Originally Published 10 October 2001

The University of Warwick has been awarded £8 million as part of a government programme giving an extra £120 million to UK universities and colleges. The awards have been made as part of the Government's Knowledge Exploitation Funding programme, comprising the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), Science Enterprise Challenge (SEC), University Challenge (UC), and the Public Sector Research Exploitation Fund (PSRE Fund). The main fund - HEIF - is aimed at supporting the continuing development of the capacity in universities to interact with business and the community. Administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the fund builds on the existing Higher Education Reach Out to Business and the Community fund. Announcing the awards, Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said:


"In the past we have failed to take full advantage of the fact that the UK has some of the best scientific and academic brains in the world. The Government is committed to ensuring that 'invented in Britain' becomes 'made in Britain'.

The £8 million for the University of Warwick breaks down as follows:-

• £3,552,000 for the Mercia Spinner project in which the University of Warwick will lead a project to help spin out companies from new ideas from 8 Midlands universities (University of Central England, Birmingham, Coventry, Aston Keele, Staffordshire, and Wolverhampton universities).
• £2,000,000 for Medici a consortium of Warwick, Birmingham, Aston, Leicester and Nottingham universities (led by Birmingham) to encourage commercial development of bioscience research.
• £530,845 for the Higher Education Innovation Fund to provide additional staff to the University of Warwick's Business and Regional Support Unit and Warwick ventures organisation to build more links between the University and business.
• £1,926,493 Science Enterprise Challenge funding to expand the work of the University's Mercia Institute of Enterprise. The Institute, led by the University of Warwick, is a consortium of West Midlands universities: Aston, Birmingham, Coventry, Keele, Staffordshire, University of Central England in Birmingham (UCE), Warwick and Wolverhampton, designed to create revolutionary changes in attitudes to entrepreneurship and business start-up within the region's universities.

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Further information about the above press release and all other media services at the University of Warwick can be obtained from:

Peter Dunn, Press Officer
Public Affairs Office
Senate House
University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL
West Midlands
Tel: 024 76 523708
Email: puapjd@admin.warwick.ac.uk