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Most university spinouts are based on the “hard” sciences like chemistry or computing — but what about the social sciences? Could these departments, which specialise in the study of human beings, also become a rich source of new company generation?

It is an area where Cardiff University is hoping to become a leader, says Paul Devlin, the institution’s head of research commercialisation and impact.

“We see the chance to have a societal impact for so much of our research,” he tells Global University Venturing on a recent episode of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.

While Cardiff University commercialises research across a wide range of sectors — the institution, for example, runs a dedicated incubator for life sciences on its university hospital campus and its research in diseases like Alzheimer’s is world-class, according to Devlin — it is social sciences where he sees the biggest potential for Cardiff University to be a pioneer.

Early successes

Cardiff University already has some successes with social sciences-based spinouts. Its spinout Nisien emerged from the School of Social Sciences’ HateLab and provides a tool to detect online hate speech and crime — mixing social sciences with computer science. The spinout is seeking to close a seed round this summer. It is also already generating revenue “from international law enforcement and some corporates,” Devlin says.

“It is one thing to raise money and to secure revenue, but it’s also going to do good for society,” Devlin adds. Social sciences, he argues, “is such a pioneering area that when you do deal, you might be the first to do that type of deal. So if we can share that with others, we’d love to. Similarly, there isn’t a lot of experience around. If we can learn from our peers and do things better, that’s great.”

Social ventures remain often uncharted territory, with tech transfer having historically focused on life sciences, physical sciences and software, where there is a clear path to protecting inventions either through patents or copyright. The question of how to protect intellectual property emerging from social sciences, as well as arts and humanities, is trickier because it is often the researcher’s know-how that has commercial value.

Cardiff University has been exploring social sciences commercialisation for a few years. It helped found Aspect, a UK-based multi-university group exploring ways to drive technology transfer from social sciences, arts and humanities, in 2018.

Cardiff has also been a member of SETsquared for two years. The multi-university enterprise partnership also includes the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, and it has built a portfolio that raised some £4bn in funding to date.

Devlin notes the various communities of practice — including a group focused on impact — in SETsquared, highlighting the importance of learning from peers.

Societal impact

Two years ago, Cardiff University opened a dedicated social sciences innovation hub called sbark|spark. The building is home to Devlin and his tech transfer team. It also provides office space, wet and dry labs to university spinouts and external startups, and other organisations such as the regional development partnership Cardiff Capital Region.

It also serves as a way for Cardiff University to drive civic engagement and “that broader inclusion is really important to the university,” Devlin says.

Social sciences fit into Cardiff’s civic mission. The university’s commercialisation strategy has three different parts. The first part is spinouts in spaces like therapeutics that can raise large sums of venture capital and have a large impact on society. Then there are the computer science spinouts that can similarly raise large amounts of cash and generate a big return for the university.

A third part is spinouts with societal impact. Devlin says social sciences spinouts should not be judged by venture capital raised but by their societal impact. He says it’s “really heartening” to get the university executive behind this third part in particular.

“We’re now able to not just think of it in terms of money raised, which is one metric, but also of societal impact for our spinouts. It’s important that we’re part of these working groups so that we can do it in the best way we possibly can and hopefully lead by example for other peers across the educational sector.”

It is as-yet undecided what exactly these non-monetary metrics will be and Devlin adds a key reason for Cardiff to join its peers in Aspect was to get the opportunity to contribute to the discussion of what the metrics should be. One thing is clear, Devlin says, and it’s that any spinout would have to be “economically sustainable” but that is not equivalent to high growth.

Listen to the full interview with Paul Devlin on Beyond the Breakthrough below or wherever you find podcasts.