Strategy for a sustainable HEI Incubator – A UK experience for implementation in North-East India

A paper submitted to NEMA on 22nd
August 2018 for International Conference on “RECENT TRENDS IN
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT” during 22-24 November 2018
Author: Shanjoy Mairembam (B.Eng, MBA, LLM), Freelance Innovation Consultant based in Leicester (UK), shanjoym@gmail.com
[www.linkedin.com/in/shanjoymairembam]
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Strategy for a sustainable HEI Incubator – A UK experience for
implementation in North-East India
Abstract:
The concept of Business Incubator in UK Higher Education Institutions (i.e. HEI Incubator) has
been effectively used to promote entrepreneurship and economic growth.1
Some universities
maintain a science park as part of delivering business incubation, while most universities cannot
afford to do so due to cost implications though they also employ other services to deliver
business incubation activities.2
Closer partnerships between the local authorities and nearby
universities are visible around business incubation support for local youths and small enterprises
to rejuvenate local economic growth.3
Having a HEI Incubator is a strategic decision of a
university, since maintaining a HEI Incubator is an expensive affair for the university that affects
its overall operating cost. A sustainable framework for a HEI incubator depends on
understanding the exact purpose of having the HEI incubator along with all operating processes
delivering specific objectives of the incubator.4
Insights on attempts by UK Universities in
creating sustainable process frameworks to operate a sustainable HEI Incubator may be useful to
replicate similar HEI Incubators at universities in the North East Indian states. Understanding the
unique working scenario of universities in the North East Indian states is also essential prior to
exploring the feasibility of adapting the process and tools used in a UK HEI Incubator.5
Such
initiatives of creating sustainable HEI Incubators will immensely contribute towards achieving
entrepreneurship education as well economic growth of local enterprises in the North Eastern
region of India.
Originality/Value:
The conceptual framework presented in this paper is based on the author’s practical hands-on
experience of having delivered a consultancy report to create a sustainable HEI Incubator for a
UK university client and also worked in few UK universities on Knowledge Exchange (KE)6
and
Technology Transfer Office (TTO)7
roles. Due to confidentiality obligation on the author, names
of certain UK ‘universities, projects, companies and local councils’ used in this paper have been
paraphrased to conceal the actual identities.
In UK, Higher Education (HE) refers to education at the levels of undergraduate (UG) and
postgraduate (PG), and Higher Education Institution (HEI), according to Further and Higher
Education Act 19928
, is an institution which is either one of the three entities – (1) a university,
(2) an institution conducted by a higher education corporation, (3) a designated institution [which
is eligible to receive funding support from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council of
England), now known as ‘Research England’9
; and not including those considered as Further
Education (FE) Colleges10
].
Keywords:
Business Incubator, Higher Education Institute (HEI), University Incubator, Higher Education,
Science Park, Entrepreneurship Education, Regional Development Agencies, Sustainable policy,
Incubation policy, Start-up support, MSME (Micro Small Medium Enterprises) business support.

Author: Shanjoy Mairembam (B.Eng, MBA, LLM), shanjoym@gmail.com [www.linkedin.com/in/shanjoymairembam]
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Introduction:
UK universities are considered to be among the top leading institutions in the world to have
strong emphasis on conducting quality research and disseminating arising intellectual properties
into the industry for high social impact.11
Analysing how UK universities run HEI incubators
will provide valuable observations that can be copied for adaptation to other regions of the world
(esp. North Eastern Indian states which is the native origin of the author). Attempts have been
made in this paper to discuss some strategic questions as shown by the following figure-1 (by
using design approach of a ‘Q&A’ presentation session) around ‘how UK universities operate a
sustainable HEI incubator’ and ‘how to apply a similar model in the North Eastern Indian states’.
Figure 1: List of strategic questions discussed by this concept paper
Concept of HEI Incubator and HEI Incubation Process in UK:
Though there is no consensus on the definitions of business incubation, business incubation
process and business incubator, for the purpose of this paper, business incubation refers to ‘the
concept of supporting an innovative idea being transformed into a viable business entity through
a process’, business incubation process refers to ‘the methodology along with the steps/tools
used to enable an incubatee go through the journey of business incubation’, and business
incubator refers to ‘a structural entity which may be either a physical space or a virtual support
programme created to enable the activity of business incubation by utilising a business
incubation process’. A business incubation process may vary according to the specifics of the
types on incubator, incubatee, business/technology domain, regional/locational requirements. For
the purpose of this paper (unless specifically mentioned otherwise), the term ‘business incubator’
has been used to refer to ‘both Incubator and Accelerator without any distinction’12
, ‘HEI
Incubator’ as ‘University Incubator, which means both physical incubation space and virtual
support programme’, and ‘Science Park’ as ‘any physical space deployed by the university
(known in various names such as science park, research park, technology park, business park,
innovation hub, and enterprise centre) for the purpose of business incubation’. As a policy, most
UK universities attempt to provide relevant support mechanisms (incl. ‘a virtual business

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incubator, if not a physical business incubator’13
) to facilitate knowledge exchange and IP
commercialisation activities for the students and academics.14
UK universities (except Cranfield University15
, delivering only PG courses) are created with the
intent to deliver both UG and PG courses in their campuses; thereby there is more direct control
over the planning of programme policies and delivery of UG/PG courses (incl. the management
of staffs/academics). While UG courses are taught programme only, Masters courses (which are
part of PG courses) can be either taught or research programmes. Creation of new Intellectual
Properties (IPs) and development of innovative technologies are more likely to be arising out of
the activities of students and academics engaged in research focused PG levels. Since both UG
and PG courses are delivered within the same organisation, UK universities may easily plan for a
single HEI incubator space (herein referring to the physical office space) that caters to the
students of both UG and PG levels and all academics.
Generally, UK universities retain the ownership of IPs created by students in PG courses (except
‘Taught Masters’) while students own the IPs created by themselves during their enrolment in
the university (unless agreed otherwise between the student and the university). By the nature of
employment, IPs created by academics and non-teaching/professional staffs are owned by the
university. Each university clarified such IP ownership topics through an ‘IP Policy’ document
(incl. conditions of by-default IP ownership for IPs created by students or academics/staffs or
other non-university employee). Because of the need to cater to the demands decided by specific
IP ownership status (i.e. either Student IP or University IP), UK universities plan various
versions of business incubation programmes (herein referring to ‘HEI Incubation Process’) based
on whether the business incubation is for the student or the academic/staff.
HEI Incubator’s role beyond office space management:
In general, we may consider a full-service business incubator as having the offers of ‘incubator
physical space’, ‘common accessories support services’, ‘business advisory services’, ‘access to
finance and external advisory specialist’. Every HEI Incubator may wish to become a full-service
business incubator, but due to the operational requirement of high capital and resourceful
professionals to maintain a HEI Incubator, UK universities make appropriate compromise on the
available offers depending on their institutional objectives.16
In UK, University led ‘Science
Parks’ have formed a group named UKSPA (United Kingdom Science Park Association), with
just 2 in 1982 to around 105 in 2014, in order to create a high standard on the planning,
development and the creation of Science Parks that facilitate the development of high growth
knowledge-based organisations.17
The term ‘incubator’ is still synonymised with the physical
space (such as science park) though it ought to mean ‘physical space + business services’.
Due to the huge capital intensive nature of available physical space, role of managing science
parks is heavily focused towards optimising utilisation of available office spaces by selling to
start-ups and small businesses along with a reasonable support to provide ‘common accessories
support services’ when compared to the focus on providing ‘business advisory services’ and
access to finance and external advisory specialist’. Because of this necessary biased
prioritisation, HEI Incubator (esp. those with a science park) are perceived to be just about
‘office space management’. Moreover, offering an effective ‘business advisory services’ and
‘access to finance and external advisory specialist’ to the incubatees depends largely on the

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nature of available incubatees, scope/focus domain of the incubator, and regional
industry/investor networks. Due to the presence of high-end research activities by eminent
researchers and academics in certain knowledge domains, universities do possess the ability to
provide business advisory services to companies on technical development of products/services
in those specific industry segments.
Since decades, UK universities have progressed from being just a place for teaching and research
to innovation house creating impact to the local social and economy environment through
knowledge exchange and IP commercialisation activities. Universities have created new
professional staffs unit within the university to support R&D and knowledge exchange activities
of students and academics (e.g. ‘Research and Enterprise Services’ at University of Reading18
)
or/and an external limited company fully owned by the university to manage incubation space
and IP commercialisation activities (e.g. UMI3
Limited of University of Manchester19
). Though
these professional units and external subsidiary companies are available to support innovation
development within the university, the advisory role to student enterprises and start-up formation
programmes for students are often managed by a separate student-focused professional unit
within university (e.g. Student Career Services or Entrepreneurship Support Group). Also, TTO
(Technology Transfer Office) is a general term used to refer to the professional unit of a
university providing hands-on business support to business incubation (and overall IP
commercialisation activities). Process for academic business incubation is focused towards
increasing the value of University IPs while providing some rewarding mechanism for academic
inventors.
HEI Incubator as liability or asset to a University:
As universities intend to enhance the quality and quantity of ‘student experience’ and ‘academic
innovation’ further, the presence of a university incubator plays an advantageous support
mechanism to the university’s vision. University Incubators provide the necessary life-saving
support to the initial survival stage of an innovative idea (created within the university) before
being fully transformed into a viable business entity as a start-up (out in the actual competitive
industry). On the other hand, managing available estates of a university incubator is indeed a
huge challenge, since it costs higher budget to operate a science park. Also, location of the
university incubator does matter (e.g. Greater London areas and other city centre locations in UK
are more costly for operating a physical incubator space than other town/village areas
elsewhere).20
Attracting mid-size and large-size companies to occupy part of the science park is
beneficial not just for income aspect but also for business networking purpose for the knowledge
pool within the university; yet such an attempt to attract and retain mid-large size tenants in the
science park is not an easy task for incubator managers. Additionally, accessibility of the science
park to nearby train networks and regional airports also plays a role to the successful operation of
the science park for local business communities. Operational budget of the science park may not
be sufficiently earned just from collecting ‘heavily subsidised rents’ and various low priced
‘common accessories support services’ to tenants.
Having an incubator space for a university may seem like a liability if not properly managed, but
having an estate to operate as university incubator is better than not having one. Hence finding
an appropriate means and vision to operate a HEI incubator is the way forward to transform a
potential liability to an asset for the university. One key factor that distinguish a general business

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park to a university led science park is the possibility of businesses in the science park to tap into
the university’s Knowledge Banks (and potential grant funding along with the
researchers/academics from various UK research councils and Government departments,
including non-UK institutions). Additionally, science park may act as an innovation networking
forum for tenants in the science park as well as external industry professionals and companies.
Operating ‘virtual incubator’ instead of a physical incubator space may not have the challenges
of estates management, but it still has concerns on the effectiveness of incubating new business
ideas from students and academics. Virtual incubators may not facilitate exactly the same
engagement among various stakeholders (such as industry peers, professionals, academics,
students). Moreover, depending on where the incubatee is in the stage of business growth cycle,
a particular virtual incubator may not be able to do justice to necessary business advisory support
to all types of incubatee. Since IT revolution and online technologies have changed the way how
businesses are conducted and business networking are achieved, some tools/platforms of virtual
incubator may provide supplementary support to incubatees though they may not fully replace
physical business incubators and instead they can coexist as complementary support to each
other.
Impact of HEI Incubator’s presence to a University:
In continuation of pushing UK universities to be among the top innovation centres of research
and teaching excellence, UK government has re-strategised various initiatives towards creating
‘high impact’ university environments (for student experience and academic research) and also
collaborative engagement with local businesses and industrial giants.21
Among the notable ones,
the formation of UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) as a new body by bringing the former
seven research councils (catering to funding support of specific research domains) and the
HEFCE (now known as Research England, catering to funding support on knowledge exchange
and innovation) may be mentioned. These organisations help in increasing cross-disciplinary
approach of facing global research challenges and channelising innovation support funds to ‘HE
Providers’ to bridge any potential disconnect between ‘support research grants’ and ‘knowledge
exchange and IP commercialisation’. Also, release of industry strategy whitepaper22
paves the
directional focus for UK universities to realign their core research competencies and usage of
infrastructural assets toward the needs of regional/global demands. The Introduction of new
frameworks by Research England (e.g. REF – Research Excellence Framework for excellent
research activities by academics23
, TEF – Teaching Excellence Framework for excellent learning
experience by students24
, and KEF – Knowledge Exchange Framework for excellent knowledge
exchange activities by students/academics25
) to evaluate as well as reward HE Providers with
funds depending on the impact of activities delivered by each HE Provider stimulate each
university to re-plan their organisational objectives in line with the changing HE landscape.
With the new funding scheme of Research England titled ‘Connecting Capabilities Fund CCF’,
certain number of consortiums of UK universities have been awarded £5million each for their
project proposals to deliver knowledge exchange and IP commercialisation activities more
effectively.26
The former ‘HEFCE’ has funded £millions through various versions of HEIF
(Higher Education Innovation Fund) schemes since 2001 till date to enable HE providers to
create own capacity building of KE/KT (Knowledge Exchange / Knowledge Transfer)
professional staffs and programmes of Innovation projects.27
UK universities also availed EU

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funding (such as ESIF – European Structural and Investment Funds to build innovation hub and
science parks28
, and ERDF – European Regional Development Fund to build programmes
supporting SMEs29
) in order to support/create university incubators. Additionally, due to the
necessity of ‘experienced researchers and quality graduates’ by the knowledge-intensive
industry, UKRI has rejuvenated funding schemes to create ‘doctoral and post-doctoral’ colleges
(and scholarships)30
in UK universities aligning to the objectives of the respective UK Research
Councils. UK government programmes such as ‘Innovation Voucher/Grant schemes31
’ and
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) schemes32
’ have also influenced collaborative working
among graduates/professionals, University academics and SMEs/large corporations on
innovative R&D projects which will transform company’s competitive edge over industry peers.
With few of UK’s HE landscape info cited above, having an university incubator (whether a
virtual programme only or along with a science park) will be useful for any university to deliver
their organisational objectives in the long term. With the eminent Brexit happening in 2018 (i.e.
UK leaving the EU)33
, presence of a HEI Incubator is likely to support continuing innovation in
the university for the academic research, student experience and regional growth.
Though a thorough analysis (for this paper) has not been done to compare among universities on
the impact of presence or absence of a physical business incubation building/park to respective
UK University, we can sense the availability of more variety of entrepreneurial activities and
start-up formations being delivered at those universities having an incubation programme or a
physical incubation park by referring to the data reported by HESA (Higher Education Statistics
Agency)34
on HE-BCI (Higher Education Business & Community Interaction) survey35
.
Sustainable framework for operating a HEI Incubator:
A sustainable framework refers to a standard/norm of planning (with procedures and templates)
which may be used to keep the operational system sustaining and delivering the intended tasks
while consuming the required resources i.e. in simple words, a framework to deliver intended
activities while maintaining a balancing act between income and expense. When such a
sustainable framework is wished for operating a HEI Incubator, it is realised that ‘continued
grant funding from external sources to support business incubation of new incubatees’ is often
necessary since total income generated from various service offers of ‘common accessories
support services’ and ‘business advisory services’ to start-ups and tenants in the science park
isn’t sufficient enough to meet the operational expenses of science park management.36
A
university incubator may streamline its service offerings for the incubatees in the science park or
virtual incubator platform (by making reasonable but not steep discount on pricing of services) to
enable student entrepreneurs and start-ups meet operational financial commitments to run their
new business entities. Collaborative financing for estates as well as incubation programmes can
be also executed by university incubator with local councils, regional business networks, large
corporations and various UK/EU funding bodies. Since regional development (esp. through
‘capacity building of professionals and practitioners across the UK incubation community’37
) is
one of the key agenda for every government (of UK or EU), the onus to bid for innovation grants
lies with universities to participate in local economic growth while allowing their own
academics/researchers and students to work with local governing councils38
, Local Enterprise
Partnerships (LEPs)39
, SMEs and large corporations in innovative R&D projects. The HEI
incubator ought to work towards facilitating connection for incubatees to Venture Capitalists

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(VCs)40
and Business Angel networks for financial investments to the business ideas of
incubatees.
Thus, the sustainable framework for operating a HEI Incubator ought to have a chart to
interconnect all operating processes delivering specific objectives of the incubator, such as the
one provided below:
Figure 2: A planning approach to support preparing a sustainable framework for a HEI Incubator
Role of senior leadership team of a university towards sustaining a HEI Incubator:
Whether to have a physical HEI incubator space or manage with a virtual incubator is a strategic
decision of the senior management of a university.41
Such a decision depends on the university’s
vision towards delivery of student enterprise, academic enterprise, R&D focus, teaching focus,
local social upliftment, engagement with governments/companies/universities (locally as well as
overseas). Each UK university has approached their own distinctive plans to deliver support to
research and enterprise activities, as shown by the HEIF strategy proposals submitted to
Research England (formerly HEFCE). There is a need for senior leadership team to devise
quality KE/KT policies that positively impact how an academic works as a university employee
and also staffs of the professional support units. Most UK universities have already implemented
an appropriate model of ‘Work Allocation Model’ for their academic staffs so that advance
planning and monitoring (linked to performance appraisal) on the working hours and assigned
duties (i.e. either teaching, or research or knowledge exchange) can be done. Since external HE
funding landscape keeps changing periodically, the senior management of a university often

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considers restructuring42
/ realigning their academic departments and administrative units43
for
effectiveness and efficiency to the need to respond to the changing external HE landscape.
Additionally, an appropriate structure for the professional support unit dealing with research and
enterprise activities (e.g. Research and Enterprise Development unit at University of Bristol44
) is
most essential in the university, since this unit is going to deal with Innovation support activities
(incl. university incubation programmes).
Unique challenges for HEIs (esp. universities) in North-East India to consider HEI
Incubator creation:
Since how a university administration is run is different between UK and India, the
understanding of similarities and differences in the university administration approaches (incl.
governing bodies, legal frameworks, social and economic scenario, local industries) are useful
prior to considering implementation of HEI Incubator concepts from elsewhere to the local
universities. In India, few universities are purposefully created to deliver only PG courses in their
campuses and with the additional remit to plan only the programme of UG courses without the
actual delivery, while hundreds of colleges are created to deliver only UG courses designed as
per the specific university to which the particular college is affiliated. There are few exceptions
where some colleges are also allowed to deliver PG courses with permission from the affiliating
university and few universities also deliver UG courses in their campuses. In general, UG and
Masters courses in India are of taught programme, and PG courses such as ‘MPhil (Master of
philosophy) and PhD (Doctorate of Philosophy)’ are of research programmes. Hence, in general,
colleges are meant to focus on teaching aspect only while universities are meant to fully focus on
the research strand. Accordingly, potentials of generating innovative and commercially viable
IPs are mostly from universities and fewer from colleges. Moreover, Indian Universities do not
have direct control over management of staffs/academics and operational responsibilities of their
affiliated colleges, unless the college is already part of the university. Thus, either separate HEI
incubators ought to be planned for each college or a university may plan a common HEI
incubator that supports its own PG students and academics as well as those of its affiliated
colleges.
How universities and colleges operate in India seems to be very complex. For instance, ‘lack of
financial as well as administrative autonomy to run a university/college by its own senior
management without seeking prior permissions from relevant ministries or approval bodies of
the state or central governments’ may be mentioned. Because of gap of engagement in KE/KT
aspects caused by the separate management control of colleges and their affiliated universities, a
system to promote an effective knowledge exchange and IP commercialisation activities cannot
be facilitated in India (though certain purposefully created research and academic institutions by
central government or state government are found to be successful in exploiting academic
innovations onto the industry). Also, there is lack of engagement (incl. strategic clarity) between
local HEIs and various networks of complex development agencies of state and central
governments (e.g. DoNER – Development of North East Regions, Government of India). North-
East Indian states face challenging socio-economic environments for being far away from the
mainland India as well as other concerns such as ‘lack of proper infrastructure levels’,
‘insurgency issue’, ‘frequent blockades and strikes throughout annually’, ‘lack of capable local
SMEs and large corporations’.

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Since creating an appropriate innovation and incubation ecosystem is essential as an initial
step45
, the concept of HEI incubator (as applied in UK) can be applied to universities and
colleges of North-Eastern Indian states, only after having understood ‘how the socio-economic
situations of the local regions are’ and evaluating the topic of ‘what may work and what may not
work’ in each North-Eastern Indian states.
Recommended approach for HEIs (esp. universities) of North-Eastern India to operate a
HEI Incubator:
Each State Government in the North-Eastern India ought to prepare a strategic policy to decide
‘clarity of focus’ on how its ‘Department of Higher Education’ (in terms of ‘structure’ and
‘specialist resource persons’) needs to cater to the needs of teaching, research and KE activities
across the colleges and universities (esp. state university) within the state. Additionally, linkage
of how colleges (under the control of state government) engage with their affiliating central
universities in the state (under the control of central government) ought to be clarified for
preparing an appropriate plan of action for KE/KT activities.
Each institution (i.e. a college or a university) ought to have a strategic KE/KT plan by
evaluating the needs of the local regions and expertise available within the institution. Necessary
linkage between these institutional plans and state/central industrial policies ought to be
considered too. It will be useful for the planners of HEI Incubators and innovation ecosystems in
North-Eastern Indian regions to remember the principle that ‘One size fits all’46
may not work in
these regions, because each state has varied concerns and issues that impact the operation of
KE/KT activities from HEIs. Also, already known factors of success/failure to operation of
Incubators47
ought to be considered by planning to setup new HEI incubators in
universities/colleges of North-Eastern Indian States. There is also a need to link the regional
growth plans of state/central government (such as ‘Act East Policy’48
, India’s engagement with
BIMSTEC49
and ASEAN50
) to the plan for developing innovation ecosystems in the HEIs of
North-Eastern Indian states.
Conclusion:
Though it is a well-known fact that HEI Incubators can stimulate innovations within the HEI as
well as to the regional innovation ecosystem, no direct attempt of ‘copy and paste’ approach
should be made on running HEI incubators to a new country or new region of the world by
superficial observation at approaches followed elsewhere (without completing a detailed analysis
of local scenarios in the targeted region). This is because the purpose of each HEI to require a
HEI incubator, the type of incubatees coming through the particular HEI incubator and the
regional business ecosystem are unique to each region. A professional consultant may be hired
by respective state governments (and senior management of HEIs) of North East India to prepare
a customised and workable solution to operate HEI Incubators in colleges and universities within
their states.
End Notes:
1
Hannon P. D & Chaplin P. (2003). Are Incubators Good for Business? Understanding
Incubation Practice – The Challenges for Policy. Environment and Planning C: Politics and
Space, 21(6), 861-881. doi:10.1068/c0215.

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2 Link A. N., & Scott J. T. (2007). The economics of university research parks. Oxford Review of
Economic Policy, 23(4), 661-674. Doi: 10.1093/oxrep/grm030.
3
Chatterton P., & Goddard J. (2000). The Response of Higher Education Institutions to Regional
Needs. European Journal of Education, 35(4), 475-496.
4 Tavoletti E. (2013). Business Incubators: Effective Infrastructures or Waste of Public Money?
Looking for a Theoretical Framework, Guidelines and Criteria. Journal of Knowledge Economy,
4(4), 423-443. doi: 10.1007/s13132-012-0090-y
5 Saad M., & Zawdie G. (Eds.). (2011). Theory and Practice of the Triple Helix System in
Developing Countries – Issues and Challenges. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
6
KE refers to engagement of HEIs (esp. academic staffs, researchers, students) with businesses,
public and third sector services, the community and wider public to exchange ideas, evidence
and expertise (which include activities such as academic consultancy, intellectual property
commercialisation, research and development by students and academics, networking
engagement). Also explore ‘https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/’.
7
TTO refers to a professional unit which is responsible for technology transfer and other aspects
of IP (Intellectual Property) commercialisation of research that take place in a university.
8
Further info: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/1992/13.
9
Further info: https://re.ukri.org/.
10
In UK, Further Education (FE) refers to any education (esp. specialised qualification) taken
after compulsory secondary education that is not an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. FE
Colleges also offer Higher Education (HE) courses on behalf of a HEI under a sub-contractual
arrangement. In general, HE Provider usually refers to any organisation that delivers higher
education.
11
Further info: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/facts-and-stats/Pages/impact-of-higher-
education.aspx.
12
Overlapping features between incubators and accelerators can be known from the figure 1 on
page 14 of the UK government report; available at: BEIS (2017), Business Incubators and
Accelerators: The National picture. Retrieved from
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-incubators-and-accelerators-the-national-
picture.
13
Table-1 on page 16 of the BEIS (2017) report shows comparison of business incubation types
(such as Incubator, Accelerator, Pre-accelerator, Virtual Accelerator, Virtual Incubator, Active
Seed / VC, Co-working Space, Makerspace) and their common features (such as Investment,
Office/Workspace, Services –incl. mentoring, Fixed duration, Cohort-based, Selective).
14
Info can be verified by referring to the various HEIF (Higher Education Innovation Fund)
strategy documents submitted by HE providers to Research England (formerly known as
HEFCE) at https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-higher-education-innovation-fund-heif/.
15
Further info: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/.
16 Karatas-Ozkan M., Murphy W. D. & Rae W. (2005). University Incubators in UK. The
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. 6(1), 41-51. doi:
10.5367/0000000053026419.
17
Further info: http://www.ukspa.org.uk/our-association/about-us.
18
Further info: http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/res/.
19
Further info: https://umi3.com/.

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20
Rowe, D. N. E. (2005). Universities and Science Park based Technology Incubators.
Retrieved from http://www.warwicksciencepark.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2011/03/UniversitiesandScienceParkbasedTechnologyIncubators.pdf.
21 McAdam R., Miller K., McAdam M., Teague S., (2012).The development of University
Technology Transfer stakeholder relationships at a regional level: Lessons for the future.
Technovation, 32 (2012), 57-67. doi: 10.1016/j.technovation.2011.08.001.
22
Further info:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file
/664563/industrial-strategy-white-paper-web-ready-version.pdf
23
Further info: http://www.ref.ac.uk.
24
Further info: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/teaching/.
25
Further info: https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/knowledge-exchange-framework/.
26
Further info: https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-connecting-capability-fund-ccf/.
27
Further info: https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-higher-education-innovation-fund-
heif/.
28
Further Info: https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-higher-education-innovation-fund-
heif/.
29
Further info: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/.
30
Further info: https://www.ukri.org/skills/funding-for-research-training/.
31
Further info: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/innovation-apply-for-a-funding-award.
32
Further info: http://ktp.innovateuk.org/.
33
Further info: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-relationship-between-
the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union.
34
Further info: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/providers.
35
Further info: https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-he-bci-survey/.
36
Further info: Rowe, D. N. E. (2005).
37
Further info: Hannon P D. (2005). Incubation policy and practice: building practitioner and
professional capability. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 12(1), 57-75.
Retrieved from
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/14626000510579644?fullSc=1&.
38
Further info on 353 councils in England: https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/guidance-and-
resources/communications-support/digital-councils/social-media/go-further/a-z-councils-online.
39
Further info on 38 LEPs of England: https://www.lepnetwork.net/.
40
Further info: https://www.bvca.co.uk/Membership.
41 O’Neal T. (2005). Evolving a Successful University-Based Incubator: Lessons Learned from
the UCF Technology Incubator. Engineering Management Journal, 17 (3), 11-25. doi:
10.1080/10429247.2005.11415293.
42
Example info from University of Reading:
https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/humanresources/policiesandprocedures/ResolvingProblems/h
umres-randr.aspx.
43
Example info for Administrative unit from University of Bristol:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-
library/sites/university/documents/governance/Professional%20Services%20Organisation.jan18.
pdf.
44
Example chart of the RED structure is available at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-
library/sites/red/documents/WEB.ORG.CHART%2018.06.2018.pdf.

Page 12 of 12
45
Further info: Hennessy, P. (2012 March). A framework of Knowledge Management for Higher
Education Business Incubation. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 13(1). Retrieved
from http://www.tlainc.com/articl296.htm.
46 Bruneel J., Ratinho T., Clarysse B., Groen A., (2012). The Evolution of Business Incubators:
Comparing demand and supply of business incubation services across different incubator
generations. Technovation. 32(2) 110-121. doi: 10.1016/j.technovation.2011.11.003.
47
Further info: SUPER (2018), Report on Critical Success and Failure Factors of Business
Incubation in HEI. Retrieved from http://www.super-project.eu/pdf/Final_LR_SUPER_v2.pdf.
48
Further info: http://www.irconference.in/assets/IRC_conference_proceedings.pdf.
49
Further info: https://bimstec.org/.
50
Further info: http://asean.org/.

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