Working with Industry
Commercialisation of research is central to many University's role in helping to create the 'Knowledge
Economy', to use the current catchphrase. The University has been actively involved for many years
in successfully exploiting its 'intellectual property' via licensing arrangements, spin-out companies,
start-up companies, joint ventures and research agreements. The University was the prime mover and is the
largest shareholder in the Dundee Incubator Company which provides a supportive environment for fledgling
companies.
Currently the University has at least a dozen new ventures at
various stages on the road to becoming spin-out or
start-up companies. Our commitment and achievements
in turning research into beneficial end-products can be
illustrated by the following examples. | |
Scottish Science Enterprise Centre
The University will be a key player in a successful consortium
bid by five leading Scottish Universities for £4 million funding
awarded under the £25 million Science Enterprise Challenge
Programme to establish eight centres of enterprise in UK
Universities. The Enterprise Institute for Scotland aims to be a
world-class centre for the transfer and exploitation of
knowledge and will equip scientists and engineers with
entrepreneurial and business skills.
In Vitro Testing of Drug Metabolism
Professor Roland Wolf together with Dr Thomas
Friedberg and Dr Clifford Elcombe of the Biomedical
Research Centre and colleagues at the University of Leicester
have joined a consortium with eleven international
pharmaceutical companies in a five year £2.7 million research
programme designed to speed up the process of bringing
safe new drugs on to the market. The team of ten scientists
will make use of major advances in molecular and structural
biology to improve in vitro methods of studying drug
metabolism. A major aim of the study is to develop in vitro
cultures in which human liver cells maintain their function,
previously a stumbling block, allowing the metabolism of new
drugs to be tested rigorously.
Drugs for Immune Disorders
The collaboration between Professor Colin Watts and the
pharmaceutical company, Peptide Therapeutics Ltd, offers
hope to the growing number of people suffering from
major immune system disorders including allergies such as
asthma and autoimmune disorders. The collaboration
centres on an enzyme (AEP) identified by Professor Watts
and his colleagues which is believed to play a crucial role in
triggering an immune response. The aim is to develop
drugs which can be taken orally to switch off the AEP
enzyme and to block the adverse reactions that occur in
immune function disorders.
Concrete Technology
The Concrete Technology Unit won a major award for its
work in partnership with industry for the second successive
year. The cash prize, awarded by the Department of Trade
and Industry, recognised the Unit’s innovative partnerships
with industry covering environmental sustainability, quality of
life, technology transfer, training and consultancy services.
Concrete is the most important building material and the
Unit aims to challenge the perception of it as the ‘ugly face
of construction’ by using research funding of £1.5 million
(thought to be the largest single investment in this field at a
UK University) to conduct a series of projects bringing
together industry and academic research from inception
through to final technology transfer.
Forthcoming projects will study how domestic construction
and industrial wastes can be recycled into valuable concrete
products, and use new tools to solve the age-old problem
of achieving the most efficient combination of constituents
for concrete.
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