Spinouts: How Can Universities Turn Research Into Successful Businesses?
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 615 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when university research becomes a business? It’s called a spin-out and it’s built Silicon Valley, with Stanford University at the centre. In the UK, Oxford alone has launched more than 200 in the last 15 years.
Whether it’s a new drug, software or material, brilliant university research can create huge rewards – for founders, universities and the economy. But also battles over who really owns the idea and should get a share of the equity.
Does the spin-out system deliver or does it stall? Evan Davis and a panel of guests discuss.
Guests: Molly Allington, CEO of Albotherm Harry Destecroix, co-founder of Ziylo and also founder of incubator Science Creates in Bristol Amber Hill, founder of Research Grid
Production team: Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Phoebe Keane and Sally Abrahams Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar Editor: Matt Willis
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Right, you feeling ready? I'm feeling ready. |
| 0:10.8 | I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and |
| 0:16.0 | innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future. |
| 0:21.4 | We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not. |
| 0:26.2 | From declining birth rates to disinformation online, can they solve the world's biggest challenges? |
| 0:32.0 | What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children. |
| 0:37.3 | Radical with me, Amal Rajan. |
| 0:39.3 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.4 | Thanks for downloading this episode of the Bottom Line podcast with extra material in it. |
| 0:47.0 | We couldn't squeeze into the radio broadcast version. |
| 0:51.1 | If you like this, you might want to check out another episode we made on the business |
| 0:55.5 | of universities, universities as a business. That was back in 2019. Hello, welcome to the |
| 1:02.0 | program. And what we wanted to do today is look at one potential engine in our economy for |
| 1:08.0 | promoting innovation, helping business startups-ups and delivering economic growth. |
| 1:13.0 | It is the university spin-out, the product of taking academic research and turning it into a |
| 1:20.4 | commercial enterprise. It is a well-trodden path, particularly around Stanford University in Silicon |
| 1:25.2 | Valley. Indeed, Stanford University is a big part of |
| 1:29.1 | the Silicon Valley story. Here in the UK, quite a few universities have dozens of spin-outs to their |
| 1:35.1 | name. Oxford, in fact, is top of the league. In the last 15 years or so, 225 spin-outs have emerged |
| 1:42.8 | from that one university. But there are very significant numbers |
| 1:46.0 | from other top unies, often the usual suspects, and also sometimes some unusual ones. |
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