The University of Birmingham is pleased to announce today that it has recently become the first Midlands University to be part of the Easy Access Innovation Partnership, which promotes new ways of transferring intellectual property (IP) to industry.
The University recognises it has a significant role in supporting economic recovery and stimulating innovation and it is therefore committed to working with industry to maximise the transfer of knowledge for public benefit.
Joining this initiative will make it easier for businesses to access the University’s research. Through its technology transfer agency, Alta Innovations Ltd, the University will be providing some of its IP portfolio for free using simple, standard agreements to make the whole process of IP exploitation much faster.
As well as making the adoption of its research and technology simpler the University anticipates this will be a mechanism to encourage new and longer-term relationships with business and to open up new areas for collaboration.
Professor Adam Tickell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer) at the University of Birmingham, said:
“I am very pleased that we are now a partner in the Easy Access IP initiative. Although the University of Birmingham has always worked closely with industry we realise that for some businesses a University may seem like a complicated partner for collaboration. This initiative will enable businesses to access and adopt our IP very quickly. It’s an exciting step forward in our commitment to engage effectively with business and encourage use of the hard-won knowledge from our research for public benefit”.
The University of Bristol, King’s College London and the University of Glasgow are co-founding partners of Easy Access Innovation. Professor Steve Beaumont, Vice-Principal for Research & Enterprise at the University of Glasgow, said:
‘We are delighted that the University of Birmingham is joining the growing number of universities that have adopted the Easy Access approach to their Intellectual Property. We look forward to working closely with them on this exciting project which is raising awareness of the vital role universities have in stimulating innovation.”
For further information please visit the following page: Easy Access IP
Notes to editors’ section in press
Easy Access IP
Easy Access IP is a collaborative project to promote new ways of sharing intellectual property and to adopt new approaches which make it easier for universities and industry to work together. The Easy Access IP Partnership includes King’s College London and the Universities of Glasgow, Bristol, Ottawa, Copenhagen, New South Wales, Mid Sweden and Staffordshire. Through the partners’ portfolios of free Easy Access IP it provides a fast-track route for the transfer of knowledge and expertise from universities to industry, so that it can be developed for the benefit of the economy and society.
www.easyaccessip.org.uk
Alta Innovations Ltd
Alta Innovations Ltd is the technology transfer agency of the University of Birmingham and is responsible for commercialising the University’s IP through licensing, spinouts and academic consultancy. http://www.alta.bham.ac.uk/