Intellectual property (IP) includes patents, copyrights, design registrations and trademarks. IP is a vital indicator for understanding the impact and value added by HE providers working with external partners. Tables on this page demonstrate the scale of IP generated by HE providers.
From 2021/22, HE providers were not required to restate previous year's figures as part of their latest data submission. For more details of the restated methodology for each specific table or chart please see the corresponding footnote.
A significant error has come to light in the financial data submitted by University of St Mark and St John which could not be corrected in time for this release of HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) data. HESA has therefore taken the decision to suppress the erroneous data from the release. This affects financial data shown for University of St Mark and St John and HE sector totals, which are calculated excluding data for this HE provider. This data release will be revised once corrected data for University of St Mark and St John is available. A release date for the revised and corrected HE-BCI data will be announced as soon as this has been determined.
Income from intellectual property
This table breaks down income from intellectual property by type of organisation and source of income (whether from software licences, non-software licences, or other IP income sources).
Table 4c - Intellectual property income (including patents, copyright, design, registration and trade marks) by HE provider
The following chart and table show spin-offs and start-up companies based on HE providers’ intellectual property, or started by their staff, students or graduates.
Click and drag to highlight an area on the chart below to zoom in. Right-click to reset the view.
Spin-offs are companies set-up to exploit IP that has originated from within the HE providers.
Spin-offs with some HE provider ownership are companies set-up to exploit IP that has originated from within the HE provider, where the HE provider continues to have some ownership.
Formal spin-offs, not HE provider-owned are companies set-up based on IP that has originated from within the HE provider but where the HE provider has released ownership (usually through the sale of shares and/or IP).
Staff start-ups are companies set-up by active (or recent) HE provider staff but not based on IP from the HE provider.
Student start-ups include all new business started by recent graduates (within two years) regardless of where any IP resides, but only where there has been formal business/enterprise support from the HE provider.
Social enterprises include organisations that rate their success on their social outcomes equally or more than their commercial outcomes
Table 4e - Intellectual property: Spin-off activities by HE provider
Open data licence: CC-BY-4.0