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£1 billion income from contract research in 2010/11

HESA electronic publication 'HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2010/11' released today

Results of the 2010/11 HE Business and Community Interaction Survey, published today, show that UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) made £1.1 billion through research contracts with businesses and non-commercial organisations. A further £1.4 billion of income was derived from consultancy contracts, facilities and equipment, CPD courses, intellectual property, and regeneration and development programmes.

The table below shows the value of these and other sources broken down by type of business and organisation where appropriate:

UK HEIs - Business and community income sources 2010/11
Source Total value with SMEs (£ thousands) Total value with other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£ thousands) Total value with non-commercial organisations (£ thousands) Total value (£ thousands)
Contract research 39,820 344,024 670,347 1,054,191
Consultancy contracts 55,547 90,030 225,546 371,123
Facilities and equipment related services 39,549 39,934 49,113 128,596
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses 28,262 116,237 267,341 411,840
Intellectual property (IP) 11,556 39,846 10,021 61,423
Continuing Education and CPD for individuals       194,101
Sale of shares in spin-offs       7,963
Regeneration and development programmes       203,308
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11. See Annex below for EnglandWalesScotland and Northern Ireland figures

Collaborative research

Non-public sources also contributed an additional £200 million to research via collaborative research involving public funding. These are research projects funded by a combination of public and private non-academic sources.

The table below shows the breakdown of funding sources for collaborative research in 2010/11:

UK HEIs - Collaborative research 2010/11
Source Income (£ thousands)
Public funding BIS Research Councils 226,774
Other UK government departments 163,884
EU government 233,252
Other 39,432
Collaborative contribution Cash 78,379
In kind 129,928
Total 871,649
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11. See Annex below for EnglandWalesScotland and Northern Ireland figures

Spin-off companies

The survey results also show the number of spin-off companies associated with UK HEIs started in 2010/11. Over 200 spin-offs were started with some HEI ownership and over 2,500 graduate start-up companies were formed in 2010/11:

UK HEIs - New spin-off companies 2010/11*
Type Number
Spin-offs with some HEI ownership 233
Formal spin-offs, not HEI owned 27
Staff start-ups 87
Graduate start-ups 2771
Total 3118
* See note 5. Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11. See Annex below for EnglandWalesScotland and Northern Ireland figures

HE-BCI publication

HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2010/11 contains the full results of the 2010/11 survey for every HE institution. The publication includes the qualitative responses from Part A of the survey, as well as quantitative data from Part B (from which the above tables are drawn). HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2010/11 is available to purchase and instantly download from our website.

A schedule of HESA releases for 2012 can be found here.

Notes for editors

  1. Press enquiries should be directed to:
    • Simon Kemp
    • HESA Press Officer
    • 01242 211120
    • [email protected] 
    • 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ.
  2. HESA data is collected from all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a non-publicly-funded institution. The HE-BCI Survey is mandatory for HEIs in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, excluding The University of Wales (central functions). The HE-BCI Survey is not mandatory for HEIs in Scotland, although the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) strongly advise that HEIs in Scotland return it. The HE-BCI Survey will become mandatory for Scottish institutions from 2011/12. In 2010/11, three institutions in Scotland did not submit HE-BCI data. The 2009/10 HE-BCI data covers 161 HEIs (131 in England, 10 in Wales, 16 in Scotland and 4 in Northern Ireland).
  3. The Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI) is the main vehicle for measuring the volume and direction of interactions between UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and business and the wider community. The survey collects information on the infrastructure, capacity and strategy of HEIs, and also numeric and financial data regarding third stream activity (that is, activities concerned with the generation, use, application and exploitation of knowledge and other university capabilities outside academic environments, and distinct from core activities of teaching and research).
  4. Some variations in the data between years may be due to availability of information from independent spin-off and start-up companies, and changes in HEIs’ reporting practices.
  5. Two institutions in England reported a significant number of spin-offs in error. Their spin-off figures have been excluded from the England and UK totals.
  6. The survey has collected data for each academic year from 1999/2000, with HESA undertaking the survey since 2008/09. From 1999/2000 to 2007/08 the survey was undertaken, and its results published, by HEFCE: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/kess/hebci/
  7. The data in this release relates to all UK HE institutions. Figures for the individual nations of the UK are available in the Annex below: EnglandWalesScotlandNorthern Ireland.
  8. Further headline survey results are published in our online statistics area.
  9. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
  10. Definitions of the terms used in this press release can be found on-line here.

Annex - equivalent tables for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

England

England HEIs - Business and community income sources 2010/11
Source Total value with SMEs (£ thousands) Total value with other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£ thousands) Total value with non-commercial organisations (£ thousands) Total value (£ thousands)
Contract research 27,112 279,788 589,494 896,394
Consultancy contracts 43,422 60,462 196,509 300,393
Facilities and equipment related services 36,749 33,946 36,313 107,008
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses 21,810 97,814 223,954 343,578
Intellectual property (IP) 9,279 29,536 8,691 47,506
Continuing Education and CPD for individuals       164,388
Sale of shares in spin-offs       3,975
Regeneration and development programmes       152,360
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
England HEIs - Collaborative research 2010/11
Source Income (£ thousands)
Public funding BIS Research Councils 164,013
Other UK government departments 108,799
EU government 175,127
Other 24,234
Collaborative contribution Cash 59,654
In kind 96,679
Total 628,506
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
England HEIs - Number of new spin-off companies 2010/11*
Type Number
Spin-offs with some HEI ownership 180
Formal spin-offs, not HEI owned 22
Staff start-ups 67
Graduate start-ups 2380
Total 2649
* See note 5. Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.

Wales

Wales HEIs - Business and community income sources 2010/11
Source Total value with SMEs (£ thousands) Total value with other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£ thousands) Total value with non-commercial organisations (£ thousands) Total value (£ thousands)
Contract research 2,271 8,004 16,692 26,967
Consultancy contracts 1,534 2,161 13,017 16,712
Facilities and equipment related services 539 165 928 1,632
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses 1,860 983 23,381 26,224
Intellectual property (IP) 187 1,133 281 1,601
Continuing Education and CPD for individuals       5,418
Sale of shares in spin-offs       0
Regeneration and development programmes       22,703
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Wales HEIs - Collaborative research 2010/11
Source Income (£ thousands)
Public funding BIS Research Councils 8,264
Other UK government departments 25,382
EU government 11,798
Other 398
Collaborative contribution Cash 7,566
In kind 11,261
Total 64,669
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Wales HEIs - Number of new spin-off companies 2010/11
Type Number
Spin-offs with some HEI ownership 6
Formal spin-offs, not HEI owned 1
Staff start-ups 3
Graduate start-ups 267
Total 277
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.

Scotland

Scotland HEIs - Business and community income sources 2010/11
Source Total value with SMEs (£ thousands) Total value with other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£ thousands) Total value with non-commercial organisations (£ thousands) Total value (£ thousands)
Contract research 9,703 50,377 50,792 110,872
Consultancy contracts 9,306 26,239 11,598 47,143
Facilities and equipment related services 951 5,638 7,514 14,103
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses 4,325 17,346 16,615 38,286
Intellectual property (IP) 1,647 3,535 1,049 6,231
Continuing Education and CPD for individuals       22,530
Sale of shares in spin-offs       178
Regeneration and development programmes       14,315
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Scotland HEIs - Collaborative research 2010/11
Source Income (£ thousands)
Public funding BIS Research Councils 45,234
Other UK government departments 22,901
EU government 40,295
Other 13,698
Collaborative contribution Cash 8,734
In kind 7,720
Total 138,582
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Scotland HEIs - Number of new spin-off companies 2010/11
Type Number
Spin-offs with some HEI ownership 39
Formal spin-offs, not HEI owned 4
Staff start-ups 17
Graduate start-ups 124
Total 184
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland HEIs - Business and community income sources 2010/11
Source Total value with SMEs (£ thousands) Total value with other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£ thousands) Total value with non-commercial organisations (£ thousands) Total value (£ thousands)
Contract research 734 5,855 13,369 19,958
Consultancy contracts 1,285 1,168 4,422 6,875
Facilities and equipment related services 1,310 185 4,358 5,853
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses 267 94 3,391 3,752
Intellectual property (IP) 443 5,642 0 6,085
Continuing Education and CPD for individuals       1,765
Sale of shares in spin-offs       3,810
Regeneration and development programmes       13,930
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Northern Ireland HEIs - Collaborative research 2010/11
Source Income (£ thousands)
Public funding BIS Research Councils 9,263
Other UK government departments 6,802
EU government 6,032
Other 1,102
Collaborative contribution Cash 2,425
In kind 14,268
Total 39,892
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
Northern Ireland HEIs - Number of new spin-off companies 2010/11
Type Number
Spin-offs with some HEI ownership 8
Formal spin-offs, not HEI owned 0
Staff start-ups 0
Graduate start-ups 0
Total 8
Source: HE-BCI Survey 2010/11.
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