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An obsession with the equity gap is obscuring the real reasons why universities are failing to commercialise their research, says one of the UK's leading spin-out investors.

These days, Big Pharma does not appear to have many friends. The market performance of many big pharmaceutical companies has been middling, as the sector’s competitive position is perceived to be under several threats. The drug pipeline appears to be drying up and geared more toward lifestyle enhancement than life savings. Costly and reputation-damaging liability suits are proliferating. Pricing pressures are relentless. They come from pressure groups such as AIDS patients; but they are reinforced by public authorities, not only in the developing world but also in the US and in Europe, as governments seek to slow down the relentless progress of health expenditures.

A small number of German universities will next week receive a large boost in fame and fortune as Germany seeks to restore the fortunes of its science.

Can you relate a firms performance and its technological capability?

Finding the magic ingredients that will generate innovation remains a major preoccupation across the public and private sectors. Two leading protagonists from academe and industry shares their thoughts.

Microsoft France's support scheme for start-ups has begun its second year, with success at just one of the 25 companies it has helped covering the costs of the programme over two years. And now Microsoft’s subsidiaries in Germany and the UK are joining in.

The Hungarian biotech sector is ahead of the rest of the new European Union member states pack, but it remains stymied by a lack of managers with a scientific background.

The common wisdom among technology-policy analysts is that Europe is bad at transferring technology out of its great universities and into the commercial world. A new study asserts that, by some measures, Europe may actually outperform the U.S., Canada and Australia.

A battle between IBM and Microsoft for the hearts and minds of tech start-ups took a new turn as IBM announced free technical-development help to promising VC-backed firms.

Milken Institute, a California-based think-tank founded by famous financier Michael Milken, published earlier this week a report on global trends in university biotechnology transfer. This is an impressive piece of work, carried out by a research team of nine and drawing on every conceivable source of data.

A new study shows that universities in the USA still rule the roost when it comes to biotech research, not to mention turning it into cash.

US institutions are dominant in a survey of bio tech transfer published by the Miliken Foundation covering publications, patenting and tech transfer outcomes.

This week, Science|Business launches an initiative to improve the process of innovation in Europe – an online marketplace to link scientists and industry.

An international partnership has started to build a large-scale public infrastructure for sharing research information across Europe.

The EU backed Innovative Medicines Initiative has updated its strategic research agenda, outlining strategies to overcome 'bottlenecks' to efficient R&D for new medicines.

The European Commission has launched a long-planned autumn push towards revamping its technology policies with a 10-point programme.