Ian Sollom

Ian Sollom

Liberal Democrat — St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 November 2025

Debate

Universities: Research and Development

Contribution

I thank the Secretary of State for her answer. The UK’s universities do indeed produce world-class research, but I would suggest that we are still missing too many opportunities in commercialisation. The Government’s proof of concept fund is really quite inadequate—from the figures, it is 30 times oversubscribed—and equity and intellectual property arrangements are laborious and deter both investors and entrepreneurs. Will the Secretary of State commit to expanding that proof of concept funding and reforming those barriers that hold back university spin-outs?

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