Guidance

Intellectual asset management for universities

This guide helps Higher Education Institutions set strategies optimising the benefits from intellectual assets created by staff or students.

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Details

This guidance was last updated in 2011 and does not reflect the new UK National Security and Investment Act (NSI) 2021, which comes fully into effect from 4 January 2022. Businesses and investors must check the guidance to understand what types of acquisitions are covered by the new rules. Guidance is available for education and research institutions, businesses and investors to understand the scope of the NSI Act and how to prepare for the new rules.

This guide aims to help senior university managers set strategies to make the most of the benefit from the intellectual assets created by their staff and students.

鈥業ntellectual assets鈥� is a broad term that varies in definition. In the context of this guide, 鈥業ntellectual assets鈥� extends beyond Intellectual Property (IP) rights to the know-how and trade secrets of the staff and students.

This guide will help individual institutions adopt their own strategic approach allowing them to use their IP to secure greatest benefit for the economy and society.

This guide is underpinned by the European Commission .

Relevant UK Organisations

The UK has three bodies which cater for knowledge transfer professionals:

hosts the which cater for different scientific and technical disciplines.

The Competition and Markets Authority has published recommendations to improve the regulatory framework for the undergraduate HE sector in England. It has published advice for HE providers and students on potentially unfair terms that allow for blanket assignment of students鈥� intellectual property rights.

Updates to this page

Published 26 June 2014
Last updated 5 January 2022 show all updates
  1. New text has been added to inform our users of the new UK National Security and Investment Act 2021 that comes into effect fully from 4 January 2022. Businesses and investors should check the guidance to understand what types of acquisitions are covered by the new rules.

  2. First published.

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