In my time here at Oxford University Innovation, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is “does Oxford do innovation?”
I have two answers. The short: “It absolutely does”. For those looking for a little more depth, my answer, much like innovation itself, is always changing.
For many, Oxford is seen as the preeminent seat of learning and research – a place that shapes the leaders of the next generation and discovers answers to the big questions. However, alongside these two foundational pillars of Oxford, another is being built: innovation.
We operate in a fast-moving space, and how we talk about that pillar is constantly evolving.
At the start of this year, it was Oxford Nanopore. Launched in 2005 from the lab of Professor Hagan Bayley, Nanopore set itself what seemed like an impossible goal at the time: handheld DNA sequencers. Through the hard work of its leadership and R&D teams, it made that dream a reality, creating thousands of jobs along the way. Today, its technology is having an impact in diagnostics, acting as a line of defence against pandemics both present and future, and has even made its way to the International Space Station – a case study that’s definitely close to my heart. In late 2021, the company delivered one of the largest biotech IPOs in British history, and true also for university spinout companies worldwide.
Over 2022, we’ve looked to other companies rapidly growing out of their Oxford roots to demonstrate the promise of innovation: –
- Osler Diagnostics, planning to make desktop diagnostics from a drop of blood a reality.
- Oxford Quantum Circuits, the quickest growing UK quantum computing company.
- MOA Technologies, looking to secure our future food supplies.
- First Light Fusion demonstrating fusion and a potential way forward for our global energy needs.
Now, I talk about RQ Biotechnologies. RQ Bio burst onto the scene in May with a $157m licensing deal with AstraZeneca. The company is developing engineered antibodies targeting SARS-COV-2, shown to be effective against all known variants to date in lab studies. The technology is the next step beyond vaccination, giving us another weapon in battling pandemics, both current and future, and the deal RQ Bio secured ensures they have the runway to develop it.
This deal, like the companies above, was supported by my colleagues here in OUI. We engage with innovation because we see the huge potential that Oxford academics and their ideas are having on the world, and we consider it an honour to support bringing those ideas to society.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. On a daily basis in Oxford, somebody somewhere is having an idea that could positively change everything. And, on a day-to-day basis at OUI, someone else is helping them realise that goal. Whether it is through licensing a technology, arranging consultancy, creating a social venture, support patient outcomes, supporting student entrepreneurship, or building our ecosystem for it to be stronger and more unified in its purpose, someone in OUI is helping the Oxford academic community make a better world.
And, in short, that’s why we do innovation: to make a world we all want to see.