Higher Education Business Interaction Survey
Results from academic Year 2001- 2002
1. The Higher Education Business Interaction Survey is undertaken annually across the UK Higher Education Sector to collect data on the institutions' strategies and activities pursued during the academic year 2001-02 to commercialise knowledge. The Scottish results highlighted in this report are based on responses by 19 Scottish Higher Education Institutions.
2. In 2001-02 as in previous years Scotland has been generally more active in knowledge transfer than the UK as a whole. This is due to a combination of three factors:
- Relative to its population Scotland has more Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and a commensurate higher level of research funding
- Scottish HEIs tend to have a medium or high Research Profile, measured by their share of research funding relative to total funding
- Individual Scottish institutions are more active on some of the indicators.
3. Second to the provision of education Scottish institutions feel they make their greatest contribution to economic development through knowledge transfer, particularly in the areas of medical science and technology, biotechnology and information and communications technology..
4. During 2001-02, Scottish higher education institutions:
- signed 967 contracts with businesses, 9% of the UK total and similar to the previous year, with an average value of just over £40,000
- held 102 case awards, only 5% of the UK total
- provided equipment related services to industry (sixteen HEIs), involving 443 firms, 7% of all UK firms involved; the value of theses contracts was £20 million, 39% of the UK total
- filed 167 new patent applications, 17% of the UK total compared to 12% during the previous year
- had 42 patents granted, 21% of the UK total (previously 12%)
- executed 102 licences, 17% of the UK total, compared to 107 licences (14%) in the previous year
- provided consultancy to 977 firms, averaging 51 firms per institution, compared to 115 consultancies on average per UK institution
- created 23 spin-off companies with some HEI ownership, 12 % of the UK total, 8 fewer than in the previous year
- contributed intellectual property to 34 other known spin-offs and start-ups, 9% of the UK total (31 in the previous year)
- placed 11,293 undergraduates in businesses, 9% of the UK total, compared to 13,289 placements in 2000-01.
5. In response to a question on barriers to commercialisation institutions mentioned lack of resources, including resources from the private sector, lack of demand for intellectual property by the local economy and lack of IPR related commercial skills among local businesses.
Downloads
Other year's HE-BCI reports are also available to download on the HE-BCI section on the Scottish Executive's Business Statistics website
The UK results published by at the same time as the Scottish report are available on the HEFCE website under "publications".
Notes
1. The Scottish Agricultural College submitted a questionnaire but was excluded from the analysis, because its funding arrangements and specific remit are different from the rest of the sector.