LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
ANNUAL REVIEW
2013/2014
contact
For general enquiries, contact:
enterprise@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
@UCLEnterprise
UCL Enterprise
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© UCL 2015
Design: Navig8
2
Contents
Enterprise at a glance
04 Enterprise by numbers
06 2
013/2014 Overview from the vice-provost
10 Enterprise Everywhere
12 Our year in images
Consulting with experts
activity reports
16 UCL Advances
18 UCL Business
20 UCL Consultants
22 UCL enterprise partnerships
corporate partnerships
translational research office
and industrial partnerships
26 UCL Life Learning
28 U
CL schools and faculties
Partnerships
Success Stories
38 Collaboration
62 embedding enterprise
72 supporting entrepreneurs
our year in the media
84 Impact through publicity
our year in awards
90 2014 UCL Awards for Enterprise
04 Enterprise by numbers
06 2013/2014 overview
from the vice-provost
10 Enterprise Everywhere
12 our year in images
Enterprise
at a glance
enterprise by numbers
£7M
During the 2013/2014
year, the awards secured through
Industry Partnerships-supported
activities exceeded £7m
140,000
Teaching hours of
Life Learning activity
delivered across UCL
4
60,000
40
1,000
£11.6M
New patents applied
for in 2013/2014
Support for over 1,000 of
London’s small businesses
Value of new
consultancy projects
66
1
69
£9M
New licences in 2013/2014
UCL is rated number one
in the UK for Research
Impact in the new
Research Excellence
Framework (REF) 2014
The number of Impact
Case Studies in UCL’s
REF submission
directly supported by
UCL Enterprise
Nearly £9 million generated
from Life Learning activity
Nearly 60,000 student
learner hours delivered
by UCL Advances
952
Total registered consultants
£65.9M
Collaborative research
with industry
5
2013/2014 overview
from the vice-provost
UCL shows a continued commitment to
innovation, impact, wealth and prosperity
Welcome to the third full year of the delivery phase
of UCL’s enterprise strategy. As anticipated, our
community continues to strive for excellence and
that approach and commitment is clearly working.
From working with corporations to assisting
student entrepreneurs and spinning out research,
I hope that you will enjoy reading about all our
enterprise activities from across the university
in this Annual Review for 2013/2014.
UCL Enterprise: from
strength to strength
The leading role of UCL in Enterprise
continues to gain even greater
public recognition. It was great to
see our Director of UCL Enterprise
Operations and UCL Advances,
Mr Timothy Barnes, receive a
much-deserved Queen’s Award for
Enterprise Promotion for his longterm commitment to supporting
entrepreneurs. I would like to offer
sincere congratulations to Tim
for this accolade and my thanks
for all his work in promoting UCL
Enterprise’s agenda over many
years. He and many others at UCL
have worked tirelessly to create the
conditions to enable entrepreneurship,
partnership, innovation and
impact to thrive – and 2013/2014
has been another stellar year.
Knowledge exchange,
impact and the REF
No-one working in the higher
education sector can be unaware
of REF – the research excellence
framework. It is the mechanism by
which HEFCE, the higher education
funding council, provides research
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intensive universities with Quality
Related (QR) Funding. The REF2014
introduced, for the first time, a new
element of the assessment which has
helped raise the profile of enterprise
activities across the university sector:
impact of research outside academia.
72
The importance of “impact” as part of
REF2014 cannot be underestimated.
Not only does it contribute 20%
to the overall evaluation, but it
also plays a potentially important
role in differentiating universities
in the various league tables.
I am delighted that the teams in UCL
Enterprise were able to play such an
active role in this process. Of the 272
case studies submitted, 57 involved
central enterprise delivery units and
23 had received institutional enterprise
funding. The establishment of the
Knowledge Transfer Champions and
Faculty Vice-Deans (Enterprise) has
been central to these successes. I
am very grateful to all involved.
During 2013/2014, UCL Enterprise
teams have been closely involved
in bidding for and allocating
over £5m of funding to promote
innovation and impact from the
New student businesses
supported by UCL
Advances in 2013/2014
UK Research Councils (as part of
their Impact Acceleration Accounts)
and HEFCE (as part of the Higher
Education Innovation Fund) to UCL
academics and research students.
Supporting UCL’s entrepreneurs
In 2013/2014, UCL Advances
supported some 72 new student
businesses and delivered nearly
60,000 student learner hours of training
and support. A further round of 17
Bright Ideas awards (seed funding)
were funded, providing £160,000
of support for budding student
entrepreneurs. Highlights from our
student entrepreneurs include
bio-bean; a company founded by two
students from UCL, creating advanced
biofuels from coffee grounds. They
have won $100,000 from Founder.org,
£20,000 first prize in the Santander
universities entrepreneurship
competition and €500,000 in the
Postcode Lottery Green Challenge.
Another company, this time from
the UCL Biochemical Engineering
department – Puridify – were winners
of the Oxford biotech roundtable
business plan competition. Puridify
are developing groundbreaking
new technology in order to make
it cheaper, quicker and easier to
purify new medicines – which in turn
should make for more affordable
treatments. They have attracted
£850,000 seed funding from a variety
of investors and are located in the
Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst with
a number of other UCL companies.
Alongside our entrepreneurial student
community we also support our
academic staff – they receive most
of their business support from UCL
Business (UCLB). In 2013/2014
UCLB negotiated 66 new licensing
deals – and this is combined with their
support for spin-out development. A
highlight was the investment by the
Cell Therapy Catapult of £10m into a
new company based on technology
developed by Professor Hans Stauss
(UCL Division of Infection and
Immunity). Support for existing spinouts continues – for example drug
discovery spin-out Domainex Limited
– which announced it had successfully
completed studies that provide
prospects for new oral treatments for
a number of inflammatory diseases
including psoriasis, rheumatoid
arthritis and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD).
In order to ensure that our intellectual
property has a good chance of
making it to market, UCLB have
recently launched an exciting
new online licensing platform,
E-lucid. This site makes it easy to
make technology available and is
being used by UCL as well as the
universities of Edinburgh, Manchester
and Imperial College London.
Collaboration with business
Our partnerships with industry vary
in size, scope and duration, but
strategic partnerships are at the heart
of many of them. We were delighted
to see the launch of the UCL Big
Data Institute (a collaboration with
Elsevier) – which seeks to explore
new technologies and analytics for the
purposes of enhanced scholarship.
But this is just a single example and we
have many hundreds of collaborations
with industry – and the appetite for
such collaboration is growing. Our
direct contracts from industry have
once again dramatically increased;
and now for the first time our portfolio
exceeds £100m, compared with
7
£55m in 2010. Perhaps even more
impressively, our collaborative
research council grants with industry
shows that UCL has a total of 162
collaborative research awards with a
value of £243m, which is 33% of the
current active total value of RCUK
grants of £732m. This is the highest
value of collaborative research grants
with industry held by any university in
the UK and represents an important
area of value and opportunity.
£243M
UCL also continues to see a dramatic
increase in industry-funded PhD
students, with more than 350 students
now funded in conjunction with
industry. This represents a doubling
of numbers over the last three years.
The Translational Research Office
(TRO), in the School of Life and
Medical Sciences, continues to
develop at a very impressive rate and
has now established a portfolio of 26
projects with a total value of £36m (at
year-end 2014), up from £25m in 2013.
The cumulative total of translational
funding secured through the TRO since
its 2010 inception now exceeds £51m.
8
The value of collaborative
research awards
Collaboration is often initiated and
or maintained by close engagement
through consultancy and over the
last couple of years, under the
leadership of Roger de Montfort,
UCL Consultants has gone from
strength to strength. Consultancy
managers are now in place for the
four consultancy pilot areas (UCL
Faculty of Engineering, Energy
Institute, Institute of Epidemiology and
Health Care and Sensory Systems
in the Faculty of Brain Sciences).
Turnover for 2013/2014 (end July
2014) is £8.5m compared to £6.9m
last year – an increase of 25%; the
number of registered consultants is
952 compared to 854 last year, an
increase of 12%. Major consultancy
projects are now held with Airbus,
Dyson and Novo Nordisk.
UCL is also absolutely committed
to working with London’s SME
community and last year managed
to provide help and support to
over a thousand of London’s small
businesses. In 2014 we also launched
OpenSME (www.open-sme.com),
an innovative new online platform
which allows small businesses to
identify university partners to help
meet their immediate needs.
Our work with the government on
the Tech City project continues
apace. In December 2013, the Prime
Minister David Cameron launched
IDEALondon, an innovation ‘hothouse’ established by UCL, Cisco and
DC Thomson as the Innovation and
Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEA). As
anticipated, IDEALondon – based in
Shoreditch – is now hosting around
18 digital and media companies.
But our collaboration with external
organisations is not restricted to areas
relating to UCL’s research or business
activities. UCL Advances has been
leading on a programme of funded
internships for students. This year
more than 125 student internships
were supported by 118 companies.
This included ten students working
with entrepreneurs in Kenya, fifteen
working in London through the Institute
of Archaeology and 102 eight – or
twelve-week placements with small
businesses. Santander have played
a key role as a partner in supporting
our programme and we are very
grateful for their continued support.
Summary
It has been another amazing year
of enterprise at UCL. You can read
much more in the pages that follow,
but even that is only a snapshot of
the breadth of work underway at
this, London’s Global University.
Stephen Caddick
Vice-Provost
(Enterprise and London)
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Enterprise Everywhere
Engaging with innovation near and far
UCL has risen through the league tables over
the past decade and is now unquestionably
one of the leading, and largest, universities
in the world. To reach that, we have had to
engage with businesses in our research, provide
opportunities for knowledge transfer at every
stage and support our students in their desires
to start businesses or gain the skills needed
for successful careers. This is the role of UCL
Enterprise and our activities are everywhere in UCL.
Indeed, enterprise is everywhere
beyond UCL’s boundaries, too.
Whether you look on a local, national
or global scale, enterprising people
with enterprising skills sets can be
found throughout. Engaging in this
way must be a core part of any
teaching and research institution that
holds connection, collaboration and
innovation as central to its mission.
This Annual Review demonstrates
just how far we have come in
making that happen at UCL.
In June 2014, the government
published Lord Young’s ‘Enterprise
For All’ report, which highlighted the
relevance of enterprise in education;
and the extent to which the skills of
entrepreneurship are increasingly
necessary for everybody.
The dynamic enterprise activity at
UCL shows the extent to which we
are leaders in realising this vision.
As outlined in the UCL Enterprise
10
Strategy 2011–2015, UCL Enterprise
was set up to ensure that “enterprise
is embedded across the breadth of
academic activities”. Through our
vigorous, connected people, we have
created a university where enterprise
is both central to academic activities
and to extracurricular life, too.
At UCL Advances, students, staff,
academics and alumni can learn
key enterprise skills and find support
for a wide range of entrepreneurial
initiatives. Almost every faculty has
spin-out activities supported by UCL
Business, consultancy activities
facilitated by UCL Consultants,
partnerships with businesses to
further their research supported by
Enterprise Partnerships and now
offers learning opportunities through
Life Learning activity. The variety of
activities supported by these five units
ensures that enterprise continues
to be part of UCL’s lifeblood.
“Enterprise everywhere” is about our
past and our future, because at UCL,
we have the confidence to pursue our
vision over the long-term. In doing so,
we ensure that its impact continues to
show up – in better research, better
teaching, and a better society.
Timothy Barnes
Director, UCL Enterprise Operations
Director, UCL Advances
“UCL has been a great
collaborator with Cisco
for many years now,
reaching from the very
earliest days of the
internet through to the
recent prime ministerial
announcement of
IDEALondon, which
we’ve jointly launched
with DC Thomson
and the university. The
calibre of UCL and
the calibre of Cisco
make for a great
partnership – proven
by the length of the
relationship and the fact
that we’re continually
innovating together.”
Phil Smith, CEO Cisco
UK and Ireland
Chairman, Innovate UK
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our year in images
12
13
16 UCL Advances
18 UCL Business
20 UCL Consultants
22 ucl enterprise
partnerships beams and slash
24 UCL Translational Research
office and ucl enterprise
partnerships SLMS 26 UCL Life Learning
28 UCL SCHOOls and faculties
activity
reports
UCL Advances
Supporting enterprise within
UCL and beyond
UCL Advances, the centre for entrepreneurship
and business interaction at UCL, supports
anyone who wants to learn about, start
or grow a business – across all UCL
departments, for our alumni and beyond.
In 2013/2014, UCL Advances continued
its mission to help as many people
as possible learn about, start or grow
their business. Over the last few years
we have advised over 1,000 students
that have thought about starting a
business and this has led to more
than 300 student businesses giving
it a try. We have worked with over
1,000 of small businesses, many of
them right on UCL’s doorstep here in
London, which has led to the creation
of hundreds of new jobs. This year
alone, we delivered nearly 60,000
student learner hours, all focused on
how to start a business or developing
key enterprise skills that will last a
lifetime. We firmly believe that this adds
up to one of the most comprehensive
programmes of entrepreneurship and
enterprise support offered by any
university, anywhere in the world.
Bringing great opportunities
into UCL and pushing
out new companies
In a groundbreaking move, UCL
Advances entered a partnership with
Cisco and DC Thomson to create
IDEALondon, which was opened
in December 2013 by the Prime
16
Minister, the Rt Hon David Cameron
MP. IDEALondon is a hot house for
digital, tech and media start-ups in
London’s digital hotspot, Tech City. This
is the first time that a leading global
university, a tech giant and a media firm
have come together to support new
businesses in this way. Each partner
has different strengths that combine
to give us an extraordinary offer to
the high potential start-up companies
that come to IDEALondon. UCL’s
contribution is our knowhow – both as
research and in people. IDEALondon
has already welcomed companies
started by former students, seen
resident businesses collaborate on new
research and offer our current students
internships to develop their skills.
In a move to support SMEs throughout
London, in April 2014 UCL Advances
entered into a partnership with a
consortium of London universities,
backed by the Mayor of London, to
create OpenSME (www.open-sme.
com). This new initiative makes
it easier for small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) to access the
expertise, knowledge and resources
that universities can offer.
Alumni-led companies have also had
a great year. These include bio-bean
(founded by Arthur Kay, UCL Bartlett,
BArch and Benjamin Harriman,
UCL Bartlett, MArch), a start-up that
recycles coffee waste products into
advanced biofuels. The company was
recently awarded €500,000 in a green
energy competition and £20,000 first
prize in the Santander Universities
Entrepreneurship Competition. In
May 2014, Tripbod, a start-up created
by Sally Broom (UCL BSc Human
Sciences, 2006), was acquired by
online travel giant TripAdvisor. And
BaseStone, a collaboration tool for
construction professionals created by
Alex Siljanovski (UCL MSc Technology
Entrepreneurship 2012), which is
currently housed at IDEALondon, is live
on Crossrail and also being used by
industry giants Costain and Skanska.
Our role in entrepreneurship
is being recognised
In addition to the Prime Minster’s visit
to IDEALondon, we also welcomed
the Rt Hon David Willets MP and the
Rt Hon Maria Miller MP, Secretary
of State for Education, to join
roundtables discussions with young
entrepreneurs. They were seeking
to understand enterprise skills,
student employability, and the social
and economic role of universities
and came to UCL to learn more.
We were also recognised for
our leading role with a series of
awards, being shortlisted as the
Entrepreneurial University of the Year
by the Times Higher, receiving the
Small Business Charter and several
awards for specific programmes and
individuals within the department.
UCL Advances initiatives include:
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Citrus Saturday
Inspiring children to aspire
to becoming entrepreneurs
www.citrussaturday.org
IdeaLondon
A pioneering incubator in
London’s Tech City
www.idea-london.co.uk
OpenSME
Connecting London’s small businesses
to universities
www.open-sme.com
UCL Advances continues to help
enterprise and entrepreneurship play a
vital role both within UCL and beyond.
Digital Business Academy
The largest dedicated online
digital business training programme
in the world
www.digitalbusinessacademyuk.com
Over 300 student
businesses supported
to date
London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge
Workshop and business plan
competition helping UCL entrepreneurs
develop their businesses
www.londonentrepreneurschallenge.com
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UCL Business
Realising the value of UCL’s intellectual
property and its impact on wider society
UCL Business (UCLB) is responsible for technology
commercialisation and development at UCL.
Offering world-class expertise in areas
from life sciences to engineering and
from the arts to the built environment, we
make commercial connections between
UCL’s expert academics, the needs of
industry and the wider marketplace.
UCLB also works with staff across
partner hospitals, including UCLH, Royal
Free London, Moorfields Eye Hospital
and Great Ormond Street Hospital,
to support exceptional research and
clinical practice for positive social,
health and economic benefit.
Our turnover for the year was £7.8m.
During the past year we have applied
for 40 new patents, have 66 new
licences and 54 equity holdings.
From artistic help to vital support
Over the last 12 months, we have
continued to support UCL and our
partner hospitals. Some of the work we
have done includes supporting the UCL
Slade School of Fine Art to host their first
Slade Print Fair. This was an initiative to
fund scholarships to support students
embarking on studies at the Slade; it
featured prints by Slade alumni, staff
and current students. A great success,
18
the event raised over £30,000; which
allows six fully-funded scholarships
for new graduate students in 2014.
UCLB assisted with the collaboration
between UCL and the Chiesi Group
to test a new melatonin formulation as
a brain protective medicine for birth
asphyxia. Globally, birth asphyxia is the
fifth leading cause of child deaths and for
those that survive, there is a significant
burden of disability as the child matures.
40
54
243
66
New patents applied
for in 2013/2014
Equity holdings as
at 31 July 2014
Patent families as
at 31 July 2014
New licences in 2013/2014
New relationships forged
through online technology
We also launched E-lucid, a system
we developed in 2010 for online
licensing of software and materials
arising from the UCL research base,
as a white label service for other tech
transfer organisations. First customers
Edinburgh, Manchester and Imperial
College London went live in early 2014.
With many more novel ideas making
strong progress, we continue to
support UCL, UCL Enterprise and
our partner hospitals to contribute to
make a change in the way universities,
the NHS, industry and society work
together for the betterment of all.
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UCL Consultants
Wider society investing in
world-class expertise from UCL
2013/2014 was a year of growth and expansion
for UCL Consultants Ltd. Our stated mission – to
maximise the volume of consultancy for the UCL
community, by making it easy and productive for
our internal and external clients to do business
– has borne fruit, as demonstrated by a 25%
increase in turnover to £8.5m, the registration of
almost 100 new consultants and 286 new projects
with a value of £11.6m over the past year.
The four key service offerings –
academic consultancy, testing and
analysis, expert witness and training
and short courses – have been
expanded throughout the university,
with steady growth across all.
We have seen significant client
engagement over 2013/2014. A major
collaboration with Airbus, funded by
the European Space Agency, resulted
in a high-profile, high-value contract
for UCL’s Mullard Space Science
Laboratory; and a five-year agreement
was signed with the General Medical
Council (GMC) on behalf of UCL’s
Medical School Education Consultancy
(MSEC) for £2.5m, as part of the
General Medical Council’s programme
of assessment for doctors.
World-leading new
medical programmes
UCL Consultants is also facilitating
the partnership between UCL, Novo
Nordisk and the Steno Diabetes
Centre – a world-leading institution
in diabetes care and prevention – to
launch the Cities Changing Diabetes
initiative, an ambitious new partnership
programme to fight urban diabetes.
20
UCL Consultants teamed up with
Professor John Mullan of the UCL
English Department and Pearson
Edexcel to address the requirement
for examination candidates to show
knowledge of critical arguments about
the texts they are studying. Edexcel
approached John and colleagues
to select and edit an anthology of
literary criticism for future candidates.
Recently completed, this anthology
will be distributed free to every
student taking the Pearson Edexcel
General Certificate of Education
(GCE) in English Literature, allowing
them to access a wide variety
of criticism in one collection.
The company’s collaboration
with the London Implant Retrieval
Centre (LIRC) within the Institute of
Orthopaedics continues apace, with
the LIRC’s reputation for excellence
in the field of analysis of removed
hip implants continuing to grow.
Consulting expertise applied
to key global issues
Dr Paolo Agnolucci and Dr Ian
Hamilton of The UCL Bartlett School of
Environment, Energy and Resources
(BSEER) with Dr Adam Cooper of the
98
286
Consulting with experts
New consultants registered
in the last year
£8.5M
Number of new projects
Department of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Public Policy and
other colleagues were awarded a
framework contract by the Department
of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
to provide high-level advice and skills
development on best practice in
design and execution of formal policy
evaluations. The bid was supported by
UCL Consultants and the award is an
acknowledgement of the excellence
of the expertise on offer in the crossdisciplinary, cross-faculty team.
£11.6M
952
UCL Consultants has also worked
with numerous high-profile companies
over the past year including Dyson,
GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer as well
as SMEs and a host of national and
international government organisations.
Turnover for 2013/2014
The company remains set for another
period of growth in the coming
year and is expanding to meet the
need – current and anticipated – that
increased demand from external
clients and participation in consultancy
across UCL will bring, in order to
fulfil its goal to become the go-to
provider of academic consulting
services in its areas of expertise.
Value of new projects
Total registered consultants
21
UCL enterprise
Partnerships
UCL Corporate Partnerships
Partnerships
Fig 1
It has been a successful year for UCL
Corporate Partnerships, with a major new
partnership signed, agreements or renewals
completed with several companies and the
expansion of the Corporate Partnerships team
to support the BEAMS and SLASH Schools.
In December 2013, Elsevier signed an
agreement to establish the UCL Big
Data Institute. This five-year multi-million
pound partnership will see the company
working alongside UCL researchers
to explore new technologies and
analytics in an academic environment.
Elsevier will also fund projects and
studentships through the institute,
focusing on the wider applications of
Big Data. This partnership supports
the Government’s drive to make the
UK a world leader in Big Data and
algorithm research and will put UCL at
the fore of this emerging area. Other
negotiations included a partnership
renewal with EDF, agreements with
Dyson and Philips and the donation of a
3D laser scanner by Arius Technology.
Embedding established
partnerships
The Intel Collaborative Research
Institute for Sustainable Connected
Cities delivered its first annual report
to the board of directors in March
2014, which showcased innovative
joint projects for sustainable urban
environments. The Future Cities Centre
22
in East London has also expanded in
its first year; through this collaboration
with Cisco and DC Thomson in
IDEALondon, UCL has received positive
media coverage, as London’s tech
start-up community continues to grow.
New directions for an
expanding team
The addition of two new partnerships
managers has allowed the team
to have a more focused approach
to partnerships, opening up
opportunities in the Faculties of Arts
& Humanities and Social Sciences,
as well as strengthening relationships
in Engineering. It has also enabled
a broader coverage across both
research themes and geographical
areas, with the team now looking
beyond Europe and North America
to establish relationships.
This added support is already
encouraging more company
engagement, and we look forward
to building on UCL’s strong
portfolio of corporate partnerships
over the coming year.
20/20
UCL works with 20 out of
the top 20 companies in
the world for R&D spend
£65.9M
Fig 2
Collaborative research
with industry
Fig 1. Professor Michael Arthur, UCL President and Provost (left), and Ron Mobed,
CEO, Elsevier, signing partnership agreement, December 2013
Fig 2. Professor Oliver Heid, Head of Siemens Healthcare, Technology & Concept (left), and Professor Sandro
Olivo, UCL Professor of Applied Physics, UCL’s Medical Physics and Bioengineering Laboratory 2014.
23
UCL enterprise
Partnerships
UCL Translational Research Office
and Industrial Partnerships
Partnerships
The Translational Research Office (TRO)
enhances enterprise through integrated
support for translational research, industry
partnerships and drug discovery in the School
of Life and Medical Sciences (SLMS).
In addition to the externally-funded
main portfolio, we are continuing to
build an early phase portfolio. Through
the Therapeutic Innovation Fund
and the Medical Research Council
Confidence in Concept schemes, we
have seed-funded 39 projects, several
of which have gone on to attract major
translational or industry investment.
implementing aligned Enterprise
and Wealth Generation strategies
that focus on further enhancing
industrial collaboration. In order
to strengthen support for these
initiatives, three Industrial Partnership
Managers were appointed to the
TRO in 2013. The main purpose of
their role is to initiate, coordinate and
sustain strategic relationships with
industry. This newly formed group
has initiated the development of
several industrial collaborations and
strategic partnerships – and during
the 2013/2014 year, awards derived
from these activities have already
exceeded £7m. A highlight has been
the establishment of a UCL academic
hub at the Stevenage Bioscience
Catalyst, where ‘industry ready’
projects can take laboratory space in
this unique innovation environment.
The Industrial Partnerships Group:
Collaborating with industry
Collaboration with industry sits
at the heart of SLMS’ enterprise
activities. Its four faculties, together
with the National Institute for Health
Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research
Centres and UCL Partners, are
The Drug Discovery Group:
applying expertise where it matters
Established in November 2012 and
currently populated by two industryexperienced medicinal chemists,
the Drug Discovery Group provides
theoretical and practical medicinal
chemistry expertise to projects drawn
Translational Research
This group continues to see a
significant growth in its portfolio
of managed projects, which are
supported by a broad range of
funders, particularly the Medical
Research Council and Wellcome Trust.
This portfolio currently stands at 26
active projects with a total value of
£36m, up from 21 at £25m in 2013. The
cumulative total of translational funding
secured through the TRO since its
2010 inception now exceeds £51m.
24
£36M
from across UCL. Awareness of the
group, which is based in the School
of Pharmacy, is increasing and its
impact is growing. Funding exceeding
£600,000 has been attracted to
projects on which they are working
and further applications with an award
value of around £5.5m have been
submitted, or are in preparation.
£2.6M
£7M
Through this integrated approach to
enabling translation at UCL, the TRO
links investigators to a broad range
of financial, industry and practical
resources for projects at all phases
– discovery, pre-clinical and clinical.
The TRO has a portfolio
of 26 projects with £36m
of funding from major
external funders.
Early stage portfolio of 39
projects with £2.6m seed
funding awarded from
Therapeutic Innovation
Fund and Confidence
in Concept schemes.
During the 2013/2014 year,
the awards secured through
Industry Partnerships
in SLMS supported
activities exceeded £7m.
25
UCL Life Learning
Boosting career advancement and
personal growth opportunities for all
Universities have much to offer learners
outside of the established student
community. Of all the London universities,
UCL has the most diverse range of expertise
across a multitude of subject areas.
UCL’s commitment to crossdisciplinary teaching, as highlighted
by the UCL Grand Challenges
programme, has fuelled a strategic
initiative to develop UCL Life
Learning and an extensive portfolio
of cutting-edge short courses.
Delivered as Summer Schools,
Professional Development, Executive
Education and Personal Learning,
this activity will promote career
advancement and individual growth.
The UCL Life Learning team, led by
Professor Andrew Eder, came together
in September 2013 with the mission of
maximising UCL’s global educational
reach and impact through Life Learning
activities. The ambition is to increase
this activity and disseminate dynamic
research knowledge to the wider
public. During their first year, the team
have engaged with UCL’s academic
community, identified areas of
potential growth, undertaken a global
market research project, delivered
a branding solution, established
governance structures and created
staff engagement opportunities.
26
Launched in late 2014, and one
of the Life Learning team’s first
major initiatives, was a centralised
website (www.ucl.ac.uk/lifelearning)
to complement UCL’s existing
online learning platform, UCLeXtend
(https://extend.ucl.ac.uk). The
ultimate aim of this course finder
website is to improve the customer
experience; and to represent Life
Learning courses in a succinct and
coherent manner via the existing
UCL web information architecture.
Our strategy aims to deliver
an aspirational programme of
transformational growth for Life
Learning at UCL. In view of rapidly
changing economies and working
environments across the globe,
extensive market research confirms
that opportunities are present and
demand exists. Development of Life
Learning will stimulate e-learning
and distance learning innovation
across UCL’s mainstream curriculum.
It will also create larger income
streams and financial surpluses for
reinvestment into UCL’s core mission.
9,500
19K
26
241
Life Learning attendees
on UCL courses
Learner days delivered
across UCL
UCL departments delivering
Life Learning activity
Unique courses offered
27
UCL SCHOOLs
and faculties
Where enterprise meets knowledge
From its inception, UCL has been a worldleading university with a wide-ranging research
remit. The capital’s largest leading multidisciplinary university, it comprises 10 faculties
across a wide range of disciplines, from the
arts and humanities through to the sciences.
Our faculties are grouped into three
schools: UCL School of Life and
Medical Sciences (SLMS); UCL School
of the Built Environment, Engineering
and Mathematical and Physical
Sciences (BEAMS); and UCL School of
Law, Arts and Humanities, Social and
Historical Sciences and Slavonic and
Eastern European Studies (SLASH).
Each school has a UCL Knowledge
Transfer and Enterprise Board.
Their role is to support our faculty
and academic staff in order to
ensure that knowledge is effectively
transferred from UCL into useful
application across society.
28
29
ucl enterprise
activity highlights
SLMS
The School of Life and Medical Sciences (SLMS)
Knowledge Transfer and Enterprise Board
brings together the Vice-Deans (Enterprise) for
each Faculty with the Translational Research
Office, UCL Advances, UCL Business, UCL
Consultants and other stakeholders. This advances
our pro-active strategy to deliver industrial
engagement that reflects our desire
to transform society through the generation
and application of knowledge.
This year, our Knowledge Transfer
Champions and Vice-Deans
(Enterprise) have further developed
our engagement with the biomedical
faculties through an Industry
Day, workshops on consultancy
and various other activities.
The Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Board Chair, with the
Vice-Deans (Enterprise) is actively
engaging with Faculty Deans to
encourage the development of
ambitious but achievable strategic
plans for Enterprise, alongside
existing planning for research and
teaching. In particular, the Translational
Research Office continues to go
from strength to strength, with a
translational grant portfolio worth in
excess of £36m, as well as investment
in Industrial Partnership Managers,
support for drug discovery and
renewed support for Confidence
in Concept work to facilitate early
translation of the most promising
ideas from SLMS academics.
UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences
The Faculty of Brain Sciences launched
a new PhD programme in Sensory
Systems, led jointly by investigators
30
from the UCL Ear Institute and the
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. The
programme is designed to combine
the traditional elements of scientific
training and research with a range
of activities and courses aimed at
educating and stimulating students
in enterprise and entrepreneurship.
The programme admitted its first
students in 2014 under the auspices
of the UCL Grand Challenges and
IMPACT PhD schemes, and the
coordinators intend to build on this
with support from industrial partners.
UCL Faculty of Life Sciences
Following a decision by AstraZeneca to
reduce its focus on early-stage research
in neglected tropical diseases, an
agreement was signed to release data
and compounds to scientists at UCL.
Researchers in the UCL Drug Discovery
Group and the UCL Laboratory of
Molecular Cell Biology are aiming to
exploit this industry-linked opportunity
to develop new antivirals against
dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical
disease. This translational research
will build on a recent Therapeutic
Innovation Fund award to scientists
within the Faculty of Life Sciences.
UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences
This year saw the transition of two
exciting projects emerging from the
Faculty of Medical Sciences to the UCL
laboratory space within the Stevenage
Biosciences Catalyst (SBC). This
campus provides an unparalled open
innovation environment to accelerate
the progression of front-line research
for health and economic benefits.
The first project, led by Professor
George Hamilton (Division of Surgery
and Interventional Science, UCL),
focuses on the development of
polymer nanocomposites for tissue
engineering. The second project
aims to develop a novel therapeutic
antibody to attenuate neutrophil
accumulation in patients with acute
lung injury and is being led by
Professor Rachel Chambers (UCL
Faculty of Medical Sciences).
UCL Faculty of Population
Health Sciences
Many activities this year, in
collaboration with other Knowledge
Transfer Champions and ViceDeans (Enterprise), have focused
on Translational Medicine. There
was a series of workshops focusing
on the Faculty and the School of
Life and Medical Sciences, which
involved almost 250 colleagues
and close collaboration with UCL
Consultants Ltd. Also in 2014,
EUREKA grew in scope. EUREKA is
an intensive course and international
network that focuses on translational
medicine, in collaboration with
Professor Lucy Wedderburn
(UCL Institute of Child Health).
A repurposed website was another
key focus of 2013/2014, including
developing content around disease
processes and therapeutic targets.
The website aims to utilize the
huge disease and clinical expertise
within UCL to become a first port
of call for external companies
wanting to benefit from it.
Professor Geraint Rees
Chair, Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Board, SLMS
31
ucl enterprise
ACTIVITY highlights
BEAMS
The UCL School of the Built Environment,
Engineering and Mathematical and Physical
Sciences (BEAMS) oversees enterprise
activity in three faculties: Mathematical
and Physical Sciences, Engineering
Sciences and The Built Environment.
The Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Board comprises the ViceDeans (Enterprise) for each faculty
and the Heads of UCL Advances, UCL
Business and UCL Consultants. In the
past year, a key focus has been the
progress of the Enterprise Champions
Scheme, in which grants supported six
enterprise initiatives across the faculty.
These initiatives are diverse, from
‘Perspectives of the Smart City from a
Narrowboat’ to a ‘Natural Resources
Away Day’ to the appointment of
an ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ in
the UCL Chemistry department.
Feedback and support specifically
focuses on continuous professional
development, enterprise strategy and
proposed initiatives from the office
of the Vice-Provost (Enterprise).
UCL Bartlett Faculty of
the Built Environment
By 2050, the world’s population
will be 10 billion. With increasing
mobility, shifting migration patterns
and an ageing population, the
built environment faces many new
challenges. At The Bartlett, UCL’s
Faculty of the Built Environment,
32
the focus is to understand the
forces driving change and finding
new ways to negotiate them.
In collaboration with Mace, international
consulting and construction company,
The Bartlett has explored: ‘How will
the UK’s changing demographics
impact on three key parts of social
infrastructure by 2050?’ This question
has been explored via workshops and
a report, including key contributions
from The Bartlett’s academics.
UCL Faculty of Engineering
Sciences
The London Media Technology
Campus (LMTC) – a major
collaboration between UCL and the
BBC – was established in Summer
2013 and is the leading advanced
research and collaboration centre
between academia and the media
industry. The centre is a shared
workspace based at UCL and has
a significant presence from the
BBC, with much of their research
being undertaken there.
It has achieved significant milestones
in areas such as content creation,
distribution and consumption. It has
also leveraged external Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC) funding for a project
in language generation and is planning
at least two Horizon 2020 project
submissions for 2015. In addition,
Sebastian Riedel, the UCL leader of
the Centre, was awarded a prestigious
Allen Distinguished Investigator award.
In July 2014, an advanced technical
demo was conducted at the
Commonwealth Games, with the BBC
streaming video from a panoramic
camera to an Oculus Rift system.
The LMTC has made a difference
to teaching too: there have been
nine successful postgraduate and
undergraduate projects; many of
which received distinctions and found
their way into BBC production code.
UCL Faculty of Mathematical
and Physical Sciences
Project Management is an almost
universal discipline. It is necessary to
implement change successfully (such
as to create a complex deliverable)
within time and money constraints.
Its modern origins lie in the defense
and aerospace sectors; sectors that
face some of the most challenging
problems in this respect. It is therefore
with great pride that the Technology
Management Group within the UCL
Department of Space and Climate
Physics won a contract to develop
and coordinate a project management
training programme for the European
Space Agency’s next generation
of top-flight project managers.
The programme contained many novel
features and involved two intense
seven-day modules, delivered jointly
by the European Space Agency (ESA)
and UCL’s Mullard Space Science
Laboratory (MSSL). UCL’s credibility for
the programme comes from more than
40 years of successful instrumentation
development in the space sector. After
a successful first round, a second
round of delivery is now underway.
Professor Alan Smith
Vice-Dean (Enterprise), UCL Faculty of
Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
Chair, Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Board, BEAMS
33
ucl enterprise
activity highlights
SLASH
There have been notable successes within
the UCL School of Law, Arts and Humanities,
Social and Historical Sciences and Slavonic
and Eastern European Studies (SLASH).
These include a revitalised Festival
of the Arts which gained national
media coverage and increased
attendances; bursaries arising
from income generated at the UCL
Slade Print Fair; and an exciting new
partnership between UCL and English
National Opera (ENO). The UCL+ENO
collaboration is cross-faculty, bringing
together our leading academics with
world-class artists to investigate the
future of performance in a digital world.
This is supported by a transformative
move: appointing an artist who
understands the three worlds of art,
enterprise and scholarship as UCL
Arts Entrepreneur in Residence. The
distinctive agenda of the SLASH
Knowledge Transfer and Enterprise
Board to recognise, enhance and
extend the commercial, cultural
and social partnerships with other
enterprises (both for profit and, like
ourselves, not-for-profit) is having
an effect. Watch this space!
UCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities
In a successful year, UCL’s work for
the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) raised
a second year of research grants;
34
and the UCL Slade Print Fair was a
glittering event that raised money for
scholarships. In May, the Festival of
the Arts took place and July saw the
well-received Fukushima Kimono
exhibition. Other notable news saw
Norvik Press publish the proceedings
of the Nordic Research Network
Conference, Information Studies
provide two nominations for UCL’s
Spirit of Enterprise awards and the
new Corporate Partnership Manager
(Jim Collins) meeting Arts and
Humanities heads of departments to
identify themes for development.
UCL Faculty of Laws
The UCL Centre for Access to Justice
(opened in March 2013), based at the
UCL Faculty of Laws, provides legal
assistance to vulnerable members of the
local community, while giving students
a unique opportunity to gain hands-on
experience in addressing legal issues
related to education, social welfare and
employment. The Centre is rooted in
its partnership with charities including
The Free Representation Unit and Just
for Kids Law, as well as with the legal
profession, through its connection with
barristers from Old Square Chambers.
UCL Faculty of Social and
Historical Sciences
At the UCL Faculty of Social
and Historical Sciences, public
engagement and knowledge
continues to flourish. Under Dr Uta
Staiger (Deputy Director of the UCL
European Institute), the European
Institute has become a centre for
new partnerships that link Members
of European Parliament (MEPs),
academics, journalists and lawyers
in intense public debate on key
issues (LGBT rights and secessionist
movements in Europe, for example).
The Open City Documentary
Festival continues to attract big
audiences and in 2014 funded
a Social and Historical Sciences
UCL academic to partner with a
filmmaker to make a film in Burma,
creating exciting new connections
between industry and academia.
Professor Michael Stewart
Vice-Dean (Enterprise), UCL Faculty
of Social and Historical Sciences.
Chair, Knowledge Transfer and
Enterprise Board, SLASH
35
16
CASE STUDIES
38 Collaboration
62 embedding enterprise
72 supporting entrepreneurs
Success
stories
42 Chiesi Group Research Partnership
44 UCL Big Data Institute
46 The Global Medical
Excellence Cluster
48 IDEALondon
50 The Third IMO GHG
Gas Study 2014
52 UCL Medical
School Education
Consultancy
54 The Cities Changing
Diabetes Initiative
56 SEAHA
58 ICRI Cities
60 OPENSME
collaboration
Collaboration
Consulting with experts
Partnerships
UCL’s footprint extends across the world, with
a community of over 40,000 staff and students
and 200,000 alumni from 190 countries.
One of our key strengths lies in the
close working relationships that we
forge across our global community.
These range from multi-million pound
research collaborations with some
of the largest companies in the
world to funded studentships and
extensive staff mobility opportunities.
In 2014, our collaborations showcase
the impact and applications that
UCL research and knowledge
has for wider society.
From Tech City, a pioneering tech
partnership between UCL, Cisco
and DC Thomson, to the UCL
Big Data Institute, an agreement
with Elsevier that puts UCL at the
forefront of Big Data research and
technologies, UCL continues to
be a collaboration powerhouse.
40
41
protecting babies
with birth asphyxia
In a world-class research partnership, UCL has
collaborated with the Chiesi Group, an Italian
pharmaceutical company, to test a new melatonin
formulation that works as a brain protective
medicine for babies who suffer birth asphyxia.
New frontiers in neonatal health
Birth asphyxia, a clinical condition
caused by temporary interruption
of the blood flow to the brain at
the time of birth, is the fifth leading
cause of child deaths globally. The
disability burden as children mature
includes cerebral palsy, epilepsy and
cognitive, hearing, language and
speech impairments. This means
that the clinical need for effective new
therapies to optimise brain protection
following birth asphyxia is paramount.
Through UCL Business (UCLB), the
Chiesi Group was granted access to
specific research knowledge developed
by Professor Nicola Robertson,
Professor of Perinatal Neuroscience at
the UCL Institute for Women’s Health, a
renowned expert in the field of neonatal
neuroscience and neuroprotection,
and Professor Xavier Golay, Professor
of MR Neurophysics and Translational
Neuroscience at the UCL Institute of
Neurology, an expert in physiological
MRI and image-based biomarkers.
42
Collaboration is key
Around 40% of infants with
birth asphyxia have abnormal
neurodevelopmental outcomes,
despite improvements due to
a treatment called therapeutic
hypothermia. Professor Nicola
Robertson says: “Even though
therapeutic hypothermia is used
in many hospitals, cooling is only
partially effective and other medicines
are desperately needed.”
The collaboration focuses on melatonin,
a natural hormone that is mainly
secreted at night. In pharmacological
doses, it can protect the baby’s brain
from damage. Chiesi is responsible
for the development of a melatonin
formulation suitable for neonatal use
and for the development of the product,
including the clinical trial programme.
“This is an excellent
partnership for both
parties, combining the
world-class translational
research strengths of
Professors Robertson
and Golay, along with
their colleagues at UCL,
with the significant
development and
commercialisation
capabilities of the
Chiesi Group, to
progress this important
therapy to market.”
“We look forward to
this exciting partnership
with UCL, which
we recognise as a
centre of excellence
in the field.”
Dr Paolo Chiesi, Vice President
and Director of Research &
Development, Chiesi Group
Dr Chris Williams, Senior Business
Manager, UCL Business
43
Big Data takes
a big leap forwards
with Elsevier
Fig 1
Partnerships
In late 2013, at a launch event attended by
Rt. Hon. David Willetts (Former Minister of
State for Universities and Science), Elsevier
signed a five-year agreement to establish the
UCL Big Data Institute. A multi-million pound
partnership, it aims to put UCL at the forefront
of Big Data research and technologies.
The Big Data Institute’s mission is
to explore new technologies and
analytics in an academic environment,
while addressing pressing issues
around data storage, curation and
consumption of information.
A tremendous research boost
Elsevier will support the Institute’s
research in Big Data, funding
projects and studentships across
a broad range of areas, including
improved search and discovery and
performance metrics. The company
will also fund a Centre of Excellence in
Analytics, which will offer employment
and commercialisation activities in
collaboration with UCL Business
and UCL Consultants. An additional
benefit for UCL researchers is that they
will have access to the company’s
newly acquired global research
management and collaboration
platform (Mendeley) and to highperformance computing clusters.
“UCL and Elsevier inevitably have
complementary interests in many
aspects of research dissemination
and will both together and
independently continue to develop
44
these for the good of the global
research effort,” Professor Michael
Arthur, UCL President & Provost.
The many applications of Big Data
UCL already has a number of other
activities and initiatives that sit within
Big Data and research analytics.
To fully realise their synergy, UCL
is developing a Research Domain
for ‘e-research’ and a plan for a
connected community – from particle
physics to digital humanities – which
shares insights and resources.
The Big Data Institute will be a key
addition to this family of activities.
“This is a significant investment
by Elsevier in UK science, in an
area where we have outstanding
expertise, and in a collaboration
with a world-leading institution. Our
aim is to help scientists do better
research and do it faster,” says Ron
Mobed, Chief Executive, Elsevier.
“Big data is one of the
eight great technologies.
It has the potential to play
a crucial role supporting
the growth of the UK
economy. It is estimated
that the big data market
will create up to 58,000
new UK jobs by 2017.
Collaborations such
as the one between
University College
London and Elsevier
are vital if we are to
take full advantage of
the big data revolution
and stay ahead in
the global race.”
Rt Hon David Willetts,
Minister of State for
Universities and Science
“Elsevier Chief Executive
Ron Mobed said there
was great potential
for Elsevier to share
the vast amount of
scientific and public
data it holds (around
200 terabytes compared
with Wikipedia’s
six terabytes).
He added that the
collaboration showed
how London can be
the base for a big
media and technology
company to work with
university researchers
and venture capitalbacked start-ups.”
Reed Elsevier in partnership
with UCL to share deposits of
learning, Evening Standard,
18th December 2013
Fig 1. Ron Mobed, Chief Executive, Elsevier.
45
Boosting the
UK’s position in
biomedical research
Partnerships
The Global Medical Excellence Cluster (GMEC) is
a not-for-profit company. Its aim is to foster a culture
of academics working together with industry to
create therapeutic endpoints for their research.
GMEC was founded by five of the
world’s top universities: UCL, Oxford,
Cambridge, Imperial College London
and King’s College London, later
joined by Queen Mary University.
It is developing a framework within
which universities, commercial
organisations and NHS Trusts
can collaborate to accelerate
progress in translational medicine;
this will bolster the UK’s globally
competitive position in biomedical
research, attract inward investment
and improve patient outcomes.
A major new agreement with Pfizer
In May 2014, GMEC announced a
five-year collaborative agreement
with Pfizer Inc. This agreement
will provide a framework for the
research and development of new
and innovative medicines for rare
diseases. There are more than
6,000 recognised rare diseases that
collectively impact more than 3.5m
people in the UK alone; and have an
effect on around 60m people across
Europe and the USA. The initiative will
build on advances in understanding
the molecular mechanisms
that underpin rare diseases.
46
The agreement provides scientists
from the GMEC partners the
opportunity to work with Pfizer
scientists on joint drug discovery
programmes. Together, the scientific
and clinical excellence of the
universities and Academic Health
Science Centres in the GMEC
cluster and the drug discovery and
development skills of Pfizer have the
potential to accelerate the translation
of basic science into a new generation
of innovative medicines. This
enterprising biomedical collaboration
will make a huge difference in
the lives of those with debilitating
and life-threatening conditions.
Global recognition for the
Pfizer partnership
In 2014, the GMEC/Pfizer Rare
Disease collaboration was listed in
Fierce Biotech’s seven most notable
academic-pharma alliances in 2014.
“Collaboration between
industry and the scientific
community is vital to
the goal of driving the
development of a new
generation of medicines
to improve the lives
of patients with rare
diseases. We are excited
about establishing this
new relationship with
GMEC and look forward
to working closely with
these highly regarded
UK institutions potentially
to develop new
treatments for debilitating
genetic disorders.”
“UCL and its partner
hospitals carry out world
class research into, and
clinical treatment of rare
diseases. By partnering
with GMEC and Pfizer
in the Rare Disease
Consortium, we intend
to take another important
step forward on the
path to developing new
treatments for patients
suffering from such
devastating conditions.”
Professor Sir John Tooke,
Vice-Provost (Health), UCL
Mikael Dolsten, President, Worldwide
Research and Development, Pfizer Inc
47
IDEALondon: a
pioneering incubator
in London’s Tech City
In December 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron
officially opened IDEALondon, a groundbreaking
innovation incubator arising from a partnership
between UCL, Cisco and DC Thomson. The
partnership – the Innovation and Digital Enterprise
Alliance – supports the growth of rapidly
expanding digital, tech and media start-ups in
and around Tech City in London’s Shoreditch.
IDEALondon provides bespoke
support, tailored to individual startups, via mentoring and a strategic
acceleration programme. Initially
housing around fifteen companies and
a hundred entrepreneurs and staff, it
is a buzzing, dynamic example of how
the provision of the right infrastructure
can help tech entrepreneurs flourish.
A new Tech City hotspot
The start-ups housed at IDEALondon
have been selected by its partners via
several routes: Cisco through its British
Innovation Gateway programme (BIG),
which has granted space to the most
promising digital and tech start-ups
it has discovered. UCL Advances
picked the best and brightest of UCL’s
digital tech entrepreneurs, according
to a specific set of criteria. By offering
these start-ups expert consulting
and chances to collaborate closely
with specialists, their businesses
get a chance to rapidly grow.
Leading media organisation
DC Thomson is focusing on
supporting start-ups that work in
digital content creation, advertising
technologies, ecommerce, educational
technologies and analytics.
48
It provides specific mentorship and
guidance on commercialising and
scaling business propositions.
At the cutting edge of
digital technology
Not only is IDEALondon a space for
start-ups, it hosts UCL researchers
who work at the forefront of digital
innovation to develop new products
and services. The centre’s dedicated
business expertise, and the access it
offers to a structured programme of
support and collaboration, ensures that
innovation can reach its full potential.
A vibrant space for entrepreneurs
and start-ups to create, collaborate
and inspire in the heart of
London’s Tech City, IDEALondon
is creating some of the UK’s
foremost digital success stories.
“IDEALondon ensures
the future growth and
prosperity of start-ups
across the area by
giving them access
to all the opportunities
working with a worldleading university can
provide – access to
advanced lab facilities,
computer scientists and
a closed community
market research
programme – right
on their doorstep.”
“The presence of a
globally renowned
research university,
together with a
technology giant
and a leading global
publishing firm will
further boost Tech
City and will help us
to compete and thrive
in the global race”
Rt Hon David Cameron MP,
Prime Minister
Professor Stephen Caddick,
Vice-Provost (Enterprise and
London), UCL and a member
of the Government’s Tech
City Advisory Group
49
a long-range
look at greenhouse
gas emissions
Consulting with experts
A large international consortium, led by Dr Tristan
Smith from UCL’s Energy Institute, was selected
by The International Maritime Organization (IMO)
to undertake an Update Study of the greenhouse
gas emissions estimate for international shipping.
The aim of the study was to establish
annual emissions from 2007 to 2012,
a key recent period for the sector
due to changes both in the global
economy and in the shipping market.
It also updates the sector’s forecast
trajectories of emissions up to 2050.
The crucial challenges
of climate change
The UCL Energy Institute delivers worldleading learning, research and policy
support on the challenges of climate
change and energy security. Part of The
Bartlett, UCL’s global faculty of the built
environment, the UCL Energy Institute’s
focus is on making an interdisciplinary
contribution to the development of a
globally sustainable energy system.
The IMO is a specialized agency
of the United Nations, responsible
for regulating and promoting
maritime safety and security and the
prevention, reduction and control
of marine environment degradation
from sea-based activities.
Facilitated by UCL Consultants, the
Energy Institute’s expertise was crucial
to the work of the Update Study. And
since the Study plays a key role in
shaping the international communities’
50
environmental shipping policies,
the project represented an excellent
platform for raising UCL’s global profile.
“This project proved challenging
due to the size of our consortium,
tight timelines, and the politically
sensitive nature of the work. However,
it was great to be part of this team
and facilitate the delivery of such
an important piece of work,” says
Cameron Logan, Senior Contracts
Manager, UCL Consultants.
Global impact
The Update Study involved three
tasks. Recognizing that carbon
dioxide (CO 2 ) is the most significant
greenhouse gas emitted by ships,
the first task was an update of a CO 2
emissions inventory from international
shipping. The second was an inventory
of emissions of greenhouse gases
other than CO 2 , and other relevant
substances from international shipping
that are considered under the
UNFCCC (United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change).
The final task was an estimate of
the future emissions scenarios for
all gases and substances that could
potentially affect the environment.
“With great thanks to
UCL Consultants who
supported us throughout
bidding, negotiation
and the execution of this
complex piece of work,
2014 saw a UCL-led
consortium successfully
deliver this study of
international shipping’s
emissions to the UN
agency, the IMO.”
Dr Tristan Smith, Lecturer in Energy
and Transport, UCL Energy Institute
51
UCL Medical School
trains doctors
from China
Consulting with experts
The UCL Medical School Education Consultancy
(MSEC) harnesses UCL Medical School expertise
to offer a consultancy service to enable and
support high-quality, scientifically rigorous and
patient-focused education and training for doctors.
In 2014, it trained two cohorts of visiting doctors
from Ningbo University Medical School in China,
in an initiative facilitated by UCL Consultants.
A collaboration across continents
MSEC has now successfully trained
two cohorts of visiting doctors from
Ningbo University Medical School.
This marks the first collaboration
between UCL Medical School, a
major UK centre of excellence in
medical education and assessment,
and Ningbo University, based
in the north-east of China.
Training the doctors of the future
At UCL, trainee doctors are taught
by integrating hands-on patient
contact and experiences with a
rigorous grounding in the scientific
background of medicine. With this
in mind, a key aim of the MSEC
was to help the Ningbo University
doctors define and put into practice
their vision of the ‘Ningbo doctor’.
Doctors from a range of clinical
specialties develop their skills in
medical education, learning how
to implement modern teaching
techniques upon their return to Ningbo
University. Each cohort attended UCL
for four months, providing them with
an excellent opportunity to absorb the
university’s medical education culture.
MSEC has built on this success by
forging closer links with medical
institutions around the world, including
in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kazakhstan.
Mark Sedgwick, Senior Contracts
Manager, UCL Consultants, said: “UCL
Consultants provided specialist legal
and financial support to the academic
team, leveraging our international
know-how to mitigate the inherent
risks of dealing with an international
client. We were delighted to support a
project with such admirable objectives,
and one that directly aligns with the
broader international strategy of UCL.”
52
“UCL Consultants
have provided the
Medical School with
valuable advice and
guidance throughout its
flourishing relationship
with Ningbo University
in China. We have
welcomed three cohorts
of Ningbo University
doctors, which makes
44 doctors in total that
we have trained.”
Dr Deborah Gill, Interim
Director, UCL Medical School
53
UCL joins the fight
against diabetes
Consulting with experts
The rise of diabetes is one of the world’s most
serious health challenges. The number of people
diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased
to more than 3.2 million.* By 2030, it is estimated
that more than half a billion people will suffer from it.
Today, nearly two-thirds of everyone
with diabetes lives in cities. From
rising wealth and increasing
consumption, to more sedentary
lifestyles and inequality of access to
healthcare, urban living has become
one of the key drivers behind the
global acceleration of diabetes.
Taking the lead
UCL has partnered with global
healthcare company Novo Nordisk
and the Steno Diabetes Center – a
world-leading institution in diabetes
care and prevention – to launch the
Cities Changing Diabetes initiative,
an ambitious new partnership
programme to fight urban diabetes.
The Cities Changing Diabetes
programme initially launched in
Mexico City and Copenhagen, and
will be followed by more cities in
North America, Europe and Asia.
UCL’s contribution, facilitated by
UCL Consultants, is led by Professor
David Napier (UCL Department
of Anthropology). He is leading a
team of research staff to gather
data on the ground about diabetes
epidemiology in urban environments.
54
*Source: Diabetes UK
“We are delighted to bring our
expertise to bear through supporting
research that underpins Cities
Changing Diabetes. We are gathering
data across the globe, setting a
baseline to the challenge of diabetes,
and acting as a platform for future
action. Working with Cities Changing
Diabetes, we aim to make an
impact that is sustainable into the
future,” says Professor Napier.
Mapping the way forward
through global collaboration
The programme is mapping where the
problem of diabetes is most acute,
sharing solutions and driving concrete
action to fight it in cities around the
world. This involves collaboration with
local partners, including healthcare
professionals, city authorities, urban
planners, businesses, academics and
community leaders, amongst others.
“Whilst there are many
factors fuelling the
growth of diabetes, the
most striking contributor
is the growth of cities.
The Cities Changing
Diabetes programme
is our call to arms for
people around the
world to work together
to create cities which
can help us live more
healthy lives.”
Lars Rebien Sørensen, Chief
Executive Officer, Novo Nordisk
UCL, Novo Nordisk and the Steno
Diabetes Center are also working with
a range of policymakers and experts
drawn from health authorities, the
private sector and the volunteer sector
to announce a multi-year action plan
that details the commitments of its
campaign in each of its chosen cities.
55
A bright future for
arts, heritage and
archaeology
Partnerships
April 2014 saw the launch of the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council Centre for
Doctoral Training in Science & Engineering in Arts,
Heritage & Archaeology (SEAHA). A unique centre
that brings together experts from UCL, University
of Oxford and the University of Brighton, it works
at the forefront of cross-disciplinary research.
SEAHA emphasises collaboration with
heritage organisations and industry
across the world in order to solve
heritage science’s key challenges. To
this end, UCL Corporate Partnerships
has been working closely with SEAHA
academics to facilitate discussions
with potential partner companies.
3D scanning success
Arius Technology has donated a
state-of-the-art, high-resolution 3D
colour scanner, allowing the centre
to build on UCL’s world-leading
scanning research in heritage
museum technologies, which is
led by Professor Stuart Robson,
Head of UCL Civil, Environmental
and Geomatic Engineering.
Professor May Cassar, Professor of
Sustainable Heritage, UCL and Director
of SEAHA, stated that “The generosity
of Arius Technology demonstrates
great confidence in our groundbreaking endeavour to train the next
generation of heritage scientists”.
Dr. Anna Clark, Director of
Corporate Partnerships, has also
led discussions with Dyson and
56
Philips, with both companies
agreeing to fund a doctoral student
through the SEAHA programme.
Great academic potential
SEAHA is an eight-year initiative, with
the first cohort of students beginning
their studies in September 2014. The
centre will provide support for more
than 60 interdisciplinary students,
working with a broad range of heritage,
industrial and academic partners
to meet the challenges of heritage
science. Both a Masters of Research
and a Doctorate are on offer at the
centre, for a wide variety of students
with a science, technology, engineering
or mathematics or creative, digital and
information technology background.
“SEAHA is about
learning, discovering,
innovating and forging
new knowledge in
the stimulating field of
heritage science.”
Professor May Cassar, Professor
of Sustainable Heritage, UCL
and Director of SEAHA
Working with heritage and industry
partners, SEAHA students
create, innovate or use sensors,
instrumentation, imaging, digital and
creative technologies to improve our
understanding of heritage, to develop
science and engineering capabilities
and to benefit the economy.
57
shaping the cities
of the future
Partnerships
Fig 1
Future Cities research is a major focus for UCL
Corporate Partnerships. Agreements with Cisco
and Intel continue to support the growing interest
in this area. The past year has seen these
relationships build on the groundwork laid in 2012.
Designing the city of the future
The Intel Collaborative Research
Institute for Sustainable Connected
Cities (ICRI Cities) completed a
successful first year of research.
This institute, a result of the threeway partnership signed by Intel,
Imperial College London and UCL,
is using London as a test bed to
investigate infrastructure and sensor
networks to create a sustainable city
of the future. It has received £2.3m
in matched funding since its launch
and has more than 20 projects
currently ongoing or completed.
A tech partnership for
start-up success
One of the key features of the Cisco
partnership was a commitment from
the company to support early-stage
business incubation and provide a
network for start-ups across the UK.
This led to the creation of IDEALondon,
an innovation ‘hot-house’ in East
London, and part of a collaboration
between Cisco, DC Thomson and
UCL. Sitting in the heart of Tech City,
the centre provides support, mentoring
and funding for the tech start-up
community. IDEALondon already has
over 15 start-ups in residence who
have raised over £3m in funding from
investors secured in its first year.
Fig 2
“In 2050, cities will be
highly representative
of the demands of
humanity. Addressing
these demands is at the
heart of ICRI Cities,”
£3M
Justin Rattner, Former CTO, Intel
These projects have arisen from
the strong foundation laid by UCL’s
Corporate Partnerships team, offering
a tailored partnership experience
to Cisco and Intel that has allowed
them to create these centres.
The two relationships are a clear
example of UCL’s commitment
to providing societal benefit, with
both partnerships supporting the
Government’s focus on Tech City.
Secured funding from
investors at IDEALondon
58
Fig 1: Intel signing at 10 Downing Street, January
2012. Back row (L–R) Prof. Martin Curley, VP
Intel, CEO Intel Labs Europe; Rt. Hon George
Osbourne, The Chancellor of the Exchequer. Front
row (L–R): Prof. Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost
“By working together
with UCL and DC
Thomson, Cisco
can support the
Government’s
objectives to drive
economic growth
through high-tech
innovation and build
a brilliant future for
British entrepreneurs
and the businesses
of tomorrow.”
Phil Smith, CEO, Cisco
UK and Ireland
(Enterprise and London), UCL; Justin Rattner,
Former CTO Intel; Edward Astle, Former Pro
Rector (Enterprise), Imperial College London.
Fig 2: IDEALondon, Shoreditch
£2.3M
Matched-funding
secured for ICRI Cities
59
A new business
gateway for London
In April 2014, UCL launched OpenSME as part
of a consortium of London universities. Backed
by the Mayor of London, OpenSME aims to
make it easier for small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) to access the expertise
and knowledge the universities offer.
Timothy Barnes explained “At UCL
we needed a single place where
small and growing businesses could
go to find everything that we have
available to help them. We realised
other universities needed this, too,
so we opened it up to everyone.”
The OpenSME (www.open-sme.
com) consortium now consists of
top London educational institutions
including London Business School,
Birkbeck, the School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS), the Royal
Veterinary College and the University
of the Arts London (UAL). Its goal is to
overcome the barriers small businesses
can often face when they’re trying to
access information about how university
support can help grow their business.
A world of opportunities
for London SMEs
For the first time, this collaboration
brings together comprehensive
information on all the initiatives and
resources that partner institutions have
which can support small businesses.
Classified by sector and type of
support, the information on OpenSME
quickly and efficiently enables small
businesses to locate the resources
60
they might need to help push them
forwards. It’s a one-stop shop where
they can find the specific expertise
and knowledge that matches their
needs, from some of the world’s
leading educational institutions.
The support that OpenSME offers
ranges from business advice,
mentors, consultants and research
expertise, to access to technology and
training, recruitment and internship
opportunities, and even the chance
to give something back via donations
or offering internships, for example.
Using OpenSME to take your
business forward
When OpenSME went live at an
exciting launch event in London’s
City Hall, Deputy Mayor of London
Kit Malthouse said: “The majority of
people working in the capital work for
small businesses and this impressive
new plan has the potential to help
them take full advantage of some
of the world’s greatest universities.
I have no doubt they will clearly see
the opportunity to use OpenSME
to learn new skills and expand their
businesses, which should be very
good news for the London economy.”
“Demand for support
from what the university
sector can offer is
increasing for small
businesses, especially
now the economy is
improving, and we
wanted to enable
them to access
support across
London depending on
local needs and the
specialist support each
university can offer.”
Timothy Barnes, Director of
UCL Enterprise Operations and
Director, UCL Advances
61
66 E-Lucid from UCLB
68 UCL Slade Print Fair
70 Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
embedding
enterprise
Embedding Enterprise
At its inception, UCL was created as an
enterprising institution. This vibrant vision of a
community of educators, scholars and researchers
working together in a culture of enterprise for
societal benefit is still alive today and can be
seen in every UCL department and faculty.
Each of our faculties has a ViceDean (Enterprise) and many of
those participate in the Knowledge
Transfer and Enterprise Boards for
their schools. In every department,
you can find academics engaged in
work designed to generate impact
from their research. Supporting that
activity and enabling the structures
that make it possible is a key part
of the work of UCL Enterprise.
supported in part by UCL Enterprise.
The Fair is a bold new approach
to creating funds, developing
markets for graduating artists and
engaging the wider community.
In the examples in this section,
you can see that enterprise is truly
embedded across the breadth of UCL.
You are also likely to find students
in every corner of UCL who are
looking to start businesses, set up
social enterprises or developing
business skills through UCL Enterprise
programmes. Participation in UCL
Advances’ student activities, for
example, is broadly in line with student
numbers by faculty – it’s not just
ambitious management students
hoping to work in large corporations
or computer scientists looking to set
up the next Facebook. Enterprising
students can be found in The Bartlett,
Social and Historical Sciences and the
Medical School. At UCL’s Slade School
of Fine Art, the launch of the Slade
Print Fair was an exciting new activity
64
65
A Click-Through
Licensing Platform
for Software and
Materials
An online system developed by UCL Business
(UCLB), E-lucid enables self-select licensing of
Intellectual Property created within UCL. Developed
specifically for licensing lower-value IP such as
software and materials, E-lucid’s automated
licence transaction process saves UCLB
significant time and effort as well as bolstering
income. It is now offered as a managed service
platform to other technology transfer offices.
Effective, easy licensing
Having successfully transacted
hundreds of fee-paying licences as
well as thousands of free-of-charge
academic licences through E-lucid
over the past five years, UCLB
has not only been able to offer its
licensing services to more of the
academic population and tap into a
new ‘volume’ revenue segment, it has
also been able to free up its own staff
resources, redirecting them instead
to the management of more involved
‘traditional’ transactions. Today, UCLB
manages a substantial proportion
of its material transfer agreements
entirely through the system.
Software as a service for TTOs
UCLB now offers the full features and
benefits of the system as a whitelabelled licensing platform to other
technology licensing organisations.
At the beginning of 2014, it began
service contracts with its first three
customers: the Technology Transfer
Offices of Edinburgh University,
Manchester University and Imperial
College. Dr Angus Stewart-Liddon of
66
Edinburgh Research and Innovation
says: “We are continuously looking
to provide industry with faster and
easier access to technologies and
materials developed. We were,
therefore, delighted to collaborate
with UCLB on implementation of
our new ‘click-thru licensing’ portal,
based on their E-lucid system.”
E-lucid: the way forward?
With the system now in use by four
licensing organisations, its flexibility
has been demonstrated by the
many different types of IP that are
hosted on its portals. Particularly
adapted for licensing of digital media
where the files can be downloaded
automatically and instantly by
the customer following the online
licensing and payment transactions,
available products include software
programs, Excel spreadsheets,
questionnaires and copyright images.
launched using this new feature is
the programmable teaching device,
the Engduino®, developed by UCL
Engineering and now sold to schools,
educators and parents via
www.e-lucid.com/i/engduino/
engduino.html
E-lucid is the first system of its
kind. Keen to promote its revenue,
cost-saving and academic
engagement benefits to more
organisations, UCLB will be kicking
off a marketing campaign in the UK
in early 2015 – www.uclb.com/e-lucid
“The development of
E-lucid has allowed
UCL and UCLB to
enhance our knowledge
transfer activities in
the software and
materials areas, while
also providing a further
basis for collaboration
with the technology
transfer offices of other
UK higher education
institutions.”
Dr Steven Schooling, Director of
Physical Sciences, UCL Business
During 2014, further functionality
was added to the system to support
consumer sales of physical goods
developed at the host institutions.
The first product to be successfully
67
a successful mix of
art and enterprise
UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art, an art school with
a world-leading reputation, makes a significant
contribution to the field of contemporary
art, both nationally and internationally.
UCL Enterprise recognises the
potential for the Slade Print Fair
to generate great exposure for
the Slade. UCL Business (UCLB)
helped to set up a renewed Slade
Print Fair to help generate additional
exposure and inform Slade students
about potential commercial
activities within their work.
The art of business
In 2014, via conversations with UCLB,
the Slade conceived and launched
its inaugural Print Fair, an initiative
to fund scholarships to support
students embarking on their studies
at the Slade. It featured exciting and
ambitious prints by Slade alumni, staff
and current students. An opportunity
for the wider community to engage in
contemporary printmaking from highprofile artists, it also gave people a
chance to support future generations
of artists studying at the Slade.
with more than £30,000 raised, which
has been donated towards six fullyfunded graduate scholarships for 2014.
Collaborating with creativity
For UCL, the Print Fair was key to
raising the Slade’s creative and
enterprise profile while at the same
time successfully testing a bold new
approach to generating revenue. It
engaged UCL students, staff, alumni
and the local community, advanced
students’ skills and professional
development; and the funds raised
will have a huge impact on access for
lower-income students in the future.
Going forward, the Slade Print Fair
is now an ongoing annual event
that will help generate revenue
and create positive social impact.
The collaboration with UCLB
was vital to making the fair an
annual fundraising tradition.
“UCLB introduced
sponsors and donors
to us which contributed
significantly to the
fundraising effort;
however, it was the
invaluable advice and
support they gave
that provided us with
the confidence and
infrastructure that
enabled us to launch
this as an annual event.”
Professor Susan Collins, Director,
UCL Slade School of Fine Art
The event ran from 28–30 November,
celebrating and showcasing the very
best in fine art, prints, editions and
multiples from both internationally
acclaimed and emerging artists. It was
an innovative approach to raising funds
for Slade graduate student scholarships,
68
69
A pioneering
bioscience community
Partnerships
The Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) is a
new innovation hub that emphasises collaboration.
Based on the greater GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
campus, it is a unique bioscience community that
offers small biotech and life sciences companies
and start-ups access to experts, networks
and facilities that are usually only accessible
from within large multinational companies.
A chance for collaboration
The purpose of the site is to foster
collaboration and interaction between
tenant companies to catalyse
translation of biomedical research.
When opportunity meets co-operation,
innovation and commercial success
are often the result.
The School of Life and Medical
Sciences (SLMS) is committed to
developing strategic collaborations
with industrial partners that will
enhance UCL’s ability to translate
its biomedical research towards
patient benefit. This is part of the
wider UCL Enterprise strategy. To
this end, the Translational Research
Office (TRO) is supporting a
major collaborative initiative with
this innovation ecosystem.
An innovation hub that’s set
to make a difference
Drawn from across SLMS, Biochemical
Engineering and Enterprise, and led
by Professor Sir John Tooke, ViceProvost (Health), a senior academic
leadership team worked with UCL
70
Business and the TRO to secure
around £3m underpinning and
project support funding from HEFCE
and the UCLH NIHR Biomedical
Research Centre over three years.
As of 2013/2014, three UCL projects
have taken up space at the SBC.
Together with Puridify, a spinout company from Biochemical
Engineering which is also based
at the SBC, they are establishing
a dynamic UCL community which
is building relationships with other
SBC tenants and major pharma
with close links to the SBC.
Technology, collaboration
and support
Since these UCL translational research
SBC-based projects are flourishing,
plans are being implemented to
develop a sustainable pipeline of
funded translational research projects
that will follow this lead, in order
for them to gain similar benefits
in accelerating the translation of
UCL’s biomedical research.
“Moving to the SBC
has been critical in
progressing our project
from academic concept
to developing a novel
medicinal product.
The interaction with
key industry experts
at the SBC and GSK
has been essential in
allowing us to make
informed decisions
and access leadingedge technology. All
this has consequently
greatly accelerated
project progress.”
“We are very pleased
with the tenancy of
UCL projects at SBC;
our UCL colleagues
have fully embraced
the Open Innovation
ethos, adopting a no
barriers attitude and
fully participating in a
whole range of tenancy
related activities, as
well as engaging with
the local community
we have created.”
Martino Picardo, CEO,
Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
Professor Rachel Chambers,
Division of Medicine, UCL
71
76 Therapeutic
Innovation Fund
78 life learning awards
80 EDUCCKATE
supporting
entrepreneurs
Supporting
Entrepreneurs
As a longstanding leader in enterprise and
innovation, one of UCL’s core aims is to provide
first-class support for enterprise, whether
this consists of cross-country, multi-partner
collaborations or small-scale student projects.
This entrepreneurship and innovation
strategy is fully embedded across
UCL, and visible in our range of
initiatives – from student businesses
to expert academic consultancy
and global partnerships.
In 2013/2014, our commitment
has remained as vigorous as
ever. UCL Advances, for example,
has supported over 300 student
business ideas, as we continue to
make progress towards our target
of supporting 500 businesses by
the end of 2015. UCL Advances
has also provided support for
over 1,000 of London’s small
businesses; and has delivered nearly
60,000 student learner hours.
UCL Business (UCLB) has continued
its dynamic support of innovation
by working with a wide range of
academic experts and industry
partners. The year has been
especially significant in terms of
licensing and patents, with 66 new
licences approved in 2013/2014, 243
patent families approved, and 40
new patents applied for in the year.
74
It has been a successful year for UCL
Consultants too, which saw consistent
growth and expansion as it offered
support to the UCL community as well
as to internal and external clients. UCL
Consultants took up 286 new projects
in the year, to a value of £11.6m, and
at the year’s end had 952 registered
consultants and a turnover of £8.5m.
In 2014, a key focus for supporting
entrepreneurs has been Life Learning.
Across the board, our aim is to give
entrepreneurs the support they need
in order to create wide-reaching
benefits that are tangible both within
UCL and beyond. Life Learning
offers an extensive portfolio of
short courses delivered as Summer
Schools, Professional Development,
Executive Education and Personal
Learning. Disseminating research
knowledge and entrepreneurship
training to the wider public, Life
Learning builds on the UCL tradition
of opening up education to all, in
order to support creativity, innovation
and maximum societal impact.
75
Translational
funding for
biomedical
innovations
Partnerships
Established in 2010, the Therapeutic
Innovation Fund (TIF) provides seed funding
to support UCL researchers as they develop
translational therapeutic modalities that
help them turn UCL biomedical innovations
into clinical benefits for patients.
Helping to make breakthroughs
in cancer research
The TIF consists of funding from
the Wellcome Trust Institutional
Strategic Support Fund, which is
matched by contributions from the
UCL NIHR Biomedical Research
Centres. Among successful TIFfunded projects that have gone on
to attract major translational funding
or industry investment, one of the
most exciting is Professor Kwee
Yong and Dr Martin Pule’s project,
in the UCL Cancer Institute, on the
development of an immune mediated
treatment for multiple myeloma.
Success in this early-stage project
led to Proof of Concept funding from
UCL Business (UCLB) and later
contributed to the formation of the
recently announced UCLB spin-out,
Autolus Ltd, which has attracted £30m
in its first round of investment funding.
The TRO’s experience of managing
TIF has underpinned successful
applications to the MRC Confidence
in Concept (CiC) scheme, which was
launched in 2012 to provide funds that
can be used flexibly to support the
earliest stages of multiple translational
76
research projects. This fund helps
to accelerate the transition from
discovery research to translational
development by supporting preliminary
work or feasibility studies, in order to
establish the viability of an approach.
UCL’s provision of this seed funding
through the TIF and the CiC scheme
has led to the support of seven CiC
– and five TIF-funded projects and a
further three projects with combined
CiC and TIF funds in 2013/2014.
215
Funding success stories
Out of more than 200 applications
received across the six TIF and
UCL CiC calls to date, 39 projects
have been funded – and excluding
the standout Autolus example,
approaching £6m of follow-on
funding has already been secured
by several of the projects.
Another impressive aspect of the CiC
projects funded in 2013/2014 has
been the level of industry involvement
from the earliest stages. These
range from partnering with Puridify,
a UCL bioengineering SME spin-out
based at the Stevenage Bioscience
Catalyst, to funded collaborations with
major pharmaceutical companies.
Applications received and
39 funded projects via CiC
and TIF over four years
“The availability of seed “The Therapeutic
funding – such as the
Innovation Fund plugs
TIF and more recently
an important gap
Confidence in Concept in funding on many
– is playing a crucial
levels. In particular,
role in helping to bridge TIF and related grants
the gap between
are ideal for moving
exploratory research
a project to the stage
and early translation.
when it can receive
The availability of these
more substantive
funds has enabled UCL funding. My first TIF
to progress exciting
award was pivotal in
but early stage projects allowing my laboratory
to the point where
to capture intellectual
intellectual property
property which led
has been developed
to the spin-off.”
Dr Martin Pule, UCL Cancer Institute
and the projects are
strong candidates for
further UCL Businesssupported investment.”
Dr Richard J Fagan, Director
BioPharm, UCL Business
77
life learning awards
During 2013/2014, UCL Life Learning were
delighted to introduce two new Life Learning
awards which were presented at the annual UCL
Awards for Enterprise and Provost’s Teaching
Awards ceremonies. They gave departments
and staff the opportunity to be recognised for
their contribution to teaching in this area.
UCL Awards for
Enterprise, May 2014
The Enterprise Life Learning award
acknowledges the vision and drive of
entrepreneurial colleagues who are
involved in high quality and innovative
lifelong learning to further enhance
UCL’s legacy of knowledge transfer
and societal impact. The winners of
the 2014 award were the Modular
Bioprocess Industries (MBI) team from
the UCL Department of Biochemical
Engineering, led by Professor Nigel
Titchener-Hooker. Receiving this
award highlights their work on a
programme that has up-skilled 800
professionals from 300 companies, in
30 countries worldwide. It has ensured
continuity of the sector by training
approximately 600 masters and 1,000
doctoral/postdoctoral researchers,
contributing £2m in course fees
to support further development of
training materials and seeding high
value research collaborations.
78
£2M
MBI courses have
supported further
development of training
materials and seeded
high-value research
collaborations
Provost’s Teaching
Awards, June 2014
UCL Life Learning is not just about
celebrating courses that achieve
high participant numbers. Niche
markets can be hard to access –
and the winners of the Life Learning
Provost’s Teaching Award, the UCL
Laws team led by Professor Sir Robin
Jacob and Mark Anderson, have
found a winning formula. The course,
Intellectual Property Transactions:
Law and Practice – believed to be the
only course of its type in the world –
focuses on the specific area of case
intellectual property transactions;
it is a unique offering ensuring little
competition but allowing focus on the
topic in depth. The course combines
postgraduate-level teaching on
intellectual property and commercial
law topics with a practical approach to
the subjects under discussion, based
on the idea that teaching which uses
real-life situations is far more effective
than focusing on theory in isolation.
79
an internship scheme
with a difference
An initiative co-funded by the European
Commission, the EDUCCKATE project
(Education Cultural & Creative Knowledge
Alliance for Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs), is a
pilot project for the development of knowledge
partnerships co-ordinated by the Centre
for Applied Archaeology (CAA) at UCL.
A creative Europe
Educcakte consisted of an
innovative training and mentored
internship scheme that brought
universities together with businesses
in the cultural and creative
sectors. Running for 18 months
up to Autumn 2014, the scheme
offered mentored internships from
entrepreneurs to students, in order
for students to gain access to
businesses and opportunities in
the creative and cultural sectors.
countries and involving 11 partner
organisations, key to EDUCCKATE’s
success was matching up
enthusiastic, passionate interns with
supportive, dynamic mentors.
The universities and SMEs involved
benefited by way of creating new
avenues of potential research and
innovation, with a further aim to
develop new customised products
or services with commercial
value, based on this academic
research or knowledge.
The interns worked in organisations
and businesses ranging from
charities to television production
companies, and the projects they
worked on ranged from promoting
arts in deprived areas to creating web
content on culture; from developing
business plans for cultural heritage
management to writing a computer
game based on archaeology.
Looking to the future
The programme supported the
larger European agenda of skills
exchange, which enables and
empowers tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
UCL Advances played a significant
role in supporting both the project
and the CAA throughout. Taking
place across seven European
80
“Our intern brought real value to
Landward Research Ltd as she
produced high-quality research
material and confidently organised
a partner meeting with our Turkish,
Czech, German and Bulgarian
colleagues,” says Kenneth
Aitchison of Landward EU.
A new generation of entrepreneurs
The first pan-European mentoring
scheme for entrepreneurship that
specifically targeted the cultural
and creative sectors, EDUCCKATE
was also tailored to help students
develop their entrepreneurial mindset.
Well-received by all stakeholders,
it now looks likely that several of
the EDUCCAKTE partners will
continue the initiative within their
own countries and as a group
of cross-European partners.
“The EDUCCKATE
internship provided
me with an excellent
opportunity to try out
a field of employment
that I had always
considered in the
back of my mind, but
never quite understood
how to get into,”
Corinne Jones, MSc Social and
Cultural Anthropology, 2013
The diversity of the projects they were
involved with during their internships
and the range of skills they gained
in real-life business environments
is inspiring; and their feedback
was overwhelmingly positive.
81
our year in the media
IMPACT THROUGH
Publicity
226
items of media
coverage during
2013/2014
Impact through
publicity
Publicity is vital to showing how
UCL Enterprise’s activites have
an impact on global society.
The past year’s highlights include:
• UCL press coverage for enterprise
this year was boosted by a number
of high-profile announcements,
including a new partnership with
publishing company Elsevier;
the opening of the IDEALondon
innovation centre by Prime
Minister David Cameron; and the
purchase of Spirogen – which
started life as a UCL spin-out – by
AstraZeneca’s MedImmune.
• UCL Advances’ Citrus Saturday
initiative achieved more widespread
media attention than ever before,
reflecting its growing presence
worldwide. Press coverage was
achieved in countries as diverse
as Swaziland, Spain, Germany and
in different regions of the UK.
84
• Since its official launch by the
Prime Minister in December 2013,
IDEALondon has had regular
press coverage as an example of
cutting-edge support from UCL
– along with our partners Cisco
and DC Thomson – for early-stage
ventures in the digital sector.
• Media coverage gained in trade
and sector-specific press has
increased substantially, particularly
around spinning out research
related to pharmaceuticals, or
corporate partnerships between
UCL and companies in the sector.
“Citrus Saturday went
really well despite the
rain in the morning.
We sold in excess of
300 lemonades, netting
the students a fine profit.
The students really
enjoyed it, some
turning up at 7.30am
and staying all day to
develop their sales
skills. They really made
me very proud.”
Teacher Lisa Beadles,
Students crack open the
fizz (lemonade, that is)
for Citrus Saturday, Ely
Standard, 15th July 2014
“The Prime Minister of
“I can honestly say that
“When considering the
Swaziland, Sibusiso
I have never seen the
powerhouses of the
Dlamini, said the Citrus
children as excited
British economy, most
Saturday Programme,
as they were when
people’s minds flick
in which primary school adding, subtracting and to the City, or perhaps
children learn how to set counting real money
pharmaceuticals or
up and run a business
as the UK’s youngest
retail. Yet it’s British
just for a day, helped
ever Citrus Saturday
universities – the envy of
students to make
entrepreneurs.”
the world – which have
informed career choices Teacher Sara Hawley
the potential to save
in Squeeze of Enterprise,
through understanding
the British economy.”
the Times Education
Professor Stephen Caddick,
Supplement, 25th April 2014
what is expected of
Why higher education is this country’s
an employee and the
secret industrial powerhouse, in
City AM, 16th December 2013
ethics of employment
and the workplace.”
The Prime Minister of Swaziland talks
youth entrepreneurship at JA dinner,
Swazi Observer, 1st July 2014
85
“Prime Minister David
Cameron today officially
opened IDEALondon
– an initiative between
Cisco, DC Thomson
and UCL based in East
London’s Tech City that
aims to nurture and grow
start-ups in the area.
Speaking at the centre
– the first of its kind in
Tech City – the Prime
Minister outlined how
the strengths of the
respective partners
would accelerate
growth in Tech City
which, in turn, would
benefit the country.”
Cisco and partners open new Tech
City innovation centre,
Information Age, 6th December 2013
86
“IDEALondon, the Tech “Elsevier Chief Executive
City-based digital
Ron Mobed said there
incubator created by
was great potential
Cisco and partners, has for Elsevier to share
helped the companies
the vast amount of
on its programme reach scientific and public
an investment total of
data it holds (around
£3m over 6 months.
200 terabytes compared
The Tech City-based
with Wikipedia’s
‘innovation centre’
six terabytes).
claims to be the first
He added that the
incubator of its kind,
collaboration showed
providing 15 tech and
how London can be
digital businesses with
the base for a big
a tailored programme
media and technology
of support, mentoring
company to work with
and funding.”
university researchers
Tech City incubator IDEALondon
and venture capitalmarks £3m of deals in six months,
backed start-ups.”
Startups.co.uk, 7th July 2014
Reed Elsevier in partnership
with UCL to share deposits of
learning, Evening Standard,
18th December 2013
“University College
“The MSc Technology
London is involved
Entrepreneurship
in nurturing
programme began
entrepreneurship
in 2007, having
among its students
started life as the MSc
and, through its UCL
Technical Ventures
Advances programme,
and Foundations of
providing research
Entrepreneurship
and development
programme.
resources for start-ups.” The course was
London’s new patchwork
conceived as a way to
of tech success, Financial
provide students with
Times, 31st March 2014
practical entrepreneurial
skills through academic
study, and engagement
with the ‘real-world’
business community.”
Student entrepreneur gets on his
electric bike to woo commuters,
The Daily Telegraph,
29th October 2013
87
UCL Business Award
UCL Business One-to-Watch Award
UCL Consultants Award
UCL Social Enterprise Project
of the Year
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge
UCL Provost’s Spirit of
Enterprise Award
UCL Small and
Medium
Enterprise
Partner of
the Year
UCL Corporate
Enterprise Partner
of the Year
UCL Best Mentor Award
UCL Best Impact by a Student
Consultancy Project
UCL Knowledge Transfer Business
of the Year
UCL Entrepreneurial Alumnus of the Year
UCL CPD and Short Courses Award
UCL Bright Ideas Awards
Our year in awards
UCL Awards
For enterprise 2014
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
UCL recognises outstanding achievement
during Seventh Annual Enterprise Awards
UCL announced its Awards for Enterprise to
recognise the achievements of students, graduates
and academic staff to furthering enterprise and
entrepreneurship on campus with a ceremony
on the evening of Thursday 29th May 2014.
In a first for the Awards, which are in
their seventh year, designer Wayne
Hemingway was presented with
the inaugural ‘UCL Entrepreneurial
Alumnus of the Year’ award. He was
selected by a panel that included
members of UCL’s Enterprise Division,
our Alumni Relations team and a
small number of external judges.
New for 2014, the award recognises
an alumnus of UCL who is a serial
entrepreneur and the impact they
have had on wider society.
In another first for the Awards, the
inaugural UCL CPD and Short Course
Award recognised the groundbreaking Modular Training Programme
for the Bioprocess Industries (MBI)
Programme, which has up-skilled 800
professionals from 300 companies,
in 30 countries worldwide.
The 2014 Awards celebrate the exciting
new business ideas of student and
graduate entrepreneurs – ranging
from Granddad’s Kitchen, offering
Caribbean seasonings inspired
by the father of ‘Hackney Heroine’
Pauline Pearce, to a new web
platform set to revolutionise property
investing – as well as showcasing the
90
entrepreneurial activities of staff and
sector-leading partnerships between
UCL and the business community.
Following a longstanding partnership
to further neuroscience research,
Eisai, the Japanese pharmaceutical
company, has been awarded the UCL
Corporate Enterprise Partner of the
Year Award 2014. The organisations
have also recently formed a major
drug discovery alliance with the
concept of open innovation to
investigate radical new ways of
treating neurological diseases, such
as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The collaboration maximises
UCL’s world-class, early stage
and translational research in
neurodegenerative diseases, and
Eisai’s expertise in drug discovery,
development and bringing new
agents to market in an effort to
increase benefits to patients.
The best and brightest student and
graduate entrepreneurs were also
recognised, with a total of £100,000
in funding provided as part of UCL’s
Bright Ideas Awards, designed to
support the development of new
businesses emerging from UCL.
These Bright Ideas Awards, first
established in 2008, are designed
to support the development of new
businesses emerging from UCL.
A fund of £50,000 is available to
businesses led by UCL students
from any department; of that £25,000
is available for businesses led by
undergraduate students and £25,000
is available for businesses led by
post graduate and alumni students.
In addition, since last year, an
additional £50,000 loan pot has
been made available for awards to
members of the MSc Technology
Entrepreneurship course and
for graduates from the last
eighteen months who’ve started
businesses on graduation.
The successful applicants for
2013/2014 had to supply a full business
plan for their idea, including specific
details of how the Bright Ideas funds
would be used to finance business
development. They also benefited from
the input of UCL Student Business
Advisor Lillian Shapiro in honing their
plans. Those chosen were done so
because it was felt their businesses
would benefit most from the funding.
The Awards for Enterprise also saw
the successes of UCL’s academic
staff recognised, with an award
sponsored by UCL Business – the
university’s technology transfer
company – presented to Professor
Amit Nathwani for his work on Factor
VIII gene therapy for Haemophilia A,
which has subsequently been licensed
to BioMarin Pharmaceuticals.
UCL Consultants, offering
consultancy with the university’s
world-leading experts, presented
their award to Professor Gordon
Blunn and Professor Alister Hart for
consultancy work on implants.
“Eisai is extremely proud
of the ‘Open Innovation’
we are building through
our partnership with
UCL. This prestigious
award recognises all the
hard work that continues
to go on throughout
both organisations to
push the boundaries
of drug discovery
research and bring new
solutions to people
with neurodegenerative
conditions.”
Dr Lynn Kramer,
President of Eisai’s Neuroscience
Product Creation Unit
91
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
Winners
UCL Business Award
Professor Amit Nathwani,
Professor of Haematology
Professor Nathwani has been awarded
the 2014 UCL Business Award
for his work on a Factor VIII gene
therapy program for haemophilia
A, which has been licenced to
BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Haemophilia A is a life-threatening
disease, and current treatments are
expensive and time-consuming.
Having been licenced to BioMarin,
Professor Nathwani’s gene therapy
programme can now be scaled up so
that a larger number of patients can
benefit from the advances that he and
his team are making in the laboratory.
92
UCL Business
One-to-Watch Award
Professor David Patterson
Emeritus Professor of
Cardiovascular Medicine, Division
of Medicine, UCL and Chief
Executive Helicon Health Ltd
Dr Mark Leaning
Visiting Professor, Centre for Health
Informatics & Multiprofessional
Education (CHIME), UCL and
Chairman, Helicon Health Ltd
Professor Patterson and Dr Leaning
have been awarded the UCL
Business One-to-Watch Award for
their work on Helicon Health.
Helicon Health has developed unique
systems and tools that enable better
quality shared care closer to home for
patients with long-term cardiovascular
conditions. The company’s proven
integrated approach, focused
initially on stroke prevention,
combines patient management
tools and advisory systems with
accredited learning and clinical
governance. It is being welcomed
by a growing number of Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
UCL Consultants Award
Professor Gordon Blunn
Professor of Biomedical Engineering,
Institute of Orthopaedics &
Musculoskeletal Science, UCL
Professor Alister Hart
Chair of Academic Clinical
Orthopaedics, Institute of
Orthopaedics & Musculoskeletal
Science, UCL
Both consultants have been
involved in consultancy projects
with a total overall value in excess of
£465,500, with clients such as DePuy
International Ltd, Stanmore Implants,
Leigh Day, Kennedys, Moloney &
Co Solicitors, Irwin Mitchell, Blake
Lapthorn, and JRI Orthopaedics.
The largest project undertaken by
Gordon and Alister (via the London
Implant Retrieval Centre (LIRC)) is
the implant storage and inspection
service for failed metal-on-metal
hips; and as individuals, Gordon
has provided specialist advice
on complex joint replacements,
limb salvage and percutaneous/
transcutaneous implants and Alister
has commented and provided
recommendations on an implant
study protocol and attended clinical
user group meetings. Additionally,
they have both undertaken a number
of Expert Witness consultancies for
various law firms relating primarily
to failed metal-on-metal implants.
UCL Social Enterprise
Project of the Year
In2scienceUK
In2scienceUK (founded by Rebecca
McKelvey, a UCL PhD student) is a
UCL social enterprise that utilizes
the expertise of UK scientists to give
AS Level students from low socioeconomic backgrounds internships,
mentoring and careers advice that
supports their progression to university.
Since 2010, over 150 students have
participated in the program, 80% of
whom are now attending university.
This far exceeds the 16% of students
from this demographic at university
nationwide, which demonstrates
the power of this program.
In 2013, In2scienceUK gained
funding from UCL Outreach and the
UCL Alumni office. This allowed the
program to expand beyond London
to some of the UK’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged regions.
93
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
Winners
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge Winner
Darwin Toolbox (now called
Bento Bioworks Limited)
Philipp Boeing, MEng Computer
Science 2014,
Bethan Wolfenden, BSc
Biochemistry 2014, Oliver Coles,
PhD Instrumentation 2014, MPhil
Physics 2015, Tom Catling, PhD
Instrumentation, MPhil Astrophysics
2016, Desmond Schofield, EngD
Biochemical Engineering 2015.
Bento Bioworks is an affordable,
accessible, portable synthetic biology
laboratory. Bento Bioworks will
make synthetic biology technology
accessible to innovators whose
work complements academia,
in the same way that the maker
community contributed to the
home computer revolution.
94
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge RunnerUp (UG)
FooGuru
Danny Hakimian, BA Economics
& Business 2014
FooGuru is a mobile application that
provides a social platform for football
predictions. The app enables users
to share their predictions about the
outcome of football matches, and
compete against their friends or
colleagues or even nationwide to see
who is the best predictor over time.
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge RunnerUp (PG)
Archifi
Youngjoon Chung, Katarzyna
Bendowska, Iulia Fratila, Stefanie
Sebald and Odysseas Diakakis,
MArch Urban Design 2013
Archifi replaces the traditional folderbased photo archiving system. It is a
web platform and mobile application
that allows architects and other
building professionals to document
specific elements and overall
progress on-site through photos, and
organise them into a coherent, logical
archive which they can share with
colleagues in a single easy step.
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge
Provost’s Prize
Eat&Greet
Sarah Anne Bedford, SOAS,
Graduate Diploma in Economics
Lynn Kremer: UCL, MA
Comparative Literature 2014
Eat&Greet is a social enterprise
which aims to tackle the problem of
social isolation in care homes. We
bring care home residents together
with groups of visitors over a weekly
lunch in the care home. We provide
the visitors; the home provides an
affordable lunch. 50% of profits go to
the home and 50% to Eat&Greet.
London Entrepreneurs’
Challenge Social
Enterprise
artFix
George Neris: MPhil, Centre for
Sustainable Heritage 2017
High art in the high street: artFix aims
to create permanent artfix stores in
everyday places around London, in
select high-footfall locations, high
streets and shopping centres. Under
one unified brand, it delivers artistic
content originating from major cultural
organisations and community artists.
UCL Provost’s Spirit
of Enterprise Award
Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith
Director, UCL Bartlett Centre for
Advanced Spatial Analysis
Andy Hudson-Smith fully deserves
the recognition of having a true spirit
of enterprise for what he has done
and continues to do. Andy has a
long and hugely successful track
record in engaging in non-standard
academic activities with – and
for – those outside of academe.
He has produced or contributed to
various apps, websites and software
that permit both engagement and
insight into the worlds of data.
He was in the vanguard of the
‘internet of things’ and his work with
organisations such as Oxfam, the
Church of England, Greater London
Authority (GLA) and the Future
Cities Catapult further demonstrates
his desire to make a difference.
95
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
Winners
UCL Small and
Medium Enterprise
Partner of the Year
Winsor & Newton
Paul Robinson has generously given
time, knowledge and introductions
to UCL Slade staff, students and
associates. W&N has also provided
financial support for UCL Slade
students and research exhibitions;
factory tours; talks on materials; free
materials for students, and donated
samples of historic pigments for the
Slade pigment research library.
W&N are currently supporting our
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award
for pigment research on ‘Turning
Landscape into Colour’. They are
contributing to exploring the potential
impact of our research beyond
academia, which includes providing
access to research laboratories
with the specialist equipment and
materials required for testing and
producing pilot batches of paint.
96
UCL Corporate
Enterprise Partner
of the Year
Eisai
UCL’s engagement with Japan dates
back to 1863, and in neuroscience is
reflected in our enduring relationship
with Eisai, where the company’s
therapeutic discovery interests closely
complement major UCL strengths.
2013/2014 saw our relationship enter
an exciting and important new phase
through the establishment of a unique
open innovation model, the Therapeutic
Innovation Group. This major investment
has brought together a group of
leading UCL and Eisai scientists with
complementary skills and resources
to develop novel drug discovery
programmes at UCL, extending from
discovery to clinical evaluation in
neurodegenerative diseases together
with the major new Leonard Wolfson
Experimental Neurology Centre.
UCL Best Mentor Award
Russell Gilbert
Russell Gilbert has been a business
mentor with UCL Advances since
the spring of 2012. In this time, he
has met multiple businesses and
substantially supported three of them.
He has a wealth of experience from a
rich career and is very generous with
his time, contacts and knowledge
when mentoring small businesses. In
the autumn of 2012, Russell also joined
the UCL Angels group and has actively
helped two companies to strengthen
their business plans and product
offerings to be investment-ready.
UCL Best Impact
by a Student
Consultancy Project
London Specialist Pharmacy
Consultancy Team
Michael Hudson and Trevor
Keel, MSc Management, UCL
Michael Hudson and Trevor Keel won
this award by virtue of producing
a costing model that is detailed
enough to be actually used by the
business to improve their operations.
Compared to other projects in this
programme, this one was relatively
complex, since the business’
production process and the number
of possible products is large – and
they were able to deliver a more
in-depth report, giving their client
something they could directly apply,
adding real value to their business.
UCL Knowledge Transfer UCL Entrepreneurial
Business of the Year
Alumnus of the Year
Polecat
Polecat have established a longterm collaboration with the Computer
Science department, working on two
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
(KTPs) and a number of student-based
projects over the last four years. Since
starting their KTPs with UCL, Polecat
has significantly grown in both turnover
and staff and has established an
office in the US. The development of
its product, MeaningMine, within the
KTP, has enabled Polecat to diversify
its customer base across a wide range
of sectors and to secure business
from major high-profile customers.
Wayne Hemingway,
Geography 1982, UCL
New for 2014, this award recognises
a serial entrepreneur and the impact
they have had. The entrepreneur must
be an alumnus of UCL and we look,
ideally, for evidence that they have
achieved success in more than one
business, maintained links to UCL and
have had an impact on wider society.
This is not an award to recognise
philanthropic activity but an attempt
to highlight some of the fantastic and
successful entrepreneurs that have
emerged from UCL and enhanced
living and working in the UK. Wayne
Hemingway founded Red or Dead
and Hemingway Design as well as
many other design, cultural and
social initiatives. His decades-long
contribution to these sectors and to UK
society at large is a huge inspiration.
An impressive portfolio of projects
addressing innovative approaches
towards treatment of neurodegenerative
disorders is already emerging
from this collaborative venture.
97
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
Winners
UCL CPD and Short
Courses Award
Modular Bioprocess Industries
(MBI) Team, UCL Department
of Biochemical Engineering
The ground-breaking Modular Training
Programme for the Bioprocess
Industries (MBI) Programme has
up-skilled 800 professionals from 300
companies, in 30 countries worldwide.
It has ensured continuity of the sector
by training approximately 600 Masters
and 1,000 doctoral/postdoctoral
researchers, contributing £2m in
sales to support further development
of training materials and seeding
high value research collaborations.
MBI is a beacon of Bioprocess
leadership and innovation; 70
industrialist experts help to design
and deliver cutting-edge modules with
e.g. the High Value Manufacturing
and Cell Therapy Catapults in the
UK and abroad with international
partners, including MIT and IIT Dehli.
98
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (UG)
FOXHUNT
Julija Bainiaksinaite, MEng
Civil Engineering
FOXHUNT Menswear is a luxury
bespoke and ready–to-wear knitwear
company. Uniquely made in Britain,
FOXHUNT’s products also aim
to ‘tell’ their own story digitally.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (UG)
Grandad’s Kitchen
Sean Davey, BA Philosophy
Grandad’s Kitchen make and sell
Caribbean food products to people
looking for authentic flavors, allowing
them to enjoy traditional Caribbean
cooking without the trouble of
making recipes from scratch. Their
recipes are sourced from the local
community, which means that the
customer gets a true flavor of the
Caribbean and a chance to sample
some of its best traditional cuisine.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (UG)
Bentham 3D
James Cook, BEng Mechanical
Engineering
and Andrew Nergis, BSc
Mechanical Engineering 2010
Bentham 3D produces customisable
and personalised body apparel.
The initial product is a custom
3D-printed cycle helmet individually
tailored to each user, using cuttingedge technologies and materials.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (UG)
Real Funds
Arya Taware, BSc Planning
Design & Management and Robin
Karlsen, BSc Urban Studies
Real Funds is an online platform
connecting investors and property
developers. It gives property
developers an alternative access
to capital and provides highquality real estate investment
opportunities for investors.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (UG)
Darwin Toolbox (now called
Bento Bioworks Limited)
Philipp Boeing, MEng Computer
Science 2014,
Bethan Wolfenden, BSc
Biochemistry 2014, Oliver Coles,
PhD Instrumentation 2014, MPhil
Physics 2015, Tom Catling, PhD
Instrumentation, MPhil Astrophysics
2016, Desmond Schofield, EngD
Biochemical Engineering 2015
Bento Bioworks is an affordable,
accessible, portable synthetic biology
laboratory. Bento Bioworks will
make synthetic biology technology
accessible to innovators whose
work complements academia,
in the same way that the maker
community contributed to the
home computer revolution.
99
UCL Awards for
Enterprise 2014
Winners
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (PG)
3D Repo
Jozef Dobos, EngD Completing
Research Candidate (CRC) 2014
3D Repo is an open source version
control system that enables
coordinated management of large 3D
data over the Internet. It is currently the
only cloud­-based architecture able to
support maintenance and transmission
of 3D models and associated
metadata as well as rendering on
the scale required by industry.
100
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (PG)
Hoxton Analytics Ltd
Owen McCormack, MSc Web
Science and Big Data Analytics
Hoxton Analytics produce hardware
and software solutions for counting
retail store footfall and customer
demographics in real time.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (PG)
Medefer
Bahman Nedjat-Shokouhi,
MRC Senior Research Fellow,
Gastroentology and Andrew Millar,
Consultant Gastroenterologist and
Hepatologist, North Middlesex
University Hospital
Medefer is a medical advisory service
that improves patient safety and
reduces the need for patient referrals to
secondary care. GPs can liaise directly
with Medefer’s specialist consultants,
via Medefer’s secure online
portal, or by telephone. Medefer’s
Specialist Consultants provide a
written response within 48 hours.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (PG)
Motilent Ltd
Alex Menys, PhD Medical
& Bioengineering Imaging,
Valentin Hamy, PhD Medical
image registration and
computing and analysis
Motilent Ltd is a developer of
advanced medical imaging
software aimed at maximising
the effectiveness of radiology in
the evaluation of gastrointestinal
function, in order to enhance patient
treatment and drug development.
UCL Bright Ideas
Award (MSc TE)
JobHound
Laura Davies, MSc Technology
Entrepreneurship,
Kensuke Muraki, MSc Machine
Learning, Melvin Ng, MEng
Chemical Engineering and Andrew
Rennie, BSc Computer Science
JobHound is a mobile application
and web platform that caters to the
needs of students in their job search.
Through machine learning and deep
learning technology, JobHound
provides job opportunities uniquely
tailored to individual preferences.
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UCL 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.
UCL Advances
The centre for entrepreneurship and
business interaction at UCL, UCL
Advances helps anyone who wants to
learn about, start or grow a business.
It offers training, services, and funding
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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 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,
Partnerships
Sustainable Cities, Intercultural
Interaction and Human Wellbeing.
Consulting with experts
UCL Consultants
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 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 multinational, governmental
organisations, space agencies,
international companies and SMEs.
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
Contact
For general enquiries, contact:
enterprise@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Enterprise
Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
@UCLEnterprise
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
ENTERPRISE
Everywhere
ANNUAL REVIEW 2013/2014