Irish institutions have spun out fewer businesses and awarded fewer licences, options and assignments than in previous years.

Irish universities and research institutions generated 21 spinouts during 2017, down 19% from the 28 recorded in the previous year, according to Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI), a government-backed agency promoting collaboration between research bodies and industry. KTI’s Review and Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey 2017 showed the result was the fourth consecutive annual fall in spinout generation since 2013, when 37 spinouts were created. The agency argued the trend may stem from research organisations taking forward fewer projects to focus on quality. In addition to spinouts, KTI’s survey reported 31 startups had been set up with links to universities and institutes of technology. The figure is likely to be higher as many go unreported given their independence from any tech transfer office. Irish institutions also agreed fewer licences, options and assignments (LOAs) than in any year since 2013, awarding 164 during 2017 compared with 186 the previous year. The number of new licence agreements, specifically, fell to 86 from 111 during 2016. There were also fewer LOAs in active usage, at 839 compared with 929 during 2016, though this was still substantially more than the 680 in operation during 2015. Universities accounted for the bulk of new LOAs executed last year with 73% of the total figure, and licences represented 56% of all university transactions. More contracts from Irish research organisations are staying within the country, with local business securing 82% of collaboration deals last year, up from 78% during 2016. Further down the development pipeline, KTI reported 24 market launches based on previous licences during 2017, marginally lower than the 26 registered one year earlier. Of these, 17 arose from five Irish universities, with another six originating from two institutes of technology. Alison Campbell, director of KTI, said: “Through our long-term monitoring of system performance, we are able to track outcomes from commercialisation and can report a significant number of spinout companies remain active three of more years after their initial formation and observe a steady state of products and services making it to the market based on ideas and technology from state-funded research.”

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