Momentum through collaboration

Oxford carries with it an undeniable legacy of world-leading innovation, and accelerating that innovation is a vital national contribution. It matters for our financial and social recovery, but it is also critical if the UK is going to fully realise its potential to offer innovative solutions to global challenges.

To achieve this, the Oxford University Innovation Engine must be working at maximum efficiency. The fuel for that engine a research community that’s seen the University top the THE World Rankings six years running. Its oil is the culture for innovation we’ve built where innovators thrive, with our cluster ranked first in the UK by the Royal Academy of Engineering for spinouts. And at the wheel is a committed community of entrepreneurs, changemakers and innovators driving us to a better future.

In the past year alone, Oxford Nanopore held a blockbuster IPO, setting a new benchmark for UK tech firms to aspire to. The Vaxzevria vaccine has delivered 3 billion doses to 183 countries, saving an estimated 6 million lives in its first year of being rolled out. OMass Technologies, MOA Technologies and First Light Fusion, which demonstrated fusion this year, all had large scale-up rounds, adding to a collective influx of over £1bn in investment to Oxford companies. Meanwhile, Oxford Science Enterprises added a further £250m to its investment pot, bringing its total value to over $1bn, achieving unicorn status in the process.

Yet, I don’t think any of us should rest back on our laurels and think collectively that’s it, we’ve made it. Apart from anything else we cannot possibly be unlocking the full potential of Oxford Innovation when 86.4% of founding teams and 92.3% of director teams are still all-male. OUI is fully behind the IDEA initiative which was launched last year to better understand and accelerate diversity and inclusion in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Working hand in glove with the University, we are working hard on the IP and Commercialisation Review – led by Professor Chas Bountra – which is scrutinising every aspect of our approach to innovation and partnership across the oxford innovation landscape. We’re already making big changes, like reforming the university equity policy so founders get a better deal more in line with global comparators, and expect more in the months ahead. We’re also integrating more into our founder community by opening an office on Little Clarendon Street, bringing OUI to the heart of the University.

Leadership and good governance matter in tech transfer because one-size-fits-all policies do not work. You can’t approach a Software as a Service in the same way you do biotech. And when you are managing complex risks and conflicts of interests you need to be capable of managing controversial situations to the best possible outcome.

I have this image in mind of the Oxford Innovation Engine as a spinning infinity loop with OUI, the University and academic inventors, and OSE and investors all placed along the plane. Yet, as with every innovation and investment process there can be slow negotiations, poor communications, and bureaucratic processes which can block this cycle.

We need to unclog it.

We need to get that Oxford Innovation Infinity Engine spinning at maximum efficiency. For OUI that means ensuring it is focused on delivering the right services and led by the highest calibre team. One which can credibly engage with the finest minds of the University and give confidence to the world-class investors we want to attract. It means delivering those services at quality, scale and pace.

If we do this, if we remove all this friction from that infinity loop, if we strengthen our collaborative working at all points along this spinning plane – then we will see undeniable growth in quality, scale and pace of university innovation. Then we will see our capacity to respond to those great global challenges strengthen and deepen. And we won’t just see a national impact, we will see global impact from Oxford University Innovation.

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.