University group TenU is looking at ways that industry could be more involved in assessing and identifying what academic research should receive government proof-of-concept funding in the UK.
Companies could be drafted in to help decide which university research is given commercialisation funding, as UK academia looks for ways to get maximum impact from a slim cash pot.
TenU, a group of 10 leading research universities, has commissioned a working group that includes investors and representatives from industry to look at best practices for awarding a pot of £40m ($54m) of government funding available for so-called proof-of-concept.
The amount of government funds available is so limited compared with demand that TenU, along with national funders, investors and industry, is looking to devise a more strategic approach to the distribution of the funds that would increase the number of successful spinouts and startups from UK universities.
Adam Stoten, senior vice president of academic partnerships at biotechnology company Evotec and chair of the working group, says the discussions are centred on ways to ensure industry expertise is woven into to each stage of proof-of-concept funding.
“There are really clear opportunities to bring in industry right at the beginning in terms of the initial assessment or identification of opportunities, to make sure the work being done under proof of concept is going to deliver experimental data that aligns with investors’ expectations of what good proof of concept looks like,” says Stoten.
Proof-of-concept funding is considered critical to allowing academic researchers to validate their ideas commercially. It is an important first step before investors will commit capital to a venture that spins out of academic research. The private sector has historically been reluctant to invest money in this commercial validation stage because of the high risk they will not get a return on their investment.
Universities typically distribute proof-of-concept funds, but some are more sophisticated than others in helping researchers with the validation of their research. Often universities have awarded funding to academic research that hasn’t meshed with what investors are looking for, says Stoten. “The university has received funding, it’s conducted some experiments that it thinks are going to produce a very translatable gem. At the end of it, they go out and speak to investors or pharma companies and find out that they should have used model X or done experiment Y, and the value is really destroyed then,” he says.
Although it is rare to pick a guaranteed commercial success at such an early stage, having industry experts assess projects makes it “more feasible to identify and weed out those that have got fundamental weaknesses or flaws which will make them non-viable,” says Stoten.
Industry could also play a role in bringing “rigour” and “discipline” to projects once proof-of-concept funding has been awarded to make sure technical milestones are hit and that projects that are not going anywhere are stopped, he says.
The working group members are looking at examples of industry partnerships with universities that could serve as models for doing it on a national scale.
Case studies of how this could work
The examples include Evotec, the biotech company that Stoten works for, which partners with the University of Oxford to source ideas for potential commercial ventures, often before the research has even made it to the university’s tech transfer office.
Other examples include Apollo Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, which partners with six UK universities to source breakthroughs in biology and basic medical research. It will then translate these breakthroughs into new medicines.
Similarly, Matcelerate Zero, a partnership between six UK universities and several global companies brings together corporates such as Coca Cola Europacific Partners, Rolls Royce, Evonik and Saint Gobain to identify and select research in material science that has the greatest potential for commercial success. It is looking to expand this model to the medtech sector.
“What we’re trying to establish is whether these particular case studies can be translated into recommendations that can be applied at national scale,” says Ananay Aguilar, head of TenU.
The group aims to issue guidance on industry and university partnerships for proof-of-concept funding in the spring of 2026.
