public spaces
of all kinds.
Developed by: UCL’s Centre for
Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA)
with support from UCL Enterprise
101
DOWNLOADABLE APPS
Downloadable Apps
Tatty Devine
The Tatty Devine shopping app
lets you browse and shop on the
go for the Tatty Devine collection
of perspex jewellery, which is
handmade in England
Developed by: POQ Studio –
Micheal Amade Langguth and
Oyvind Henriksen (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011).
The interactive Grammar of English (iGE)
The interactive Grammar of English
(iGE) is a comprehensive introductory
course in English grammar that takes
you from the most basic elements to
the most complex constructions.
Developed by: Professor Bas Aarts
and Mr Sean Wallis, UCL’s Survey
of English Usage, UCL English,
working in conjunction with UCLB.
Brains!
The Great Brain Experiment allows
people to take part in a massive
experiment by playing games on
their phone that test their memory,
perception and risk taking.
The app collects the data and returns
it to UCL scientists who are able to
access a vastly increased pool of
participants from those they might
normally be able to fit in a lab. Oh,
and the games are fun!
102
Developed by: The Wellcome Trust
Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL with
support from UCL Advances
DOWNLOADABLE APPS
Popset
Meet Popset, the easiest way
to create and share beautiful sets
of photos.
Just snap a photo to start a set.
New photos are instantly added and
organised. Then, give your sets that
extra special something with our
homemade filters. You can also share
your sets with friends, or create group
sets so that they can add their own
photos. When you’re ready, upload
your favorite sets to Facebook with
a single tap!
Developed by: UCL student
company Eeve – Jan Senderek
(UCL Management Science and
Innovation 2011).
UCL Enterprise App
UCL has an extensive set of
events and resources supporting
entrepreneurs and new businesses
and the app was created to help
access the ones that might be best
for you.
Developed by: Richard Groves (MSc
Computer Science, 1992), Dr Alastair
Moore (EngD, 2012) from an idea by
Timothy Barnes (BA History, 1997)
and Dr David Chapman (Vice Dean
(Enterprise), Engineering Sciences)
The app draws in feeds from
several different sources to highlight
the best of our news, events and
video content.
HiMom
HiMom lets you send pictures and
stories to your mum or dad – perhaps
when they least expect it, but need it
the most because they miss you.
Developed by: UCL Alumni Martin
Poschenrieder (UCL Management
Science and Innovation 2011).
103
UCL (University College London)
was established in 1826 and is
ranked as one of the world’s top
10 universities. The university
is a modern, outward-looking
institution, with more than 4,000
academic and research staff
committed to engaging with the
major issues of our times. It has
a global reach, with 34% of its
students coming from outside the
UK, from 150 countries.
UCL Enterprise
Enterprise is important to all
universities, but resonates particularly
with UCL. From our inception, we
were created as an enterprising
institution, with a bold ambition
to create a university dedicated
to the greatest good for the
greatest number. This principle
has underpinned the evolution
of modern-day UCL, a confident
and enthusiastic community of
enterprising researchers, educators
and scholars, working together for the
immediate, medium and long-term
benefit of society.
UCL Enterprise provides UCL’s
structures for engaging with business
for commercial and societal benefit.
It includes three units: UCL
Advances, UCL Business and UCL
Consultants. Together, they provide
access to the capabilities and
resources of the UCL community to
help businesses start, grow
and develop.
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
104
UCL Advances
UCL Consultants
The centre for entrepreneurship at
UCL, UCL Advances, offers training,
networking and business support
for staff, students and external
entrepreneurs to encourage and
enable new enterprises to get going.
Unique in the UK higher education
sector, its primary role is to promote
a culture of entrepreneurship on
campus and engagement with
entrepreneurs and small businesses
beyond UCL’s boundaries, and
currently delivers more than 30
activity programmes.
UCL Consultants was established
by UCL to bring its academics
together with national and
international clients, providing access
to the university’s leading-edge
expertise and world-class facilities.
UCL Business
UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is
a leading technology transfer
company, which supports and
commercialises research and
innovations arising from UCL, one
of the UK’s leading research-led
universities. UCLB has a successful
track record and strong reputation for
identifying and protecting promising
new technologies and innovations
from UCL academics.
It invests directly in development
projects to maximise the potential
of the research and manages
the commercialisation process of
technologies from the laboratory
to the market-ready stage. UCLB
supports the university’s Grand
Challenges of increasing UCL’s
positive impact on and contribution
to Global Health, Sustainable Cities,
Intercultural Interaction and
Human Wellbeing.
UCL Consultants offers a one-stop
office for academics wishing to carry
out consultancy work, providing
comprehensive contractual, tendering
and administrative support, enabling
UCL staff to ensure timely,
high-quality delivery to meet clients’
requirements.
It has extensive experience in working
with a wide variety of clients including
multi-national, governmental
organisations, space agencies,
international companies and SMEs.
2012 Award winners
certificates
SPIHSRENTRAP
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2011 2012
ANNUAL
REVIEW
& TCAPMI
Embedding enterprise
Supporting entrepreneurs
ON FIRM FOUNDATIONS
UCL ENTERPRISE
ANNUAL REVIEW 2011/2012