Spinouts

We work with around 150 researchers each year to assess the viability of their inventions. We’ve worked with 650 individual researchers since 2018/19. If you’re a researcher at Queen Mary, get in touch to discuss how we can help you develop your idea into a business.

Our spinouts are special because they are the fruits of significant scientific discoveries. 92% of our research is world leading or internationally excellent (REF 2021) and we’re ranked 14th in the world for the quality of our research (THE World University Ranking 2024).

We are pleased to be incorporating the good practice recommendations from the Government spinout review in its policy and practices. In particular we welcome the work done by TenU and major investors in developing the USIT guides as a landing zone and foundation for good practices and we will be using them in our commercialisation activities.

At Queen Mary Innovation we work on behalf of the University to maximise the impact of Queen Mary Research using commercial tools and implements the University Intellectual Property policy. The primary goal is to ensure economic and social impact, and any returns are shared with innovative creators and venture founders, reinvested in new ventures, or in the University’s charitable mission.

Following the Government review the University is currently reviewing its Intellectual Property Policy, which covers more than just the creation of spinouts and requires wider consultation. Nevertheless, recognising the importance of increasing the speed and scale of spinouts as quickly as possible, the University has approved a new Commercialisation and Benefit Sharing Policy which will operate from the 5th July 2024 and will be incorporated into the full Intellectual Property policy once the review is complete.

We will immediately implement the policy and we’ll continue to review its procedures to identify areas where decision making can sensibly be streamlined to ensure speedier conclusion of discussions with investors and stakeholders.