New agreement helps universities strengthen industry engagement, identify commercialisation opportunities and maximise research impact

Jisc has expanded its support for research commercialisation and knowledge exchange through the first in a planned series of agreements designed to help universities identify, develop, and manage industry partnerships.

The agreement offers access to Dimensions Industry Partnerships, a specialist analytics platform developed by Digital Science that helps organisations understand existing relationships between researchers and industry, identify potential corporate partners and support knowledge exchange activity.

The new offer comes amid increasing policy focus on research translation and economic impact. Initiatives such as the Modern Industrial Strategy, the UK Spin-out Register and UK Research and Innovation’s Shared TTO Pilot have reinforced the importance of helping universities turn research excellence and their IP into economic and societal benefit.

As research commercialisation rises up the strategic agenda, institutions are investing in stronger industry relationships and more effective approaches to identifying, developing and realising opportunities arising from their research and intellectual property. This growing emphasis on research translation is increasing demand for tools that help universities identify commercial opportunities, build industry partnerships, and demonstrate the wider impact of their research.

Many universities already have strong connections with industry, but the intelligence needed to grow those partnerships is often fragmented across different systems and teams. Dimensions Industry Partnerships provides a single source of intelligence, helping institutions to identify companies already engaging with their research, discover potential collaborators, benchmark their strengths against peers and uncover new opportunities for knowledge exchange, licensing and commercialisation.

Anna Vernon, Head of research licensing, Jisc, comments:
“Research commercialisation and knowledge exchange are becoming increasingly important priorities for universities as they look to maximise the economic and societal impact of their research.

“This agreement gives institutions access to trusted intelligence that can help them identify industry partners, strengthen existing relationships and uncover new opportunities for collaboration and commercialisation.

“It is the first in a series of offers we expect to bring to the sector, helping members access specialist solutions through simplified procurement and pricing arrangements.”

Jonathan Breeze, Executive Vice President – Academic Markets, Digital Science, adds:
“Universities are under real pressure to demonstrate the value of their research beyond the academic community, and connecting with industry is a big part of that. Making Dimensions Industry Partnerships available through Jisc is a practical step towards giving more institutions the tools they need to identify future commercial partners and to develop existing commercial relationships further.”

Through this agreement, Jisc has negotiated banded pricing aligned to institutional size, ensuring that organisations across the UK, from large research-intensive universities to smaller and specialist providers, can access advanced research intelligence tools.

The Digital Science agreement is now available through Jisc’s Licence Subscriptions Manager, providing a streamlined route to adoption and eliminating the need for individual procurement exercises.