UCL highly recognised for IP & commercialisation in KEF rankings

UCL has been recognised as one of the top universities in England for knowledge exchange in Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Framework 2025 (KEF5), scoring highly for IP & commercialisation.

The KEF looks at the wide range of activities – such as partnering with industry and nurturing entrepreneurship – that higher education institutions undertake with external partners for the benefit of society and the economy.

UCL Ventures’ impact

Over the last five years, 46 spinout businesses have been launched at UCL, taking novel university research and commercialising it into new technologies or treatments in areas like cancer and other diseases.

Many of these businesses have been created with support from UCL Ventures, including:

Endomag has commercialised UCL research into the use of magnetic materials to take a new and less invasive approach to breast cancer staging. The technology can help doctors assess whether cancer has spread to lymph nodes, and can minimise invasive surgery. Importantly, it can be done in local hospitals, enabling women to much more easily access these vital procedures. UCL researchers Professor Quentin Pankhurst and Simon Hattersley, working with Professor Audrius Brazdeikis at the University of Houston, developed the injectable nanomagnet technology and external detectors, which eliminates the need for radioactive tracers in breast cancer staging.

Endomag products are now used in over 1,000 hospitals in more than 45 countries with more than 800,000 women benefitting from the more precise and less invasive treatment to date. The impact of Endomag continues to grow, in July 2024 the company was acquired by Hologic Inc., a US med-tech company primarily focused on women’s health.

Autolus, founded by Dr Martin Pule from the UCL Cancer Institute in 2014, is helping adults with leukaemia benefit from a new form of immunotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy.

CAR T is a new form of cancer treatment which takes a patient’s own T-cells and reprograms them so they can fight cancer cells in the body – but until recently, side effects and inability to tackle recurring cancers was an issue. Autolus has pioneered an important refinement to this transformative technology which reduces likelihood of side effects markedly and increases long term efficacy.

Since 2014, Autolus has raised over $1.1 billion to develop the new therapy, which has now been licensed for eligible patients in the US, UK and EU.

Professor Geraint Rees, UCL’s Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement) said: “It’s fantastic to see our work in everything from new cancer therapies to quantum technology being recognised in this year’s KEF.

“These results show the real value of universities like UCL working side by side with business, government, the NHS and the public to translate ideas into real-world impact. By building these partnerships we not only deliver breakthroughs that change lives, but also help ensure the UK remains a global leader in innovation.

“KEF highlights what can be achieved when research and innovation are brought together, and we look forward to collaborating with even more partners to co-create change and accelerate impact.”

Read UCL’s full story on the KEF results, here.