University spinouts can prosper but we need long term financial instruments

Danny Fortson declares that turning university science projects into big companies is mostly impossible [Imperial needs to pick more winners, 13 October]. Yet the widely reported acquisition of Spirogen - a UCL spinout - by AstraZeneca for $460m last week shows that substantial returns to investors are possible from university research.

The lesson to be learned from such successes is that the most transformational university spinouts will need much longer than ten years of support to succeed - Spirogen for example was founded in 2001. The dearth of long term capital to support business propositions on such a timescale, reflects a market failure. 

Witty review calls for more impact from universities

Sir Andrew Witty's independent review of how universities can support growth has been published, to general approval.

As you'd expect from one of the world's top business leaders who has taken GlaxoSmithKline into the apex of global pharmaceutical giants, Witty's review is thoughtful and packed with evidence and data. It is also reasonably focused with a relatively small number of thoughtful recommendations.

Universities need to foster a culture of lifelong learning and skills development

Many universities have made dramatic improvements to the skills element of academic programmes in recent years. So it comes as a disappointment that once again it is reported that graduate employers are expressing surprise and concern about the (lack of) employability skills of graduates emerging from British universities.  

We need to engineer our way to economic recovery

James Dyson suggested that we were on the cusp of a new industrial revolution - and that we need to find ways to create many thousands more engineers. There is absolutely no doubt that that the UK needs to create more engineering graduates, but we must be careful not to overemphasise any subject or discipline, if growth in one area is at the  expense of other critical subjects. 

Risk aversion is stifling biomedical innovation in the UK

Biomedical entrepreneurs succeed in this country, not because of, but in spite of the environment. We need a wholesale change in attitude from the organisations involved in taking a biomedical invention through to a treatment for patients. This includes not simply regulators, but also financiers, the NHS, government and universities.  

UK universities need more than ABB grades to compete in the global market

Each year, right in the middle of August's silly season, we see the same old proclamations from the media, politicians and university dons about A-Level grades. This year the debate has been enriched further with a good healthy dollop of nonsense about competition. Now that universities can take an unrestricted number of students with ABB or above the hype would have it that we are all ruthlessly battling for students and their valuable fees.

Unleashing the commercial potential of academic research

If we are to unleash the potential of our academic entrepreneurs; government, universities and the business community need to remove the barriers to commercialisation of research.