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Commercialising your research

Our team identify, protect and manage the University’s expertise and intellectual property (IP). This ensures that the University of Leeds achieves maximum impact from its research, for the promotion of public benefit and private enterprise.

We do this through a range of activities including, but not limited to:

  • Providing a platform for University innovations and developing commercial partnerships
  • Providing access to innovative business ideas and technology via licences
  • Spinout companies to exploit IP and research expertise

Our goals are to:

  • Increase the flow of knowledge and IP from the University’s research base into useful application by new and existing businesses, social enterprises and other organisations
  • Increase the range of benefits gained by our commercial and not-for-profit partners
  • Increase the return to the University to re-invest and increase this activity for future benefit

Why Commercialise your Research?

There are many reasons why commercialisation and patenting your invention could benefit you and your research as an academic. Some of these are summarised below:

  • Funding Bodies - their expectations
    • Research councils are increasingly concerned with emphasising collaborative research, knowledge transfer and other activities that contribute to societal and economic impact
    • Although they don’t all expect ownership or financial benefit from the work they fund, every effort should be made to ensure that any potentially valuable results from research council funding are exploited
    • Other funding organisations (e.g. charities) increasingly seek a share of returns on their investment
  • Career Prospects
    • The University of Leeds increasingly considers research impact activity important
    • In the last REF2014 exercise, 15% of the return was related to impact via commercialisation with ratings of between 3* and 4*
    • Patent applications are published which can have similar weighting to a journal publication
  • Financial Rewards
    • A patent which is successfully commercialised can bring returns to the researcher, the University and on-going research activities via licensing and other revenues, and ongoing relationships with commercial partners
    • Under current University IP Policy, inventors named on patents that are successfully commercialised via a licence are jointly entitled to a personal share of net proceeds