UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE ENTRY FORM for LaunchIt 2001

Summary of Achievement

University of Dundee 1. With over 100 years experience dating back to its foundation as a university college in 1881, and thirty years after receiving its Royal Charter as an independent university in 1967, The University of Dundee is firmly established as a ‘traditional’ university and acknowledged as a world class research institute in life sciences, teaching a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It provides professional education in medicine, nursing, dentistry, engineering, law and accountancy. The University also includes the Duncan of Jordanstone College which has achieved international standing in fine art, design, TV and imaging and a strong faculty of arts and social sciences. 2. The University has three distinct campuses in Dundee City, Ninewells Hospital and Kirkcaldy (which accommodates part of the School of Nursing and Midwifery). With a turnover of £110m, 12,000 students and 3,000 members of staff, it plays a key role in the economic, social and cultural life of Dundee and Tayside. 3. The University is committed to widening access to higher education and runs a regular series of awareness raising events including ‘student tutoring’ and ‘student shadowing’. The Wider Access Study Centre (WASC) also runs full and part time access courses; in recent years it has helped about 10% of all new undergraduates prepare and qualify for University. The Access Summer School and ASPIRE programs have been cited as examples of good practice in the sector by DfEE and many other Universities draw on the expertise available in Dundee. 4. The University is working in partnership with the University of St Andrews to promote new degree courses and research programs (including groundbreaking work on optoelectronics) and with the University of Abertay Dundee in establishing the Scottish Informatics Mathematics Biology and Statistics Centre (SIMBIOS) which uses mathematical techniques to tackle medical and environmental problems. The University has strong international links in the US, Korea, Malaysia and China. Enterprise and Commercialisation Research and Innovation Services (RIS) is the University’s well-developed technology transfer office. With strong working relationships with Scottish Enterprise Tayside (SET) and Dundee City Council’s economic development groups, RIS has a proud record of turning ideas and knowledge into products and services. Research income is £43m p.a. with about 25% coming from industry. The University has developed a strong intellectual property portfolio with more than 80 patents, 30 of which have been licensed. Many of these patents and other technologies (not requiring patent protection) have been licensed to Scottish based companies and licensing income since 1 August 2000 exceeds £1m. Latest figures can be summarized thus:- 1998-99 1999-2000 Invention Disclosures 15 34 Number of total UK patents filed 21 13 Number of new UK patents filed 12 13 Number of UK patents granted 3 2 Non-software licences granted to UK companies 2 4 Non-software licences granted to overseas companies 1 0 Software licences granted to UK companies 58 36 Software licences granted to overseas companies 4 0 1999-2000 Previous 5 years Total employed Total Turnover Total estimated equity value Number of Spin outs 4 3 75 £180k £1.485m The University of Dundee ranks third in Scotland and sixteenth in the UK in research earning statistics. The commercial potential of that emerging research portfolio has been well recognized. Recent SHEFC funding of £540,000 over the next three years has been secured, a component of which will be used to finance a post dedicated to assisting the evolution of spin out company ventures and to funding specialist training courses in commercialisation. Two further posts, a "technology scout" and a contracts officer have also received funding from SET. The "scout", which is an innovative project being "piloted" at Dundee, will be tasked with identifying early stage technologies which have commercial potential thus allowing the all-important early patenting and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). University of Dundee research has led to the formation of many high profile, high growth spin out companies serving international markets. In the biotechnology field, these include Axis Shield, Cyclacel, DDS Medicines, Cypex and Xenomics (to be launched in the next 2-3 months). Cyclacel is one of the most closely watched biotech companies in the UK. Based on the research of Dundee scientist Professor Sir David Lane a world leader in the cancer field, it has recently entered clinical trials with its first compound CTC202 and is currently working on a proposed flotation. More recent examples include biotech company Cypex Ltd, whose products are designed to gauge how well drugs are metabolized in the body, and a subsidiary of the American biotech company Argonex, which was established in Dundee last year, attracted by close links with research at the University. The Centre for Xenobiotic Research - a spin out from work at the biomedical research centre, is due to be housed at the Medipark, offering contract toxicology testing services to pharmaceutical and food agencies. University scientists (Professor Sir Philip Cohen and Professor Peter Downes) working at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre in partnership with the Medical Research Council have also attracted investment of £8m from a consortium of six major pharmaceutical companies to establish a drug discovery centre in Dundee based on their work on Signal Transduction research. Such an arrangement is an example of another technology transfer model whereby investment in further research and development can be accelerated by outsourcing to the consortium. The University of Dundee, as part of a deliberate and proactive strategy, is pioneering innovative technology transfer models, one of which in materials science, AMCET Ltd, formed in 2000, is being successfully implemented in Dundee. The company, which pools university intellectual property and Scottish Enterprise funding of £2.4 million, will be based on the Dundee University campus and an additional ten staff will be attracted to the project initially. Further spin out companies are expected to be generated from AMCET to exploit particular aspects of the technology. AMCET, which represents an investment of £5.5 million in total, is the culmination of a long-term project involving the University of Dundee and Scottish Enterprise Tayside to maximize the benefits of this groundbreaking science for the university, Dundee and Scotland. A major theme of AMCET is the further development and application of a new range of materials known as organometallic compounds whose unique characteristics allow them to dramatically shrink interconnect features within silicon chips. These compounds have the ability to be converted to high definition metal structures by irradiation using electron beams or ultra-violet light. This opens up new opportunities for miniaturization of electronic devices and for improving their potential. The new technology is expected to form the basis of the manufacture of the next generation of electronic devices. The partnership approach, which has led to the development of AMCET as a company, is an excellent example of this strategy in action. This new approach to commercialisation is based, not just on a single scientific idea, but on a whole range of applications which will spin out to a wide range of businesses and financial opportunities. It is hoped AMCET will bring in royalties from new product licensing and seed spin out companies to start up in the area. The University of Dundee owns 74% of shares in the new private company, with the remaining 26% owned by Scottish Enterprise Tayside. A board of eight directors has been formed comprising five from the University and three from Scottish Enterprise. In the creative industries, the University has ambitious plans to 1) establish a creative entrepreneurs in residence initiative, which aims to develop 20 individuals who will establish themselves in regionally based creative businesses, 2) develop a Future Products Lab, which through the use of a seedcorn fund will support products developed within the University of Dundee based on integrating media, hardware & software and 3) develop a programme of business innovation training based on the product development expertise of the Future Products Lab. Innovative ways of commercializing the technology from the University are therefore being developed and the University of Dundee is very well placed to commercialise its research Research and Education 14. The continued success of the University’s enterprise strategy depends on investment in pure and applied research and ensuring a supply of young people prepare for 21st century business practice. The Queen Mother Centenary Research Centre is committed to developing information and communications technology to support and enhance the lives of older and disabled people. The Centre for Enterprise Management is committed to the development of young people who can contribute to greater productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurship. Queen Mother Research Centre The University has ambitious plans to build on the achievements of its Department of Applied Computing through the creation of a new Research Centre to focus on research in information and communications technology (ICT) to support older people. The centre will be led by Professor Alan Newell who played a key role in the Ageing Population Panel of the UK Foresight exercise. Based on the requirement to create new electronic networks that can link older people to the wider community and likely advances in telemonitoring, telecommunication and telemedicine, staff at the centre will work directly with older people and industrial partners to design and test new ideas and products. A fundraising team including Chris van der Kuyl and Iain Anderson has been set up to promote this new venture. The Department of Applied Computing has a Grade 5 research grading and has already been responsible for developing a number of products including Talk:About (an IT based communication system for people with speech or language difficulties); predictability (an intelligent word processor which helps people with physical, spelling or language difficulties); the Talking Brooch (the first portable communication aid for non speaking people) and the Palantype Speech transcription unit (for deaf people and for court reporting). The Department has an engineering focus but draws on an interdisciplinary team comprising computer scientists, electronic engineers, psychologists, speech therapist and a nurse. Centre for Enterprise Management The University of Dundee is to develop a programme of courses and initiatives stimulating the commercialisation of academic work following the launch of the £4 million Scottish Institute for Enterprise. Dundee is one of a consortium of five universities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Strathclyde granted the money through the Government's Science Enterprise Challenge to bring together the academic and business worlds, stimulating entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of research and helping to build Scotland's new knowledge economy. The Centre for Enterprise Management, the University of Dundee’s local arm of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, approach is consistent with the requirements of A Smart, Successful Scotland and builds on the partnership which has been developing between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – one of key requirements of that partnership is to link a number of UK science enterprise centres (including the Scottish Institute for Enterprise) into an international network. The Centre is committed to improving productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurship. It will focus particularly on enterprise management and project management for scientists and engineers, management for the creative arts and management for energy, petroleum and mineral law and policy, another of the major strengths at the University of Dundee. The centre also plans a regular series of "entrepreneur led" seminars, the development of a ‘PLATO scheme’ through which large companies can provide smaller ones with mentoring and a ‘Link scheme’ providing overseas exchange opportunities for young people. In its first year of operation, the Centre for Enterprise Management has formed a college of internal affiliates comprising representation from 22 departments within the University, and a college of external affiliates comprising representatives from 23 companies. In collaboration with its partners in the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, it has developed a CD-ROM "Be in Control" designed to arouse awareness of the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship amongst the student population. It has been distributed to over 1000 Science and Engineering undergraduates. Further web-based learning modules in "Opportunity Recognition", "Accessing Resources", "Intellectual Property" and "Entrepreneurial Finance" are under development. Modules in "Venture Management", "Corporate Entrepreneurship", "Marketing" and "Creativity & Personal Development for Entrepreneurs" are planned. A roadshow "Who wants to be a millionaire" has been piloted in front of 800 freshers of all disciplines. It received overwhelmingly positive feedback. University of Dundee, May 2001