Commercialising Social IPBenefits within the HE sector and beyond

Working definitionWhat is “social IP”

• UK Intellectual Property Office:• “Intellectual Property (IP) results from the expression of an idea.

So IP might be a brand, an invention, a design, a song or another intellectual creation. IP can be owned, bought and sold”

• However, HEIs often produce IP that:• Has a social mission at its core.• Can generate positive social impact through commercialisation.• Delivers social impact through a social enterprise vehicle.

• Social enterprise approaches and ideas generated from IP within HEIs that aim to deliver positive social impact.

• HEIs have a big ‘social role’: conduct research, provide education, create jobs and growth, are charities.

• HEIs could build on their social role as:• Place based players.• Social business incubators.• Market-builders.• Social investors.

• Huge potential for HEIs to have an even greater contribution to wider social benefits.

FrameworkThe untapped potential roles of HEIs

• HEIs contribute 2.8% to UK GDP, over £73bn of output, employing 757,268 FTE

OpportunityThe state of the sector

• 68,000 social enterprises and social investment market growing at 38% annually

• Plenty of successful HEIs spinouts - IP Group:• £286m invested (mainly healthcare)• 72 investments• 15 university partnerships

• …social enterprise spin outs?

SIB survey and feedback resultsHeadlines

• Survey – 411 responses over last 2 years. Only 17 from HEI contexts.

• Amount of finance requested ranged from £10,000 to £1 million with the typical amount sought at £50,000.

• Types of finance sought: grant and equity, loans lesser extent.

• Purpose: to start a new project or service. None are looking to grow an existing project or service.

• Support needs: financial modelling, investment readiness, social impact.

• Variable types of support from HEIs.

Recommendations and challengeBoosting the growth of social IP

• Need for more robust data for future assessment and learning.

• Social entrepreneurs need strong investment readiness support.

• Social investment opportunities need to be understood better.

• A more joined up ecosystem might better link – identification of social IP – incubation services – investment readiness – investment.

• Is this right, and how do HEIs shape this?

The 21st Century Civic University*…

* The ‘Real World’

• Application and creation of academic IP through social purpose business (make a difference in the world- universities are full of people that want to do this- enable them!)

• Risk aversion

• What is ‘value’ and why should we do this? (there are more metrics than just £)

• University internal policies (HR and organisational)

The Opportunities• It opens up different conversations to expand our service • Its an opportunity to receive new ideas from new spaces and

revisit/repurpose previous idea disclosures • If IP can be captured it increases the ‘value’ of a social impact business • If we develop ‘Social IP’ its an opportunity to access new funding streams • Entrepreneurs can help

The Challenges • We need to get the ideas ‘investor ready’ to power SE’s forward • Need to embed SE support in institution – £ value and reputational impact • Need to have a large range of partners– work hard at ‘networks of networks’ • ‘Social IP’ cases can be more complex in negotiation and value creation • You have to have support networks for those that don’t ‘reach the bar’

UMIP – REPUTATION AND VALUE THROUGH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ®

HE & Social IP

CUSE promotes and supports the creation of social enterprises. In this way we will help the communities we serve more productive and sustainable. All surpluses will be reinvested in the development of new social enterprises.

•Established in 2013 because of clear demand from staff and students •Supported 18 social enterprises over last 18 months with cash support of £42,000•Attracted further £50k investment for established social enterprises

HOPE is a self-management programme, developed by Coventry University and partners.

HOPE courses are designed to help people become more knowledgeable, skilled and confident in managing the physical, emotional and psychological consequences of living with and being affected by a long-term condition (LTCs).

HOPE uses positive psychology evidence-based activities, such as goal setting, action planning, mindfulness and gratitude diaries, to create an upward spiral of positive emotions leading to improved confidence, social support, happiness and well-being.

HOPE courses are interactive, group-based, self-management support courses, which run for 6 weeks, with each weekly session lasting 2.5 hours.

HOPE courses are co delivered by trained health professionals and peer facilitators. Course participants can go onto to train to become peer facilitators.

https://hopeprogramme.coventry.ac.uk/

The Situation

-IP developed by University Academics-Currently being sold to large scale charities like MacMillan on commercial

basis-Academics and HOPE “graduates” want to reach other communities-Funding opportunities are there-Conflict of priorities: Commercial vs community-This has led to delays in getting IP released-Small project so drops down priorities-Pressure on Academic staff to justify their time on project

Learning Outcomes and Opportunities

- Staff can be more motivated by developing IP for community benefit

- Institutional awareness of this is increasing but staff release policies not

there yet

- Managing the commercial vs community conflict needs new structures

(CUSE)

-Austerity offers opportunities to apply research but links with communities

need to be built and maintained

Questions / thoughts / comments?