Technology Transfer in the Danube Region Challenges and ... · • Isis Innovation Ltd is a company 100% owned by the University of Oxford, established in 1987, to carry out Technology

Technology Transfer in the Danube Region – Challenges and

Opportunities 27th October 2015, Ulm, Germany

Elena Andonova, MBA

Isis Enterprise, Isis Innovation, Oxford University

isis-innovation.com @isisinnovation

Overview

• About Isis Innovation

• Technology Transfer Elements

• Challenges and Opportunities in the Danube Region

http://www.linkedin.com/company/isis-innovation-ltd.

https://twitter.com/#!/IsisInnovation


• 6 years as a Consultant for Isis Enterprise

• First non Oxford spin out of Isis Innovation - PM

• Work with policy makers as well as research organisations

• In Europe, Latin America and Asia

• Incubators, Seed Funds, Strategy and Capacity Building

• On the Panel of the EP at Said Business School

• Debt structuring experience from Lehman Brothers

• Oxford MBA, BA in business administration and economics (AUBG)

Elena Andonova



About Isis Innovation


Introducing the University of Oxford and Isis Innovation Ltd

• Oxford University is the oldest university in the English-speaking world (founded c.1188)

• A leader in learning, teaching and research

• 26 British Prime Ministers educated at Oxford

• Royal Society founded from Oxford in 1640 and 47 Nobel prize winners

• Today, Oxford is the most powerful UK research university

• Highest university research spend in UK (£501m)

• Number 1 for translational medicine and largest Chemistry department in Europe

• Isis Innovation Ltd is a company 100% owned by the University of Oxford, established in 1987, to carry out Technology Transfer

• Isis helps researchers who wish to commercialise the results of their research

• Isis has Offices in Oxford, Hong Kong, Japan and Spain

Christ Church, Oxford

Ewert House, Oxford




Oxford Research Funding 2012-2013 £568million

• Highest University Research Spend in UK

• 5,809 academics and researchers, and 9,850 postgraduate students

• Most Powerful UK Research University - 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, Research Fortnight

• Charts show £437m grants and contracts by source, and University Division

Total £437m + HEFCE £132m




Isis Innovation Ltd

Oxford Technology Transfer IP, Patents, Licences, Spin-outs, Material Sales, Outcome Questionnaires, Seed Funds, Isis Angels Network, Isis Software Incubator, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust

Oxford Expertise Academic consulting services

A profitable company 100% owned by the University of Oxford

Isis Consulting Business IP Management for Global clients



isis-innovation.com

Isis Innovation, year-ending March 2014

* NB. 2014 financial data is unaudited

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@isisinnovation




Technology Transfer Unit of the Year

• 22 October 2014: Technology Transfer Unit of the Year (2014-15)

• Exit of the Year 2014: NaturalMotion Oxford spin-out NaturalMotion picks up Exit of the Year for its $527m cash sale to Zynga.



Technology Transfer Elements

isis-innovation.com

Multiple Actors at National, Regional and Institutional Level

Research Services

Isis Innovation

Maths, Physical & Life Sciences

Division Humanities Division

Business School

Begbroke Science Park

Bus Dev

Function

+ OSEM Careers Dept

Continuing Education

Development Office

Public Affairs

Research

Facilitator

Research

Facilitator

Social Sciences Division

Research

Facilitator

Medical Sciences Division

Research

Facilitator

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isis-innovation.com

Goal

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• Need to build a Knowledge Economy to be globally competitive

• Knowledge resides in the research base

• Large amounts of funding go into the research base

• Transferring the knowledge delivers economic, social, regional impact

Players:

• National and Regional governments

• Investors

• CEOs

• Lawyers

• Academic entrepreneurs...and many more


Reality Check

• Many studies of the financial returns from investments in innovating activities show that a small number of projects generate the major part of the returns

• This appears valid worldwide, including the US

• Even in highly profitable TTOs like Isis Innovation, the revenues from the commercialisation activities are insignificant compared to the total research spent

• However, technology commercialisation brings social and economic impact (often indirectly)

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isis-innovation.com @isisinnovation 15

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Economic Impact

“Commercialisation activity undertaken by Isis Innovation contributed more than $0.6bn GVA1 to the global economy in 2012/13 and supported almost 5,000 jobs. This includes:

• $396m GVA and almost 3,400 jobs in the UK (of which $193m GVA and around 1,630 jobs were estimated to be in Oxfordshire);

• $14.8m GVA and 150 jobs elsewhere in Europe;

• $163m GVA and around 1,200 jobs in the USA; and

• $38.5m GVA and almost 240 jobs in the rest of the world.” See summary flyer and full report at - www.isis-innovation.com/about/index.html

1 : Gross Value Added

Source: Evaluation by BiGGAR, an independent economics consultancy, for Isis in February 2014



http://www.isis-innovation.com/about/index.html




Our model (at the time)

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University TTO Industry




The evolving technology transfer model

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Collaborative R&D

Regional / sector specific

commercialisation specialists

Translational Funds

Corporate Venture Funds

Corporate Innovation

Centres

Seed Funds

Angel / crowdsourcing

funds

Incubators

Accelerators

Science Parks

Strategic IP partners

University TTO Industry




Where Are You Now? Commercial Routes for Researchers

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Licensing

Creating a company using a research organisation’s intellectual property

(spinout)

Creating a company not from within an organisation, where there is no

intellectual property, or you own it (start-up)

Consultancy




Third party funder

Res. Org. KT Office

Researcher

Company

Investors

Other sponsors

Manager

Customers/partners

Board

Licensing - Stakeholders

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• It can be complicated…the lines represent agreements…in a simple case



isis-innovation.com

Consulting

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• Researchers surveyed 11,572 professors at institutions across the United States*

• To explore standard beliefs around academic perception of: invention disclosure, patents, ventures.

• This is not how the majority of companies are started by US academics!

• Of 1,948 respondents who had started a business, only 682, or about one-third, had set them up to exploit patents obtained through formal university intellectual-property systems.

• Remaining 1,266 respondents had started businesses — including consultancies and manufacturing and service-based firms — based on non-patentable knowledge.

• Social scientists and engineers started the most businesses that were not based on patented inventions, but such ventures were also prevalent among biomedical and physical scientists

*“Inside or outside the IP System? Business Creation in Academia”; Fini, Lacetera, Shane; Research Policy; Oct 2012; 39,8.


Spinouts - Anatomy

New commercial

entity Researcher

Tech Transfer

Lawyers, accountants

Investors

Managers Company

Researcher

Investors University

RO or Charity

CEO Shareholder

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N

V

E

S

T

M

E

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These people work together to create the

new venture

....which is then owned by a mixture of these people,

who are shareholders

This side is a Project This side is a Company

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isis-innovation.com

Spinouts - Clash of the Cultures

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BUSINESS

• Driven by external needs

• Clear goals with shareholder commitments

• Commercial confidentiality

“Academics never deliver”

RESEARCHERS

• Self directed

• Next step defined by yesterday’s results

• Free exchange of ideas

“Industry is out to cheat us”

So we can expect it will be challenging to build a mutually

trusting relationship in creating commercial new ventures

around innovative technologies


The world we see emerging

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• Commercialisation support will become much broader in scope covering student, know-how, material sales and service based businesses.

• Commercialisation services will become more centralised by industrial sector or territory – hub models.

• We believe in helping to create the next generation of academic researchers who are innovation and impact led.



Challenges and Opportunities in the Danube Region


A researcher from CEE challenge:

Given

A BRILLIANT IDEA OR A PROTOTYPE

and • An inefficient and expensive patent framework

• A low trust environment and business/corporate culture

• An immature legal system

• Scarce world-class commercial talent

• Few long term and patient investors

• “low tech” reputation of “Made in CEE” tag

CAN YOU SOMEHOW HACK THE SYSTEM TO CREATE A TECH TRANSFER SUCCESS STORY?




The global patent system needs reform

The whole world is filing patents • And building ‘a Silicon Valley’




The global patent system needs reform

The whole world is filing patents • And building ‘a Silicon Valley’

Impact of patents on innovation is weak • Recent studies point to a weak link at best

• Counter argument: South Korea – import substitution to build domestic industries that file US patents. But can this be replicated?

Global patent system is not working • Patent trolls are bad for the world

• Incumbents use patents to restrict competition

• Patents are a tax a poor country has to pay to access a rich market

• Patents do not promote innovation even in pharma (the story of Italy)

Source: Economist.com, August 2015




Funding Innovation and Entrepreneurship

• CEE’s share of Europe-wide fundraising reached 3.3% in 2014 but remains low

• Fundraising for venture capital funds amounted only €176m in 2014 albeit increased compared with €62m in 2013

• Government agencies were the largest source of fund

• Lack of private investment




Technology exits from Central and Eastern Europe

Common perception is that CEE hasn’t produced meaningful exits, however that is not accurate.

Anti-virus and anti-spyware software (Czech Republic)

$1.0 Billion IPO 2012

Proprietary peer-to-peer VOIP / video conferencing

(Estonia)

$8.5 bn acquisition by Microsoft, 2011

Remote access products with secure desktop protocol

(Hungary)

$1.1 billion IPO

2009

Video solutions for online and mobile

(Romania)

$0.5 bn acquisition by Facebook, 2014

Online retailer with operations across CE (Czech Republic)

Naspers acquired 79% for $215M, 2012

Anti-virus software

(Czech Republic)

CVC investment valued company at $1 billion, 2014




Research and Innovation Landscape in CEE

• High level of publications, low level of technology promotion

• Relative to the rest of the world, the proportion of research funded by industry and the number of patents granted per million people are still very low, particularly when compared to GDP

• Mismatch between industry needs and university research

• R&D expenditure of only 0.9% of GDP compared to 2.1% in Europe 15, 2.9% in US and 1.7% in China

• Total Factor Productivity need to catch up with the rest of Europe




Technology Transfer in CEE

• Immature infrastructure including human capital

• The ecosystem is often disconnected

• Lack of relevant policies and/or incentives

• Not enough scale to sustain TTO

• Lack of commitment from the academic elite and /or the country leadership

• Poor industry relationships (with few exceptions e.g. Poland and Slovenia)

• Overwhelming lack of IPR strategy

• Limited experience in the creation and management of early stage technology companies

• Translational funding is almost completely non-existent in the CEE region




What can be done

• On average, CEE economies invest less than 1 percent of GDP in research and development

• need to raise R&D spending

• Create innovation and industry clusters (particularly for knowledge-intensive industries)

• Encourage innovative entrepreneurs.

• Increased industry/university collaborations (KTP style) on regional and international level

• International collaboration and foreign investment will bring not only funding but also know-how and accelerate adoption of new technologies and form valuable partnerships for R&D centres. (McKinsey Global Institute Report December 2013)

• Support for start-ups including fiscal incentives




Some Sectors are very attractive for R&D investment




Successful Ingredients for Technology Transfer

• Low

• Policy

• Support Structures

• Ecosystem

• Human Capital

• Patent Budget

• Translational Funding

• Network

• Industry Collaborations

• Long term strategy and vision




Isis Enterprise – A Global Innovation Management Consultancy

Providing expertise and advice since 2004

Policy and benchmarking studies

Innovation Management

Technology Commercialisation

Translational Funding Impact Reviews

Commercialisation Training

Innovation Ecosystem Development

Technology & Market Due Diligence Technology Scouting

Elena Andonova, MBA

Isis Enterprise

T: +44 (0)1865 280 821

E: [email protected]



Documents

Technology Transfer in the Danube Region Challenges and ... · • Isis Innovation Ltd is a company 100% owned by the University of Oxford, established in 1987, to carry out Technology