UL hopes to treble spinout firms created by research

THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick (UL) claims to have found a formula to help it beat international benchmarks for taking research ideas and turning them into commercial companies.

Last year alone UL signed close to 100 formal agreements with industry partners. Since 2003 the university made 91 invention disclosures, filed 50 patent applications and licensed seven times intellectual property (IP) it had created.

It anticipates that by 2014 this will have increased to 130 invention disclosures, 65 patent applications and 33 licence agreements.

It also expects to treble the amount of spinout companies created through research at UL.

Research spend at UL has increased considerably over time, from €18 million in 2004 to €34 million this year. It is expected to reach €45 million in 2014.

“International norms are that you would have one invention disclosure for every €2 million worth of research expenditure, you have one patent application for every two invention disclosures, and you get one licence per two patent applications. We’re better than international norms in those areas; we punch well above our weight,” said Prof Brian Fitzgerald, vice-president of research and head of the research office at UL.

He said UL’s relatively small structure, with 28 departments, means it can be flexible in responding to changing market needs.

In addition, he said UL fosters innovation by having researchers from different backgrounds working together.

“Researchers from different disciplines have been exposed to each other through being in adjacent offices, and this is manifesting itself in the research that is now being commercialised.”

Prof Fitzgerald said an example of this is the UL spinout company Stokes Bio. The 17-man company began as a team of mechanical engineers applying fundamental research on microfluidics to address major challenges in molecular biology.

UL has also sought to remove the traditional barriers that can exist between academia and industry. Over the last 30 years it has placed 50,000 students in more than 1,700 companies.

“A large number of the UL faculty have extensive commercial experience,” said Prof Fitzgerald.

An example is Powervation, which grew out of research that led to a shift from analogue to digital technology for power-circuit management.

In the past academics might have published that research rather than seeking to commercialise it, he added.

“A journal paper is worth a certain amount in an academic career but a startup company like Powervation, that could have $100 million in sales within a year, is a bigger agenda,” said Prof Fitzgerald.

“The research will be published eventually but they realised there was a need to protect the IP side of things better. Traditionally, academics haven’t been so aware of that in Ireland.”

Powervation participated in one of the largest A-round venture capital fundings seen by any campus company. It employs 27 people in RD, and recently won The Irish Times/ITLG company of the Year award at Stanford University.