The survey looks at how higher education institutes exchange knowledge with business and community partners, stimulate innovation, develop human capital and generate new enterprises.
In 2007-20088 this included supporting 1,977 graduates and 41 members of staff to set up new businesses, and creating 219 new companies based on university intellectual property. At the same time over 900 earlier spin-outs also passed the three-year marker.
Consultancy support for small and medium-sized enterprises rose by 25 per cent to £58.5 million and the total value of contract research grew to £835 million. More speculative, longer-term investment in collaborative research grew to over £697 million.
Providing industry with access to specialised facilities such as mass spectrometers or supercomputers grew by 11.6 per cent to reach a total fee value of £103.5 million.
Meanwhile, income from licensing increased by 11.3 per cent to £45 million. However, invention disclosures and patent applications decreased by 3.6 per cent and less than 1 per cent respectively. There was a reduction of nearly 10 per cent in patents granted, but a substantial increase in the cumulative portfolio of patents.
The survey found that higher education institutes are now providing new forms of support, such as internships, while 750,000 people attended free public lectures.
The data will provide invaluable intelligence for knowledge exchange practitioners and policy-makers, showing the extent of, and trends in, knowledge exchange activity in the UK.
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