National Environmental Research Council, UK

In 2019, Oxford Oracle were asked by the Natural Environmental Research Council (the environmental research council) to undertake a strategic review of their Innovation Programme Mechanism, in terms of design and delivery, as well as to determine whether it was fit for purpose moving forward.

Oxford Oracles review included an assessment of the Research & Innovation environment in the UK, specifically around industry-academy partnerships and programmes for translating research into impact; a systematic survey of key stakeholders and their views of the Innovation Programme and in-depth interviews with researchers and senior industry figures to understand how the programme builds effective partnerships in environmental science. As a commercialisation partner to the national environmental research council (the environmental research council) Oxford Oracle supported and advised the environmental research council on its intellectual property, licensing and spin-out strategy and opportunities, including innovation policy development, idea harvesting, concept development and deal delivery. The scope of work encompassed the four core research centres of the environmental research council with over 1000 scientists across the UK. Oxford Oracle contributed to NERCs spin-out of three companies, delivery of multiple licensing deals, and helped the environmental research council win Public Sector Research Support Funding (Public Sector Research Establishment (PSRE) 4 funds) to Euros 500K. The environmental research council contract has involved delivery of bespoke commercialisation training to selected groups of researchers and technology transfer professionals. The content was designed to their specific commercialisation needs and included: licensing policy, licensing, marketing of technologies, intellectual property management, software commercialisation and negotiation. When this formal partnership came to an end in 2012, Oxford Oracle continued to support the environmental research council on a number of different, smaller projects, including: strategy development for Climate Science based on NERCs research in the UK; reviews of exploitation routes for science in biotechnology, ecosystem diversity, and natural capital; and expert contributions to the environmental research council innovation funding platform and impact awards.

Oxford Oracle provided the environmental research council with tactical and strategic recommendations to enable the environmental research council to improve the effectiveness of the programme mechanism. The environmental research council then worked with its Innovation Programme coordinators to better the mechanism and continues to develop new Innovation Programmes in different sectors.