Britain's top universities have asked the government for £1 billion ($1.4 billion) to finance university spin-off companies, a measure that could help bolster the faltering UK economy and prop up the biotech industry, according to Education Guardian.

Image: flickr/a.drian

The call was spearheaded by Imperial College London with backing from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, as well as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), a non-governmental body that invests in early-stage companies. NESTA also petitioned the government in December for a similar £1 billion fund to stimulate venture capital investment in early-stage science and technology firms.

The government is seriously considering the proposal, said Matthew Barker, a spokesperson for the Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills (DIUS). "It's an option that the government is looking at" in combination with a number of other proposals to help business in the current economic climate, he told The Scientist.

The universities contend that a hefty public investment is essential for Britain to maintain its global competitiveness, especially in response to the recent American stimulus package, which promises billions of dollars for science and innovation.

"I am working urgently to consider all available options -- including a fund of sufficient scale to replicate the success seen in America -- to realize the potential of the research taking place in UK universities," Britain's science minister Paul Drayson said in a statement.

The fund "could be really useful if properly targeted and if they put in the right mechanisms," Nick Dusic, director of the Campaign for Science & Engineering, told The Scientist. "The question is how it's going to be managed, which is still to be ironed out."

"At present more innovation is generated per unit of time than can be translated due to limitations in venture capital funding -- both in amount and duration of support," Roy Anderson, an epidemiologist and Imperial College's rector, said in a statement. "There is a strong case for establishing a national innovation fund for university based discoveries... that will help both to create a sustainable and competitive economy for the UK in the recovery phase post recession, and to create jobs."

The British government is expected to roll out its new budget -- with or without the new fund -- on April 22nd.


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