Our excellence in working with industry and academia, and in engaging with the wider public has been highlighted in an important analysis.
The latest Knowledge Exchange Framework – ‘KEF’ for short – scores The Institute of Cancer Research highly in a range of measures relating to creating and commercialising intellectual property, working with industry and academic partners, and developing relationships with the public and local communities.
We were one of only four Higher Education Providers (HEPs) in the UK to gain the top mark of ‘very high’ in all three measures of excellence in the ‘intellectual property and commercialisation’ category, alongside the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Southampton.
Those three measures looked at each HEP’s income from intellectual property and the financial health of mature spinout companies.
Intellectual property
At the ICR, royalties come from sources including the licensing of intellectual property around the discovery of cancer drugs.
The past year has seen the regulatory approval of breast cancer drug capivasertib, now branded Truqap, which was discovered by AstraZeneca subsequent to a collaboration with Astex Therapeutics (and its collaboration with the ICR and Cancer Research Technology Limited).
It has also seen the continued success of Monte Rosa Therapeutics – a company specialising in ‘molecular glue’ protein degrading drugs – and the creation of Kodiform Therapeutics as a spinout from the ICR and the University of Oxford.
Local growth and regeneration
Other highlights from the KEF analysis included an improvement in our score in a measure of local growth and regeneration, due in part to new partnerships with life-science companies at our local science incubator in Sutton, the Innovation Gateway.
The Innovation Gateway was created as part of The London Cancer Hub project in Sutton, and based next to our Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery. The ICR is one of the leading partners in The London Cancer Hub.
The ICR is a key partner in The London Cancer Hub
Public engagement
The ICR also gained the ‘very high’ mark for our public and community engagement work. Our public engagement programme includes our flagship Careers in Research events – when we open our doors to children and young adults from local schools to come and be inspired by research careers.
Our programme also includes visits to schools, public festivals and other locations to give talks and hands-on, exciting ‘science in action’ demonstrations, and advises researchers on how to approach their own efforts to inspire the public at open events. They also keep scientists and all our staff informed on engagement opportunities.
We’ve recently increased our focus on reaching audiences in and near our site in Sutton, in partnership with other leaders of The London Cancer Hub project – including through community events led by Sutton Council in the town centre, and schools engagement activities with developer Socius.
We also supported the year-long Sutton STEAMs Ahead festival of science activities, including the award-winning film We Dance for Life.
Dr Jon Wilkinson, the ICR's Director of Business and Innovation, said:
“The latest Knowledge Exchange Framework underlines the ICR’s leading position in the UK university sector in creating societal impact from scientific discovery – not only by directly benefiting cancer patients through the development of new cancer treatments, but also in stimulating wider economic growth through the commercialisation of intellectual property and the creation of new companies.”
Samantha Howard, Public Engagement Manager at the ICR, said:
"It’s great to see our efforts in engaging our staff recognised by the highest possible mark in the latest ‘KEF’, which is a very influential assessment in the higher education sector. It’s been a real pleasure to play a part in expanding our work with our communities – especially with schools and in our local areas.”