Definitions of commonly used words and technical phrases Charity A charity is an organisation that demonstrates benefit to the public. It must have specific aims, known as charitable purposes. It must abide by Charity Law and register with either the Charity Commission (in England and Wales) or the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR, in Scotland). Commercialisation The process of bringing a product or service to market. Community Interest Company (CIC) A Community Interest Company (CIC) is a limited company, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. CICs must provide reports to the Office of the Regulator of CICs. Depending on how the company is registered, you may require an “asset lock” to limit the amount of profit you can pay to shareholders as dividends to 30%. This can limit future options: if an asset locked company is bought by another company or closed down, the assets must go to another asset locked company. Entrepreneurship Refers to an individual or a small group of partners who strike out on an original path to create a new business. Intellectual Property (IP) Creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. (Source: WIPO) Licence Agreement A contract where one party (the ‘licensor’) provides another party (the ‘licensee’) permission and rights to use intellectual property, which the licensee does not own, for commercialisation purposes. The licensor may provide this right to the licensee to the exclusion of all other persons (exclusive licence) or with the inclusion of some other parties (non-exclusive licence). Social Enterprise Businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. They prioritise benefits to people and the planet as well as profit. They have a social or environment mission in their company articles, which means that the company directors have to think about their social or environmental mission when making company decisions. They must earn more than half of their income through trading, and must reinvest at least half of their profits towards their social or environmental purpose. Spinout A new company formed primarily through the transfer of knowledge, technology, assets and/or people originating from the university, to further develop and exploit the technology. The university will ordinarily hold equity and/or is licensor of the relevant IP to the spinout. Startup A newly created business established by entrepreneurs who may or may not be from the university and may or may not be exploiting university-derived IP. The university will generally not have an equity share in a startup, unless it is a spinout. Technology Readiness Level (TRL) First developed by NASA to refer to the stage of development, technology readiness levels (TRLs) are measurement systems used to estimate the maturity level of a specific technology throughout its research, development and implementation pathway progression. The measurement system uses a scale of 1 to 9. For example, in the life sciences sector for drug discovery activities, TRL 1 represents observation of basic scientific principles, TRL 5 represents investigational new drug stage (or equivalent) and TRL 9 is the most mature technology representing market launch and Phase IV studies. Also sometimes referred to as investment readiness level (IRL), the TRL rating gives an indication as to how much further development is required before the technology is a viable product. Company Formation Advisory Group (CFAG) The remit of the Company Formation Advisory Group is to: enable the delegated responsibilities from The University of Edinburgh Senate in relation to company formation to be carried out (governance) provide a means to ensure that company formation is line with The University of Edinburgh strategies and wider aims (strategic alignment) provide The University of Edinburgh management with oversight of all company formation that could impact of staff, facilities, finances and intellectual property assets (risk management) Approval from CFAG is mandatory for all proposed University of Edinburgh spinout companies. This article was published on 2024-07-01
