University of Ulster announces biotech venture fund
A new venture capital fund worth more than 19 million euro (over 12 million GBP) is to be launched by the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, to help commercialise the results of biotechnology research programmes. The Alpha Fund, the first of its kind in Ireland or the UK, will channel venture capital from the USA towards spin offs working with the university. The new fund, independently managed for the university, will focus primarily on early stage investment financing for biotechnology spin out companies. 'This is a financing model which has achieved great success in the USA, and we are delighted to be pioneering it in Northern Ireland,' said the University of Ulster's pro-vice-chancellor for research and development, Professor John Hughes. 'At the University of Ulster, we're serious about our spin-out policy, and are moving to make sure that all the organisational structures and financial tools necessary to take our research from the laboratory to the marketplace are in position,' he added. 'Our message to academics and researchers is a simple one: if you have commercially viable ideas - and they will have to pass hard-nosed business criteria - the University of Ulster has the tools to make your ideas a success.'
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