ICURe: evaluation of pilot programme
Review by Ipsos MORI includes an overview of the programme, its effect on participants and the UK economy.
Documents
Details
Innovate UK commissioned Ipsos MORI to carry out an evaluation of the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) pilot programme.
The evaluation had 3 objectives:
- using a logic model, evidence the effects of ICURe to:
- develop the entrepreneurial skills of participants
- accelerate the commercialisation of ideas from academic institutions
- create economic impact
- quantify any impact from commercialisation of research and development via spin-outs, licensing activity or other routes to market, and explain how this was achieved
- inform an evaluation of a national version of the programme
Findings include:
- 78 teams benefitted from the first 6 rounds of the programme at an approximate cost of £8.9 million
- at the time of evaluation, an estimated 24 spin-outs had been created, raising a total of £6.9 million in private equity finance
- spin-outs employed an average of 3 workers and generated £86,000 in revenue by January 2017
- the total present value of licensing agreements signed was £8.7 million
- an estimated £3.94 of economic benefit was created for every £1 invested
Please note, these findings should be considered against other factors that may have over or understated the effects of the programme.
SETsquared, a group of institutions through which the programme was initially delivered, has produced a number of case studies for participating projects.
About the ICURe programme
ICURe was established in 2014 in response to a 2013 House of Commons Inquiry to improve the commercialisation of research from universities.
The pilot programme aimed to tackle barriers to commercialisation by supporting academic researchers to take commercially-promising research projects to market.