Plans to make Oxford a US-style centre for successful innovation in healthcare
12 November 2010
Oxford could become a world centre for developing new healthcare advances and technologies, if plans being drawn up with European Commission funding come to pass.
The blueprint will detail how the University, new biotech companies on the region’s science parks, and larger hospitals and healthcare providers can be brought together to drive new research advances to market.
The aim is to make Oxford a successful health technology hub modelled on those found in the US in Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. All of these established centres are built around world-class research universities, a thriving environment for start-up companies and a culture of innovation and investment.
‘If we as a region are to become a major hub for novel biotech advances, we need to ask what we need to do, what infrastructure we require and how we can improve training in innovation and enterprise,’ says Professor Bass Hassan of the University of Oxford.
‘And as a University, our best minds also need to be innovating. Of course we need to continue securing research funding to do the best blue-sky science as we are doing already. But we also need a strategic plan, a funding mechanism and a structure to interact with our local partners and turn that research funding into wealth creation.’
The project comes as part of a wider European initiative called HealthTIES that has obtained €2 million funding over three years from the European Commission in order to draw up a plan with other partners. A launch for HealthTIES Oxford will be held on Saturday 13 November at Corpus Christi and Lincoln colleges with the mayors of Oxford and Leiden in attendance.
The HealthTIES consortium links clusters of universities, biotech companies and the healthcare sector in Europe’s top regions in biosciences: Medical Delta in southwest Netherlands (the project leaders), Oxford in the UK, Zurich in Switzerland, Barcelona in Spain, and Debrecen in Hungary.
These regions will work together to create a blueprint for the partnerships, infrastructure and investment necessary to create successful clusters in developing innovative new technologies for society’s most pressing health concerns. The focus will be on four disease areas: heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases including dementia, and infectious diseases.
The blueprint is intended to guide later public and private funding that could be as much as €300–400 million to drive healthcare innovation in Europe.
Oxford Gene Technology on Begbroke Science Park is an example of what can be achieved. Founded in 1995 as a spin-out from Oxford University, its growth has been achieved by licensing technology to companies and it is now delivering genetic products and services to clinics, directly aiding patient care.
Dr John Anson, Vice President Biomarker Discovery at Oxford Gene Technology, said: ‘In the current economic climate, programmes such as HealthTIES are essential to encourage the formation of effective public-private partnerships that can deliver faster and more cost-effective translation of innovative new technologies to medical practice. The Oxfordshire region, which is synonymous with excellence in education, healthcare, and science, is perfectly poised to benefit through potential job creation and implementation of cutting-edge medical practice.’
The Oxford part of the European project, involving the University, Oxford Gene Technology, the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, and the Thames Valley Health Innovation and Education Cluster, will initially gather information about what is already being done. It will then address what is needed in terms of skills, infrastructure, and mechanisms to make it easier to take research ideas and turn them into companies that employ staff, sell products and benefit patients.
Oxford University is already successful on a national scale when it comes to exploiting new scientific ideas and techniques. A recent report into life science start-ups suggests that Oxford University is doing particularly well in turning good ideas into companies, coming 'way out in front of the pack' ahead of Imperial and Cambridge.
For more information please contact Professor Bass Hassan on 0773 911 3503 or bass.hassan@path.ox.ac.uk
Or the University of Oxford press office on 01865 280530 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk