Lancaster Response to the Implementation Plan of the Government to the Independent Review of University Spinouts

Lancaster University contributed to The Independent Review of University Spinouts report which was published in late 2023 outlining recommendations to help create and grow these companies. The review recommended acceleration towards the innovation-friendly university policies set out in the review report. Although this is voluntary, the Government expects research intensive universities to adopt these policies by the end of 2024, with Research England having responsibility for recording adoptees. Lancaster’s position is that we have substantively adopted the Review’s best practices, given our policies do not align exactly with these documents, but align in substantive practice. We will be included in the published list of institutions adopting the Spinout Review’s best practices.

We have spinouts emerging not only from Science and Technology disciplines but also from Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts. We have adopted best practices from the TenU’s USIT Guide and through our membership of NxNW consortium we actively participate in the Innovate UK Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) Programme, ensuring that potential spinouts and researchers receive expert support. Through the Connecting Capabilities Funded project NW CyberCom, we have shared best practices and started to create a critical mass of opportunities to engage investors, entrepreneurs, and large corporates in a burgeoning regional innovation ecosystem.

We remain committed to implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies and to continuously learn from cross-sector best practice to embed enterprise and innovation across our commercialisation activities.

Our approach to founding equity and spin-out terms follows best practices set out in the aforementioned TenU USIT Guide and the USIT Software Guide. Equity stakes do not exceed 25% and generally range from 8-19%, with a preference for lower equity positions when less investment has been made in developing the background IP. We intend to implement a formal spin-out policy defining our equity positions within the next academic year, pending full university approval.