The University of Oxford’s response to COVID-19 has been a focus for the world’s attention since the crisis began. With the Oxford Vaccine Group producing one of the leading early candidates in the search for a vaccine, being in an institution which is one focus of the world’s hopes makes you realise just how important international collaborations in delivering impact from science are. Though the University produced the research, with the stakes so high, developing and agreeing an international strategy in record time for maximum effect is highly challenging, stressful and puts huge strain on all involved. I wasn’t involved in the negotiations, but I work with colleagues who were. Reading this article in the Wall Street Journal last week telling the whole story gave me a panic attack, because those of us who work in knowledge exchange day to day can recognise the issues, personalities, risks and rewards in their own projects.
Should the vaccine be successful, it is, in effect, delivered from the University in the form of a licence. However, there are other models for making that impact. I have been involved in helping to set up social ventures to commercialise outputs from emergency research undertaken across the University.
A University of Oxford social venture spinout is different from a conventional spinout through its company constitution (Articles of Association in the UK, Bylaws in the USA) in that the directors are bound in their actions by a mission and purpose statement. This statement, once the company documents have been executed, is protected through the power of veto by all founders of the company. No amendment can be made to it unless all founders agree. This means that because the social venture is a spinout, the University becomes a custodian of the social venture’s “mission lock” for its entire existence. It is in complete alignment with the University’s objectives to make a positive impact on the world.
Two new companies to come out of Oxford during the crisis in particular show that social ventures can be a model for building international collaborations to deliver impact from science.
OxSed, formed in May 2020, is commercialising a new, rapid COVID-19 diagnostics kit to be used primarily in low- and middle-income countries. This mission is locked into its Articles of Association. With this transparent statement, it is through this mechanism that the company presents itself to the world and negotiates partnerships and collaborations with pharmaceutical firms to maximise the impact of the science in a fair and equitable way.
OxVent, formed in September 2020, is a social venture specifically targeting building international collaborations to deliver its low-cost ventilator designs to low- and middle-income countries. The company will partner an organisation to take it through the necessary regulatory approvals in a territory, and once the ventilators are being manufactured, any income is ploughed into getting the ventilators through approvals in the next territory, and so on. The company is largely focussing its activities on Central and South America at this point.
It would be fair to say that there has been a surge of interest in for using social ventures as a mechanism for making impact with research, or even, for widening the impact of University activities not directly linked to research. We are shortly to spin out our tenth social venture – we only had three when the crisis began.
The response to the pandemic in Oxford has quite simply, been remarkable. Though the streets were empty for a time (as they may well be again this winter), behind closed doors academics across the University were working extremely long hours, not to make money, but because they felt passionately about using their expertise to solve the many problems created. I’ve had numerous meetings with all sorts of stakeholders through Zoom or Microsoft Teams with people Professors in their kitchen and children running about.
Once the medical crisis has passed, there will be an even bigger social one to fix. Governments across the world are still counting the cost of COVID-19, and I believe that social ventures will be a valuable tool alongside many others, for making an impact with the research that can help to solve those problems to come.
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