Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction Survey
Results from academic Year 2002- 2003
1. The Higher Education - Business and Community 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 2002-03 to commercialise knowledge. The Scottish results highlighted in this report are based on responses by 19 Scottish Higher Education Institutions.
2. In 2002-03 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 two factors:
- Relative to its population Scotland has more Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and a commensurate higher level of research funding
- Individual Scottish institutions are more active on some of the indicators.
3. Second only to the provision of education, Scottish institutions mentioned technology transfer as the area through which they make their greatest contribution to economic development, particularly in the areas of health and social work and education.
4. During 2002-03, Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs):
- signed 1,032 research contracts with commercial businesses, 8% of the UK total. The average value of each contract was around £32,200.
- provided equipment-related services to industry, involving 723 firms, 8% of all UK firms involved; the value of these contracts was £25 million, 38% of the UK total. The value of these contracts is high relative to the UK total because of services to the offshore industry in Scotland.
- filed 212 new patent applications, 17% of the UK total the same as during the previous year
- had 69 patents granted, 19% of the UK total (previously 21%)
- executed 131 licences, 17% of the UK total, compared to 102 licences (also 17%) in the previous year
- created 17 spin-off companies with some HEI ownership, 10% of the UK total, 6 fewer than in the previous year
- had a greater proportion of all spin-offs that were active and had survived for at least 3 years since the previous year, with 14% of the UK total in 2002-03 and 13% in 2001-02.
- contributed intellectual property to 35 other known spin-offs and start-ups, 6% of the UK total (34 in the previous year)
Downloads
Other year's HE-BCI reports are available to download from the HE-BCI section of the Scottish Executive website.
The UK results are published by HEFCE at the same time as the Scottish report and are available on the HEFCE website under "Publications".
Notes
1. The Scottish Agricultural College were not asked to submit a questionnaire this year because its funding arrangements and specific remit are different from the rest of the sector.