I was thrilled to see that the University of Bristol has been recognised as one of the UK’s leading universities for collaboration, commercialisation, and public engagement, in the latest Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF).
Bristol achieved very high engagement (Quintile 5) in IP and Commercialisation, Working with Business and Working with the Public and Third Sector, alongside high engagement (Quintile 4) in Local Growth and Regeneration, Research Partnerships and Public and Community Engagement. Many of these scores exceed the cluster average and reflect the University’s commitment to turning world-class research into real-world impact.
IP and Commercialisation are central to the University’s strategy and are a key mechanism by which our research and our amazing people make an impact in Bristol, in the UK, and beyond. Since 2011, the University has been instrumental in launching 76 spinout companies, securing over £1.02 billion in equity investment across 177 deals. Notably, these ventures have achieved an impressive £3.85 in value for every £1 raised, underscoring the University’s exceptional efficiency in translating research into impactful businesses. We expect this to continue to grow as we work on raising a new investment fund with QantX and our partners across SetSquared.
To touch on a few recent highlights from the past year:
Purespring Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed Series B financing round of £80m to support its pipeline including the initiation of a Phase I/II clinical trial for IgA Nephropathy (IgAN), a common, chronic kidney disease primarily affecting young adults.
Ceryx Medical closed a funding round bring their total raised to $15 million. The investment marks a major milestone in Ceryx’s mission to revolutionise cardiac care with intelligent, adaptive pacing technology. The company’s lead product is currently undergoing clinical evaluation. Early results from the ongoing study are highly encouraging, showing the potential to significantly enhance patient recovery following cardiac surgery.
Phasecraft, the world’s leading quantum algorithms company, raised $34 million in Series B funding to accelerate its breakthrough work to transform quantum computing’s theoretical promise into practical applications. Its unique algorithms are hardware-agnostic, and partnerships with leaders such as Google Quantum AI, IBM, Quantinuum, and QuEra are enabling the company to push even faster towards quantum advantage.
Over the past few years, we have also seen very significant growth in social venture spinouts. Examples include Good Grief Festival CiC, which was set up to accelerate their inclusive platforms that foster education, support and engagement to support grieving people, The Circular Agriculture Hub was set up to help farmer sell surplus produce to community based buyers including food banks, social supermarket and small food producers across the UK.
Working with business is something that the University values very highly. Collaboration with companies is a vital route by which we get our research and innovation into the hands of people who can use them to deliver improved goods and services. We have dedicated teams to help businesses to access research expertise through contract research, consultancy and collaborative projects. For example, a national award-winning Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Bristol-based HelloBio is helping deliver affordable, high-quality laboratory tools that speed up vital scientific research worldwide. But collaboration with business can go so much further than this, and some of our richest and deepest industry partnerships involve research and other activities such as student placements, graduate opportunities, co-location and co-creation. I’m really excited by the opportunities our flagship building at our new campus at Temple Quarter will bring for more and more collaboration with companies of all sizes. The Temple Quarter Research Hub’s state-of-the-art facilities are already bringing together academics and partners to advance pioneering research into digital and creative technologies, for example, providing skills training for new green screen technologies and how to evaluate audience reactions to the most recent kinds of films.
Working with the Public and Third Sector is also of very high priority to the University and an area of which we are proud – although I confess is an area in which I have personally less expertise! Examples of impact across the city and region include our community hubs: The Barton Hill and Hartcliffe and Withywood Micro-campuses bring the university to local neighbourhoods, supporting projects from trauma-informed translation practices to innovative new skills training, helping people to gain new micro-qualifications.
Juxtapose these with the core businesses that I think most people think of when they think of a University – teaching our incredible students, delivering exceptionally high quality research, being one of the largest employers in our great city – illustrates some of the breadth of what a modern University is expected to, and must, deliver. It makes a university like ours a great place to work, a melting pot of ideas, energy and innovation, and a driver for economic growth.