Eastern Arc wins funding for ‘Golden Circle’

Eastern Arc has been awarded half a million pounds by Research England to develop a ‘golden circle’ of tech transfer support between its members and three partners across the greater southeast: the University of Brighton, the University of Reading, and Royal Holloway.

Led by the University of Sussex, ‘the Golden Circle’ seeks to support and develop the potential of research-intensive universities beyond the golden triangle (Oxbridge and London) in the greater southeast.

Spin-out activity in the UK is highly concentrated within a few of the largest most research-intensive universities. Mid-sized universities infrequently spin out, despite good pipeline potential, largely due to their lack of tech transfer office (TTO) capacity.

The grant seeks to unleash this potential by developing a distinctive shared TTO model in the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) Cluster X, post-1992 and specialist universities to form a unified and strengthened spin-out eco-system in a circle around London.

It will work with local supply chain collaborations, concentrations of highly specialized expert skilled workforces, investment in specialist equipment and infrastructure and clustering of investor networks.

By doing so, it will help to anchor the core national innovation hotspot more solidly within its wider region, creating a more powerful and robust platform to advance the UK’s global competitive advantage.

‘This is a really exciting award for us,’ said Phil Ward, Director of Eastern Arc. ‘It will enable us to bring together and build on our significant strengths and, by working together, to develop a critical mass of knowledge and experience in this area. I would like to thank Sue Baxter at Sussex for leading on this, and to all our members and partners for their openness and creativity in working together on it. I’m very much looking forward to the outcome of the award, and the structure that it will build for the future.’

The official announcement of the award is available on the Research England site.